If you think your boss is a soulless, inhuman, bunny-blowing pile of ass vomit who’s slowly sucking the joy out of your existence with each intake of breath into their smarmy, callous, troll-like mouth...wait until you hear about the monsters Philip Kenan works for in this bizarre, intelligent, Cthulhu-spiced and frighteningly funny piece of corporate horror/dark comedy/satire. So the math on this book is pretty simple: Lovecraft + Wall Street + Philip K. Dick (with a dash of William S. Burroughs) + Office Space (the movie) + the love child of Ben Stiller & Woody Allen = A mighty nice dose of smart, funny, wildly inventive, mind-warpingly awesome...Weird…Terrific… Fun..................uckery. For those who want a little more verbiage, here's the plot rundown and some thoughts:PLOT SUMMARY:Angsty author, Philip Kenan, works as a word processor for Ralph’s One Day Resumes, where he spends his days preparing copy for resumes, flyers, business cards and the like. Just another in a series of dead-end jobs that Philip can’t seem to hold on to while he works obsessively on his as-yet-unpublished 2000 page manuscript inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Of course, Philip believes that his frequent job loss and daily brushes with disappointment and frustration are the result of a vast inter-dimensional conspiracy orchestrated by the “elder gods” of the Cthulhu Mythos and that his boss and most of his co-workers are really inhuman servants (shaggoths) of these deities. As he sees it, these Old Ones have taken over corporate America and are using advertising, technology and the dreaded Necronomicon to open a portal that will allow, Nyarlathotep, Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth and the whole diabolical gang into our reality.On the other hand, Philip has a history of mental illness and it’s quite possible that he's simply a delusional “bag-o-nuts” who has allowed his over active imagination to seep out of his writing and contaminate his everyday life. It doesn’t help matters that Philip was encouraged, nay indoctrinated, in his beliefs by his now dead father, Walter Kenan, who blamed all of his own misfortunes on the dastardly machinations of “The System” controlled by these elder gods. The System. The Old Ones, crouched at the beginning of time, malevolent and patient. They thwarted all aspiration, all true and noble yearning…The System was ubiquitous and merciless. Its minions were everywhere, from the President of the United States to the clerk at the hardware store…The Systems creatures were fellow office workers, mysteriously generated regulations, numbers, signs on the walls, one-way streets, radio announcers, movies. These were the puppets of the Dark Gods. The distinguishing feature of a creature of the System was this: It bore Walter Kenan malice and worked diligently to confuse, demoralize and destroy Walter Kenan. Throughout the novel, the reader is forced to confront the question: are Philip's troubles the result of a genuine cosmic conspiracy or is Philip out of his mind and nuttier than an Almond Joy? That you will have to decide for yourself. THOUGHTSOne thing is beyond question, this book was terrific. The dream-like, reality-bending (is it real or not) narrative employed in this novel reminded me of works by Philip K. Dick (e.g., A Scanner Darkly), except that this story has a much lighter, more humorous tone. Spencer’s prose is crisp and highly readable while being peppered with well crafted dialogue and funny bon mots. As a random example, at one point, Philip’s co-worker theorizes to him that maybe God’s a clumsy boy who causes disasters to happen because he’s trying to speak to us: ‘I mean, think about it. What if God just don’t know his own strength, like the cartoon character, what’s his name, Baby Huey? ‘Look out!’ God hollers, and a tidal wave destroys a seaport. ‘Heads up, Merl’ God roars, and a lightning bolt sends old Merl tumbling down a hillside, the soles of his shoes smoking.’ These bizarre theories of why bad things happen to good people provide a number of interesting Hmmm moments, as well as some chuckles. However, most of the satire is reserved for bludgeoning corporations, corporate executives and the "life sucking" "soul crushing" nature of the corporate work place. This is where Spencer spends most of his time. Individually, these barbs are often subtle and casually delivered, but the cumulative effect is in your face and very biting. In this regard, I found interweaving and fusion of the indescribable namelessness of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos with the button down, lock-step work of the corporate world to be just magnificent. Hopefully the above gives you the flavor of the story. However, before I wrap up, I want to mention the one thing I found most intriguing about the work. Throughout the novel, Spencer does a phenomenal job of providing clues and insights into Philip’s unique vision of the world without ever giving the game away. You will go back and forth regarding whether what he sees is real or imaginary. Even at the very end of the novel (which is just wonderful), you will only have an “idea” or an “educated guess” regarding Philip’s mental state. I think this allows the reader to “write their own ending” so to speak and I thought it was outstanding. The subtle shades of the story allow to look, along with Philip, for deeper meaning. Overall, this is an engaging, original, off-beat story that doesn’t fit neatly into a particular genre box. However, it’s a well written, well plotted story should keep you entertained throughout. 4.0 stars. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!P.S. A big thank you to my good friend, Richard for recommending this book to me. Richard, as a token of my esteem, I am going to try and track down some 1929 Montgomery Ward & Co. stock certificates to help kick start your scripophily collection.
