Company, by Max BarryI’m plugging away on a book about the Crimean War (what? I’m totally normal!), but I picked this novel up a few weeks ago when I was at that seminar that I said I’d write about but then totally didn’t. With me so far?

So, “Company.” Our hero Jones has just come out of school, and he begins work at the Zephyr Corporation, a depressing amalgam of workplace archetypes we’ve all met at one time or another.

For example:

“On level 14, Elizabeth is falling in love. This is what makes her such a good sales rep, and an emotional basket case: she falls in love with her customers. It’s hard to convey just how wretchedly, boot-lickingly draining it is to be a salesperson. Sales is a business of relationships, and you must cultivate customers with tenderness and love, like cabbages in winter, even when the customer is an egomaniacal asshole you want to hit with a shovel. There is something wrong with the kind of person who becomes a sales rep, or if not, there is something wrong after six months.”

Or:

“Freddy has been a sales assistant for five years. He is quick-witted, inventive, and full of ideas, so long as that’s okay with everyone else. Freddy is a participant. A member. He is happiest when he’s blending in with a crowd. In any group of people, the one you can’t remember is Freddy.”

The thing is, even though this company seems like any other, Jones can’t find out what exactly it is that Zephyr does. None of his co-workers can supply anything more detailed than that it’s a “holdings company.” But when he finally finds out the answer, it sends him up the corporate ladder and through the looking glass. (Spoiler Alert: No, soylent green is not made out of people.)

The plot is very clever, and it made me see some of the companies I’ve worked for in a fresh light. But I think what cinched it for me were the dead-on details about office life, and how hundreds of years of civilization can break down in a room with seven people and six donuts.

Verdict: If you’ve ever worked in a corporate setting, 8 out of 10. If you went to med school instead, 6.5.

Barry is also the author of “Jennifer Government,” a book which had a little more madcap zaniness and a lot more guns. What happens when the free market takes over the free world, corporate sponsors replace last names, Nike’s viral marketing takes a deadly turn and the police start sub-contracting with the NRA? Well, hilarity ensues, of course.