Company Max Barry
Categories: Science , Staff Picks , Fiction
Gazing at the cover of this novel made me gain weight. There is a picture on the cover of this book that will make anyone’s eyes glaze over. If it weren’t for the cover of the book, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up to investigate. Please, have a look and you tell me. The inside satisfies just as much, if not more so, than the cover promises. Oh mama. DONUT.
Jones has a job at Zephyr Holdings as a salesman in the Training Sales Department. He doesn’t know what kind of training he sells and he doesn’t know to whom he sells it. As a matter of fact, Jones has no idea what Zephyr Holdings actually holds. What he does know is that the receptionist, Eve, has hair of caramel atop a body of butter pecan ice cream and a serious jones for Jones himself. The problem is that Freddy, a coworker, has dibs on Eve due to the fact that he secretly sends her a forty-dollar floral bouquet every week.
Things get interesting when Jones breaks out of the company corral he feels he’s been herded into and investigates Zephyr Holdings. Why are the floors of the building arranged in reverse numerical order? Why isn’t there a thirteenth floor even though there is an inoperable 13th floor button in the elevator? How is it he can never see Upper Management without an appointment but is never allowed to make an appointment? Nothing is, as it seems at Zephyr Holdings. As a matter of fact, there may not BE a Zephyr Holdings.
Max Barry is the author of the ultra-successful soda-based industry 1999 novel, Syrup and also ultra-all out action empress novel, Jennifer Government. Company reveals the universal inner cogs of companies, social dynamics and (gasp!) the directional sprocketry of company politics. This book can make one see just how good some have it, how lucky some truly are and that the way to the truth all centers around the theft of one freshly glazed donut.
