Books for Prep | |
by: Ed Park  List Price: $13.00 Amazon.com's Price: $10.40 You Save: $2.60 (20%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 813.6 EAN: 9780812978575 ISBN: 0812978579 Label: Random House Trade Paperbacks Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 256 Publication Date: May 13, 2008 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Release Date: May 13, 2008 Studio: Random House Trade Paperbacks Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: In an unnamed New York-based company, the employees are getting restless as everything around them unravels. There’s Pru, the former grad student turned spreadsheet drone; Laars, the hysteric whose work anxiety stalks him in his tooth-grinding dreams; and Jack II, who distributes unwanted backrubs–aka “jackrubs”–to his co-workers. On a Sunday, one of them is called at home. And the Firings begin. Rich with Orwellian doublespeak, filled with sabotage and romance, this astonishing literary debut is at once a comic delight and a narrative tour de force. It’s a novel for anyone who has ever worked in an office and wondered: “Where does the time go? Where does the life go? And whose banana is in the fridge?” Praise for PERSONAL DAYS "Witty and appealing...Anyone who has ever groaned to hear 'impact' used as a verb will cheer as Park skewers the avatars of corporate speak, hellbent on debasing the language....Park has written what one of his characters calls 'a layoff narrative' for our times. As the economy continues its free fall, Park's book may serve as a handy guide for navigating unemployment and uncertainty. Does anyone who isn't a journalist think there can't be two books on the same subject at the same time? We need as many as we can get right now." —The New York Times Book Review "Never have the minutiae of office life been so lovingly cataloged and collated." —"Three First Novels that Just Might Last," —Time A "comic and creepy début...Park transforms the banal into the eerie, rendering ominous the familiar request "Does anyone want anything from the outside world?" —The New Yorker "The modern corporate office is to Ed Park's debut novel Personal Days what World War II was to Joseph Heller's Catch-22—a theater of absurdity and injustice so profound as to defy all reason....Park may be in line to fill the shoes left by Kurt Vonnegut and other satirists par excellence."—Samantha Dunn, Los Angeles Times "In Personal Days Ed Park has crafted a sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, but always adroit novel about office life...Sharp and lovely language." —Newsweek "A warm and winning fiction debut." — Publishers Weekly "I laughed until they put me in a mental hospital. But Personal Days is so much more than satire. Underneath Park's masterly portrait of wasted workaday lives is a pulsating heart, and an odd, buoyant hope." — Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan "The funniest book I've read about the way we work now." –William Poundstone, author of Fortune's Formula "Ed Park joins Andy Warhol and Don DeLillo as a master of the deadpan vernacular." —Helen DeWitt, author of The Last Samurai Average Rating:
 Rating: - "Are you sure you want to quit?"It's an anomaly when the TV show "The Office" thrives in British and American versions in popular culture, and "9-to-5" survives as a song and a musical, how infrequently we have successful stories that continue the tradition of "Bartleby the Scrivener" as testimonies to soul-crushing clerical jobs. The novel unfolds in three parts: first, told in the first person plural, short vignettes introduce you to the characters and their personalities. This proves the liveliest part, full of snarky humor ... Read More Rating:  - PERFECT `SNEAK READ' AT THE OFFICETake this hilarious, biting satire to work and sneak a read whenever you need reassurance that offices everywhere are as crazy as yours. In "Personal Days," employees at a New York firm bicker and squabble over everything from who should take responsibility for a paper-jam to who has dibs on the "limited-edition Japanese Post-its." In between, they gossip, consume loads of coffee and cigarettes and, when they have time, actually squeeze in some work. Occasionally, they're rewarded with a "deprotion, ... Read More Rating:  - It's "The Office" in Book Form; Hilarious!This book was absolutely hilarious and kept me going page-by-page until the end. The characters were great, memorable, and the little inside jokes that developed through the book were endearing. For anyone who liked "e" or is currently watching The Office or loves Office Space, or into british humour in general, I think you'll really dig this short comedic masterpiece. Rating: - More Cute Than CleverThe first thing you need to know is that this is a story about a small group of young, whiny, white-collar, Manhattan employees of some generic giant corporation based in Omaha. None of the characters are developed in any manner beyond some jaunty nicknames and a few personal tics, peeves, and obsessions, so if you like to read about fleshed-out "real" characters, move on. Next, you need to know that it's a black comedy about corporate downsizing and the shallow communities formed by coworkers. If that ... Read More Rating:  - Clever, but not good.Disclosure: I only made it through 70 pages of Personal Days. Further disclosure: I rarely leave books unfinished. Burdened by sad characters and an uninteresting narrative, steady twists and clever wit save this effort from total boredom. *If* you work in a nameless NYC office, this might do more for you, otherwise look elsewhere. Does Personal Days come to life on page 71?! I'll never know. FYI, I bought this and Leinad Zeraus' Daemon on the same day. Daemon is a five-star read. Get it instead. ... Read More 
In association with Amazon.com | |