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Falling Sideways: A Novel by Thomas E.…
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Falling Sideways: A Novel (original 2005; edition 2011)

by Thomas E. Kennedy

Series: Copenhagen Quartet (4)

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7629348,942 (2.64)5
There has never been any shortage of business at the Tank, a high-profile firm in Copenhagen. There are round-table meetings to attend, circular memos to write, colleagues to indirectly undermine.But when the Tank's nefarious CEO announces a period of downsizing, everyone is exposed and the game-playing begins in deadly earnest.Top executive Frederick Breathwaite suspects his days might be numbered, and is frantically trying to ensure a foothold on the career ladder for his son Jes. Harald Jaeger, estranged from his wife and daughters, harbours desperate passions for an alarming number of women (including, dangerously, the Tank's married financial officer). Lost in his amorous fantasies, he has somehow managed to catch the CEO's eye - as a possible replacement for Breathwaite. Meanwhile the CEO's son Adam should be following in his father's alpha-male footsteps but instead is head-over-heels in puppy love with his au pair. And in a nearby shoe repair shop, Jes, who personally can't imagine anything worse than his father's corporate life, is pursuing a very different kind of future.As the city settles into autumn,a season of brittle days and foreboding nights, the impending downsizing causes a ripple effect that touches not just every employee in the Tank but their spouses, children and lovers as well. Sharp, funny but remarkably tender, Falling Sideways is a shrewdly observed tale of ambition and anxiety, of backstabbing and backsliding, of office politics and family affairs.… (more)
Member:hairball
Title:Falling Sideways: A Novel
Authors:Thomas E. Kennedy
Info:Bloomsbury USA (2011), Hardcover, 304 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:**
Tags:Books of 2011, April 11, Early Reviewers

Work Information

Danish Fall by Thomas E. Kennedy (2005)

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» See also 5 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 29 (next | show all)
Played in Copenhagen, the novel tells about the life of some employees in a firm.
Every chapter carries the caracter's name and tell us a lot about his life and how it's affected by work.
Among these high class, totally useless characters there is Jalalal-Din, bartender and realistic musilm counterpart of this drama.
Very well written, fast-paced and with a good analysis of the characters, this book mocks the Danish high-society, but in a different way than the best Danish writer Peter Hoeg.
It has more to do with brain problems and gossip papers and sadly describes real life of real people having no real problem but themselves.
I found the descriptions irresistible: the colours the scenes the way people behave. ( )
  Lillymao | Aug 4, 2022 |
A Danish novel that has no connection to Scandinavian Noir or Danish politics a la Borgen. Nevertheless it's very good storytelling with a well drawn list of characters and an astute pictues of modern families, their trials and tribulations. The Copenhagen setting is always present in the background and gives a real sense of place. ( )
  stephengoldenberg | Apr 6, 2016 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
I received this through the Early Reviewers program. Goodness knows why. Perhaps because the marketers were trying to link it to the success of Then We Came to the End. But this has none of the humor of that book. Instead it's a list of characters defined by their minutely described possessions. And some truly bad prose:

"Thumb and finger in the handle holes of the little scissors, reverently recollecting the vision of Janne's perfect, pear-stemmed breasts and shy, bright smile, he inserted the pointy tips of the blades into his nostrils and snipped short the bristling red hairs, trimmed his blond mustache and its architectural extensions to the neat, square beard that framed his square, dimpled chin under the clear expanse beneath his full lower lip."

It's a joke. But not the funny kind. ( )
  literarysarah | Aug 9, 2013 |
In an elegant portrayal of generational conflict in a few select families, Thomas E. Kennedy focuses on the tortured internal dialogs of a few stressed individuals to exceptional effect in "Falling Sideways." Mr. Kennedy’s writing here is so forceful and affecting, I had despaired of any kind of heartening or life-affirming ending – but the ending surprised me quite a lot. It’s a fulfilling, lustrous conclusion to a book full of sad truths, all perfectly observed and rendered.

Fred Breathwaite, American expatriate, lives and works in Copenhagen, and frets about his 22 year-old son. He has a suddenly prickly relationship with the CEO of the think tank where he has worked for 27 years (the CEO being one of the most loathsome characters I have encountered in any recent fiction). Fred’s son Jes was blessed with a quick mind and has loads of potential, if only he would try to realize some of it. A second father-son narrative parallels that of the Breathwaites, this one containing the story of the loathsome CEO, Martin Kampman, and his son, Adam. Mr. Kennedy treats us to a high-relief contrast with these two stories, and they begin to intersect in the younger generation, with some very telling results. Other characters receive due exposure: the charlatan, skirt-chasing middle manager, the dignified, unbowed au pair girl, the lonely and lovely finance executive who has a brief fling.

