Book Review: Company – Max Barry
Company by Max Barry is set in a milieu that I love to explore, the corporate office world. It’s full of office politics; the mundane and the ambiguous. I’ve often been fascinated with the world. And this novel explores it in hilarious and thought provoking fashion.
The story is about Jones, a new employee at Zephr Holdings who cannot work out exactly what the company does other than the deals and interactions between of the various departments. The question is what Zephr really does and Jones goes out of his way to find out, despite his colleagues warning him not to.
Max creates a fascinating world full of interesting characters with their own motives and subplots. It’s easy to get lost in the world and his hilarious take on work life. But this fascination may be because I work in an office myself and can very much relate to a lot of the characters and their situations. Perhaps he was aiming for someone like me.
Again because of being an office worker myself and most definitely due to me being a Marxist, the political plot to the novel had me on a knife edge as I was waiting to see how the story would resolve itself and what political conclusions you were meant to draw from it. Whilst I wasn’t expecting it to line up with my worldview exactly, the conclusion was satisfying for me. I won’t give it away, though, but it’s satisfying considering the bold direction of the story.
Barry’s writing style is sparse and smooth. I found the book easy to get into and wanting to keep ploughing through the pages. Though, this is without it then being devoid of interesting description. There is a good balance there and I learnt a lot as a writer from reading Company.
This is one of the best novels I’ve read all year and I would recommend this book to anyone but especially fellow cubicle dwellers.
Rating: 
Woo hoo! I am so glad you got a lot out of it. Max is an absolute hoot and a really lovely down to earth fella too. I spoke to him at Byron Bay Writers Festival last year and he actually knew what NaNoWriMo was and he’d also just recently read The HandMaid’s Tale by Margaret Attwood (my next suggestion to you!)
I think a lot of the nuances of Company went over my head because I have never been an office worker but it didn’t stop me enjoying it or getting some good laughs from it. (Wonder how Max’s old bosses at HP felt about the book when it came out?)
However I did consistently have run ins with payroll/HR when I worked for Qld Ed – and yes they are PURE EVIL folk.
You’ll have to let me know what you think of the NaNo Plot book?
Jodi Cleghorn´s last blog ..#16 Flat
I wonder too what my previous and current bosses will think when I’m published. It will be like they’ve had this mole in their ranks for all this time.
I’ve already read the NaNo Plot book and it’s brilliant. I like to read bits and pieces every October now.