Company

This is a delightful little novel to read over the holidays. As if the movie Clockwatchers and Orwell’s 1984 were put into a blender and told through the voice of Douglas Adams…sort of, anyway. I have had my fair share of working for big corporations and this book convinces me of what I already felt, that it is not me who is crazy, it is the corporations. What is insane is that some of the stuff that happens in the book is really not far off base from what big companies are actually doing.

A wonderfully over the top satire at the expense of any and all corporations. Set in the fictional corporate world of Zephyr Holdings; all of the small minded, seemingly petty politics in the office are pointed at, exposed and ridiculed. A must for any office worker who feels that their boss is not entirely sure of the real world around them!
Jones is starting his first new day at Zephyr a company where no-one knows exactly what they are doing, why they are doing it or indeed how it is going to get done. Desperate to know more Jones starts to dig around, ask questions he shouldn’t and talk to people (notably senior management) thought to be un-reachable. Without wishing to give too much more of the story away for fear of giving clues show more to the twist in the story suffice to say that nothing in this office is quite as it appears to be.
This book reminds me of Joseph Heller and I think the best description for it is Catch 22 in an office. Having said that it doesn’t quite match the continued satire and humour of Heller’s anti-war masterpiece, the twist to the novel occurs very early on and I think that it would have been better had Barry explored the office a little bit more before revealing what is really going on. The rumours that run around the Zephyr office started by the employees (typical, I think, of any business) could have had the readers’ imagination going off in several directions trying to work out the plot. Having said that it is the characters and the ridiculous and often surreal situations that the management put the staff in to that really drives the novel. Every aspect of the office from the mundane filing and photocopying to the rather less mundane fear of being downsized and fired is explored by Barry and no-one clocks out at 5pm to go home without having been made to feel a little bit foolish first. show less

Max Barry's latest novel Company is a fantastic satire on the business world and those corporate "fad" management techniques that already seem absurd in real life, and more so as exagerated in this story. It is a hilarious glimpse into a company where monkey see monkey do and the blind leading the blind take on whole new meanings. Company makes you think about all of the things you take for face value in your career and life that really if you dive down to the why would make you insane if you tried to comprehend it!

Company provides a lot of laughs, makes you sympathize with the corporate drones encountered and gives you the ambition to think, I'm not going to take some wackos word for why this is best practice. Barry's ability to create show more characters that you really connect with, become emotionally involved with, and feel sorry and happy for is what makes this a great read, and in the meantime if it makes you think, geez this sounds a little like the crazy things my managers do, then it will have brought a little more spice into your life (just don't blame me if you read this and decide to have a revolution in your office!) show less

A novel about the absurdity of corporate life, and the soullessness of companies that treat their workers as expendable, exploitable assets, rather than as human beings. The satirical humor is decent, though never laugh-out-loud funny. In fact, on the whole, it may be more depressing-because-it's-true than it is funny-because it's true.

There is also something of a sense of over-familiarity to it, although an interesting twist a hundred pages or so in makes it feel at least a little less like yet another variant on Office Space, which is good.

Compelling satire of corporate politics - reads something like a mash up of Heller's Catch 22, and Ballard's High Rise -but in an office setting . Amusing, albeit unnerving if you've ever worked in a corporate environment. All too accurate.
Worthwhile, offbeat read.

Company tells the story of a man named Jones that starts working for a company named Zephyr that provides training services. He's not there long, however, before he discovers that there's more to Zephyr than meets the eye ...

I thought this was a fantastic book. On one hand, it had the same type of "offices are crazy" comedy that you'd find in Office Space, or an episode of The Office, but at the same time with a more bitter, angry edge to it. Barry's main objective with the novel seems to be a reminder that capitalism can't exist without an underclass - one character muses that there would be no point in being rich if there wasn't an underclass to lord it over.

So I "read" this audio book after listening to Jennifer Government, Berry's previous book, and completely loving it.

However, this was not nearly as good. Berry's social agenda wrapped in so-called workers' rights certainly shines through again. But unlike Jennifer Government there is not the hint of truth, there is not the tongue and cheek nature of the previous.

Basically Jones gets hired by a company and he eventually realizes he doesn't know what it does. Upon further investigation no one else does either. But what important is someone stole my doughnuts months ago. And don't forget the underlying theme that corporations have no reason to make money, they just should provide jobs.

This one's worth skipping, unless you are a union show more loving liberal who thinks that office workers need a union and you want a fictional adventure to re-enforce your pre-conceived notions. show less