None of these characters evokes our sympathy very much, and Mr. Kennedy shows us the fear and arrogance, and toadyism, and paranoia rampant in this modern corporate culture. The fraught internal dialogs power the narrative and Mr. Kennedy flashes his brilliance by so utterly changing the tone and process from one character to the next. This, and the surprising, almost deus ex machina-type ending make "Falling Sideways" a highly worthwhile read.

http://bassoprofundo1.blogspot.com/2013/07/falling-sideways-by-thomas-e-kennedy.... ( )
  LukeS | Jul 11, 2013 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
A Nominee for the Bad Sex in Fiction Award

While I do not consider myself a prude, I often find the descriptions of sex in novels to be awkward, misplaced, and unconvincing. Of course, I would rather find authors willing to mention these taboo subjects encountered in everyday life than having them merely avoiding it. But, it seems like authors tend to lean on shock value and graphic description instead of artful representation.

Humorously, Literary Review has hosted the Bad Sex in Fiction Award for the last twenty years. Highlighting the worst in sexual encounters, the award honors the misuse of sex in literary fiction.

Thomas Kennedy’s new work, Falling Sideways, ought to be the frontrunner for the 2011 Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Inserted in most chapters and shamelessly described, sex is the central narrative feature of the book.

The Tank

Set in Copenhagen, Denmark, Falling Sideways follows the lives of employees at the Tank, an ambiguously defined company that monetized some sort of intellectual property but is currently falling on hard times.

The actions of the company are, in fact, so pointless, that Jes, the son of one character, proclaims,

“It seemed to [Jes] that almost nobody in Denmark actually did anything anymore; they all just sat in offices sending e-mails to one another or went to meetings where they sat around a table and talked about the e-mails" (105).

Downsizing Brings Out the Worst in People

With an unstable economy, the Tank’s CEO, Martin Kampman (a calculated and unemotional individual), must reshuffle the organization, trim its fat, and promote efficiency.

These swirling rumors about downsizing make most employees work in fear; they release tension through various addictive tendencies such as smoking, drinking, and sex.

As an example of one addictive tendency, Kennedy writes,

“It seemed smoking was responsible for just about all the evils of the world now. It had gotten to be embarrassing even to buy cigarettes. Maybe they would pass a law that would require you to say to the shop clerk: I am an idiot. May I have a pack of Prince Silvers, please? And if you didn’t: Sorry, madam, but you didn’t say you were an idiot. The law requires…” (89).

>A Snooze in Copenhagen

Sadly, despite an intriguing premise behind the book, Kennedy’s prose and narrative structure are merely adequate. Of course, the previously mentioned insistence on bluntly depicting sex provides a hindrance to the storyline. But even more, Kennedy spends little time creating compelling characters.

Aside from the ease of reading the book, I found little enjoyment in reading it. Moreover, not many literary themes held my attention throughout the book.

In perhaps the only interesting twist, Kennedy has created a world of anxiety, depression, and regret in a setting well known as the happiest place on earth. Yet, such an observance only bolsters a book in conjunction with deeper characters and plotlines.

Despite being a frontrunner for the Bad Sex in Fiction Award, I find little reason to recommend Falling Sideways.

Originally published at http://wherepenmeetspaper.blogspot.com ( )
  lemurfarmer | Jul 26, 2011 |
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Epigraph
"...Autumn is motionless,
Because the sun so hesitates in this decay
I think we still could turn,
Speak to each other in a different way..."

"...we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time."

- Philip Larkin
Dedication
To Copenhagen with love, its seasons, its light, its dark,
its people, home of homes.
For the Danish colleagues I had the privilege
and pleasure to work with for so many years
And always for Daniel, for Isabel, for Alice

With profound thanks for Roger and Brenda Derham,
Valerie Shortland, and Wynkin de Worde, sine qua non.
First words
Breathwaite woke to a screaming from the courtyard.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Book was originally published in Ireland as Danish Fall. It has been retitled Falling Sideways for its US and UK publication by Bloomsbury.
Bluett's Blue Hours and Falling Sideways are not the same book. Falling Sideways was originally published in Ireland as Danish Fall. Please do not combine Bluett's Blue Hours with Falling Sideways.
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There has never been any shortage of business at the Tank, a high-profile firm in Copenhagen. There are round-table meetings to attend, circular memos to write, colleagues to indirectly undermine.But when the Tank's nefarious CEO announces a period of downsizing, everyone is exposed and the game-playing begins in deadly earnest.Top executive Frederick Breathwaite suspects his days might be numbered, and is frantically trying to ensure a foothold on the career ladder for his son Jes. Harald Jaeger, estranged from his wife and daughters, harbours desperate passions for an alarming number of women (including, dangerously, the Tank's married financial officer). Lost in his amorous fantasies, he has somehow managed to catch the CEO's eye - as a possible replacement for Breathwaite. Meanwhile the CEO's son Adam should be following in his father's alpha-male footsteps but instead is head-over-heels in puppy love with his au pair. And in a nearby shoe repair shop, Jes, who personally can't imagine anything worse than his father's corporate life, is pursuing a very different kind of future.As the city settles into autumn,a season of brittle days and foreboding nights, the impending downsizing causes a ripple effect that touches not just every employee in the Tank but their spouses, children and lovers as well. Sharp, funny but remarkably tender, Falling Sideways is a shrewdly observed tale of ambition and anxiety, of backstabbing and backsliding, of office politics and family affairs.

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