About this title: The author of JENNIFER GOVERNMENT captures, in frighteningly funny fashion and dead-on detail, the zeitgeist of the corporate cube farm. Stephen Jones, a freshly minted business graduate, takes his first job as a rep in Training Sales at Zephyr Holdings. Jones has some difficulty in adjusting to the constant low-grade paranoia; the fierce ...
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Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday
Date Published: 1/17/2006
ISBN-13:9780385514392ISBN:0385514395
Description: Very Good. 0385514395 May show signs of shelf wear. Choose EXPEDITED shipping, receive in 2-5 business days. Please email with questions. read more
Description: Very Good. 0385514395 Condition: VERY GOOD. (Book may have one or a combination of the following characteristics: former library book, cover wear, name written inside cover, light underlining/highlighting, remainder mark, etc. Overall, the book is in solid shape. This is a blanket description. Please e us if you require a specific, detailed description of the book condition. We will typically respond within one week of your request). read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday
Date Published: 1/17/2006
ISBN-13:9780385514392ISBN:0385514395
Description: New. 0385514395 May show signs of shelf wear. Choose EXPEDITED shipping, receive in 2-5 business days. Please email with questions. read more
Edition: First Printing
Binding: Trade Papeback
Publisher: Vintage, New York
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781400079377ISBN:1400079373
Description: New. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. New. First printing trade paperback, Vintage, 2005. Smooth spine and covers. Unmarked. Hilarious novel about a seemingly bland corpoate monolith. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Doubleday, New York
Date Published: 2006
Description: Near Fine. No Jacket as Issued. Advance Reading Copy (ARC) 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. AM2-Book has label on the front and light shelf wear otherwise fine. A bitingly funny satire of corporate life by the author of the acclaimed bestseller Jennifer Government. read more
Description: Fine. Excellent condition. Appears unread. No writings/underlines/highlights. Pages are very nice and clean. Minor shelfwear. Free deliver confirmation! Satisfaction guaranteed! read more
Edition: First edition. Illustrated. FIRST EDITION/FIRST PRINTING.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday Books, New York
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780385514392ISBN:0385514395
Description: Fine in fine dust jacket. Beautiful mint condition First/First book & dust jacket. Just like new. Glued binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 338 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780385514392ISBN:0385514395
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
"For want of a doughnut, a company is reorganized pretty much sums up Max Barry's latest novel Company.
If the premise sounds absurd, you're right. But just like the corporate world, a single dougnut brings about the decline and fall of a company. It serves as a catalyst for the absurdity that can be and is corporate life.
What Jennifer Government did for the advertising industry, Company does for corporate life. But where Company trumps Jennifer is that the story follows a single protagonist in the story of corporate absurdity. If you've seen Office Space or The Office, you have a taste for what you'll find in these pages. Thankfully, the story is more linear and doesn't work as hard to have characters' lives intersect ala Crash as was the case in Jennifer Government.
Stephen Jones is hired right out of college to work for the Zephyr Company. Within a day he's promoted over people who have been with the company for years and tries to discover the rhyme and reason as to why certain decisions are made. As he tries to figure out the mind of the suits and just what it is Zephyr does, he's drawn into a whole different world, one he never expected.
Max Barry's satire is biting, especially as you recognize fellow co-workers in the pages of Company. The absurdity of behavoir from Roger the guy who can't let go of his doughnut being eaten to Elizabeth, the sales rep who falls uncontrollably in love with her clients...that is until they sign the contracts, you will recognize people you know and have worked with. Yes, Barry does make some of the characters one-dimensional but overall, his wry comments on corporate life and the corporate world are dead-on.
The only negative is that the reveal of what is really behind Zephyr comes to early in the story and the novel coasts from there."
"This is a great book. I highly recommend it to anyone who works in a large company, anyone who has temped in an open space planned warehouse-sized office, or wondered whether there is an end to the seemingly infinite chain of line managers.
It's funny, smart, and VERY irreverant. If there's anything to be reverant about."
"I LOVED this book. If you have ever worked, in any kind of corporate/business, you can relate. Memo after memo coming down from the top...No on asks why, or questions, you just do the job... On the inside flap of the cover it says, the novel that answers the big questions: When is physical violence an appropriare response to management policy? Why is one reserved parking space always empty?
"As with his previous, Jennifer Government, Barry is particularly adept at skewering corporate greed and those who make their living (if it can be called that) feeding the corporate dragon. Our hero, a new employee named Stephen Jones who is recently out of business school, joins the Sales Team at Zephyr. Interestingly, neither Jones nor his coworkers (including his supervisor) seems to know what the Seattle-based holding company actually does. The story starts with Roger, who has been cheated of his morning donut by a coworker who has apparently taken two. This slight--and the drama that unfolds around it--is a recurring theme throughout the book. The pace is fast, the writing is tight and sharp, and sections are short--which make it ideal (and dangerous) for late-night reading. That is, you find yourself thinking, "Oh, I'll just read one more little section...". Then, the next thing you know, it's 2:00 a.m.! The storyline is really fun, there's a killer plot twist halfway through that redefines the book. Sadly, readers will doubtless see disconcerting similarities between their own employers and Zephyr. Yikes!"
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