Thursday, April 25, 2013

Company by Max Barry


rating: 2 stars
mp3 10 hrs 17min

from Kobo:

Stephen Jones is a shiny new hire at Zephyr Holdings. From the outside, Zephyr is just another bland corporate monolith, but behind its glass doors business is far from usual: the beautiful receptionist is paid twice as much as anybody else to do nothing, the sales reps use self help books as manuals, no one has seen the CEO, no one knows exactly what they are selling, and missing donuts are the cause of office intrigue. While Jones originally wanted to climb the corporate ladder, he now finds himself descending deeper into the irrational rationality of company policy. What he finds is hilarious, shocking, and utterly telling.


My Review:
I am torn. I really liked Jennifer Government. Many people did not and I could see why they didn't. Many people like this book and I can see why they did. However, for me this book was lacking. So let's break it down like this. 
What did I like?
I like that the company turn out to be an experiment. Even though it's to the extreme I have worked places where people are too afraid to speak. Managers who don't do anything. Managers who don't even know how to do the job of the people they are managing.

What didn't I like?
I didn't like the main character. I found him to idealistic and naive. I cannot tell you how much he annoyed me. The ending also didn't impress me. The type of people in the Alpha program didn't strike me as the type of people who would just give up and go on to other things. The experiment was done in secret so to me they seem like the types that would've tried to set up shop in another city. 

Company was an interesting look at corporate American in what I would probably say as the 80s. Good for a fast read. Don't take it too seriously but don't be surprise if you see a little of your workplace environment depicted in the story. TBR 3

Challenges:

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