Thomas E. Kennedy

In Falling Sideways, it’s never explained what type of business occurs at the Tank, a corporation in Copenhagen. The business doesn’t matter. The effect the corporation has on the lives of its employees does. Martin Kampman is the CEO who has been brought in to get costs under control. Kampman himself is obsessed with control. He practices extreme self-control and wields the same iron hand over his family and employees.

Jes Breathwaite, son of long-term - and about to be downsized - Tank show more employee Frederick Breathwaite, has rejected his father’s efforts to get him into the corporate world. During a student job at the Tank he perceived that “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.” Instead, he drinks beer, quotes philosophy, and works for an Afghan refugee in a shoe repair and key-making shop. Adam Kampman, son of Martin, the Tank CEO who is firing Adam’s father, is beginning to reject all his own father stands for. They meet by chance and become friends.

Several employees respond to the uncertainty through either scheming, illicit office affairs, or both.

Through the fictional firm, Thomas Kennedy exposes the brutal emptiness of modern corporate culture and how it ignores basic human needs. Quoting the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, Jes Breathwaite boils it down for Adam Kampman: “To really love is the hardest thing we have to do, and the most important thing.” show less

Despite its grim subject, this beautiful, haunting novel is a page-turner. Kennedy moves fluidly among the voices of his characters, holding up a prism to reveal the many facets of human suffering and possibilities for redemption. (The psychiatrist Kristensen's is a necessary perspective but also perhaps the least compelling.) This is a rare work of fiction that looks at torture, a systemic atrocity, side by side with the private abuses of domestic violence and self-absorption that borders show more on mental illness, digging down to the foundations of violence and hatred, love and compassion, in our world that somehow does encompass all of these things.

If this sounds heavy, know that it is not gruesome but wise. This was my introduction to Kennedy and I very much hope that more of his work will be published in the U.S. soon. show less

The first novel of Thomas E. Kennedy’s Copenhagen Quartet, [In the Company of Angels], was a bright and vibrant elegy, keenly balancing the base and noble instincts of the human soul. Unfortunately, Kennedy did not revisit that territory in the newly published second novel of the series, [Falling Sideways].

The novel provides a “slice-of-life” perspective on the doings surrounding a high-line firm, of unspecified nature, called The Tank. The Machiavellian CEO, Martin Kampman, operates show more with a rare psychopathy, obsessed in both his professional and personal life with ultimate control. His strategy to downsize the company sends ripples through the management team’s lives. Bouncing between the various employees and family, we see their darkest fears and most compulsive behavior.

With [Falling Sideways], Kennedy seems to have become mired in the darkest corner of the soul. Human obsession born of fear and self-doubt is all that is on exhibit, with few characters showing any nobility or strength of will and character. The imbalance, especially as compared with the earlier novel, [In the Company of Angels], borders on distasteful.

Kennedy writes beautifully, but the lyricism and beauty of his writing cannot overcome the utter baseness of his characters and their story. Several reviews have noted that the book was meant to be a satire in defense of the dark and weak characters, but there is not a hint of true satire to be found, only weak-willed and fear-obsessed people careening further and further out of control.

Bottom Line: Unbalanced in favor of base human inclinations; Kennedy is a masterful author but this book is difficult to read and enjoy.

2 bones!! show less

Kennedy's novel is about pain -- the pain of torture, the pain of abuse, the pain of illness, the pain of grief, and the pain of desire. It is also about the healing power of love. Dr. Thorkild Kristensen of Copenhagen's Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims is prodding Nardo, the survivor of Pinochet's Chilean hell, to recall and confront his torture. Michaela Ibsen, divorced from her abusive husband, caretaker for her aged parents, is navigating an affair with Voss, a prominent jurist, show more much younger than she. Kennedy's skill is in playing with a variety of narrative viewpoints: 3rd person omniscient for Nardo, Michaela and Voss, interspersed with the 1st person observer of Dr. Kristensen. The novel is a page turner, but I must admit, I had some reservations about Kennedy's detailed dwelling on physical pain in its many manifestations -- a kind of tortured porn? I'm probably out of the mainstream reaction here, but I guess I've lived long enough not to need all the specifics. That said, In the Company of Angels is a compelling read. show less