It's Funny; It's Funny Because It's True

This is a remarkably rewarding and entertaining novel. It's a satire, a romance of sorts, a screwball comedy, and a touching meditation on the dehumanizing and maddening consequences of devoting oneself to the corporate life.

The premise is simple enough. Anna is an ambitious corporate shark on the make. Will is a good-natured middle level success whose heart is still back in the warehouse in which he started. Their company, B.S., has made a number of poor strategic decisions and is floundering and on the way down. Can Anna and Will combine forces long enough to convince the high level execs that there is a path to salvation?

There's a lot going on here. On one hand this is a generous and slightly melancholy meditation on corporate life in a time of great insecurity; it reminded me of the classic Joshua Ferris novel of downsizing, "Then We Came to the End". But then, the book is also authentically, acidly funny. Loaded with both subtle and obvious mockery of all things corporate, the authors have fine and practiced eyes for all of the petty idiocies of that life.

But many of those targets are easy, even if deserving. Our authors go much further. They have added at least two dozen incidental characters, from the boardroom, the barroom, and the cubicle farm, who shine during their moments on the page. Lots of witty dialogue and cross-talk and one-liners make this read like an updated version of those old screwball comedy movies in which everyone was fast, furious and witty.

On top of that, as the book builds to a finish and we learn whether corporate salvation is at hand the story actually builds up tension and drama. That's way more than what I expected, given that I expected that this would just be a sort of prose version of a Dilbert comic strip.

So, wildly entertaining, wise, and surprisingly engaging, this was a happy find. (Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)