Philip Kenan has moved to Austin, Texas, in an effort to win back his estranged girlfriend, Amelia. Since at Micromeg, their previous workplace, he once tied her up and hid her in a mail cart, she is not inclined to get back together. But Philip was saving Amelia and indeed the world from the incursion of The Old Ones – Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, Dagon, and rest of the slimy crowd from the works of H.P Lovecraft. Unfortunately for Philip, his heroic efforts look remarkably like complete mental breakdowns to the outside world.In Austin, Philip works for Ralph’s One-Day Resumes handling a job for which he is over-qualified. Amelia works for the Pelidyne Corporation, which is housed in a building of black glass and odd angles that suggests to Philip that it might be the next site of an incursion of The Old Ones. When he gets a temp job at Pelidyne he discovers that he is right. Spencer’s novel is laugh-out-loud funny, told in a voice finely tuned to the absurdities and indignities of the modern workplace. Here he describes what was actually one of Philip’s better past jobs.The research library was located in the basement of a gravy-colored, three-story brick building that squatted in the middle of a parking lot, its tiny windows glittering like eyes of a mechanical spider…it was inhabited by unhappy people: secretaries who had lost all hope, narrow-shouldered men in cheap suits who lived in fear of being fired, fast-striding men in better suits who lived in fear of dying before they had fired their quota of timid underlings, and the real bosses, grim, self-assured men, ever vigilant to screw before getting screwed.When Philip is reduced, after some time in a mental ward, to seeking any kind of work he can find, he learns to decipher the want ads.“Entry Level” meant a dismal minimum wage job that never evolved into anything else since even the toughest and most desperate employees lasted only a month before quitting. “Go-getters” were solicited for sales positions hawking products like life insurance and shared vacation time. “Must love people” was a clear warning that the customers were difficult, perhaps psychotic. “Industrious people” were requested to apply for positions at sweatshops filled with dispirited, bitter employees.Philip could be referring to his job or the upcoming invasion of The Old Ones when he reflects, “The truth was too loathsome and ghastly to rest sedately in the limited, cloistered realm of human reason.”Spencer pulls out the stops and rises to dizzy Lovecraftian heights once the fabric separating our world from the Old Ones is rent. Lovecraft purists may not approve of this book, but it's immense fun for the rest of us.
Do You like book Résumé With Monsters (1996)?
I love Charles Stross's humorous spy-meets-Cthulhu-meets-bureaucracy novels, and this is like that, only with no espionage and a lot less focus. It's brilliantly written, with a good line on every page and not a single bad sentence I could find. But it does take a while to find its footing, and on my White Wolf Press Edition (486 huge-type pages), it didn't really kick into high gear until 200 pages in. But I can't dismiss it outright, because there's frankly nothing else like it (except Charles Stross and maybe Move Under Ground by Nick Mamatas. If this is the kind of work being done in Austin, Texas, I'd love to see more. But this feels like a very personal obsessive novel, one where you have to sort of convert to the author's point of view, rather than a novel designed to be consistently riveting. In summary: smart, funny, and I love the concept, but the execution was a little too navel-gazing and scattered to get my highest marks.
—David
I can't think of any reason not to give this book 5 stars. But then, a book that takes the reader on a darkly humorous trip through a modern world, in which Lovecraft's Old Ones and Elder ones do exist, is right up my alley. But do such terrible creatures really exist, or is our hero simply as mad as Abdul Alhazred? Or, more frightening yet, is it modern workplaces and modern romantic relationships which are, all by themselves, indescribably horrible? Recommended for those who don't mind the mixture of dark, brooding horror and screwball comedy.
—Robert
This book has currently had trouble staying on my shelves. I'm now on my second copy of the book, but it's always on someone else's shelf as I lend it out to anyone who has ever read the Call of Cthulhu or any other Loveraft writings.The office life is hell, but moreso for the story's protagonist than most people. Philip is... sick. Or that's what his past psychiatrists (court appointed) would tell you. He believes that the corporate entities of the world are not headed by men, but my extra-dimensional entities from outside of time and space. The horrors of H.P. Lovecraft are real, and they control fortunes and assets most can only dream of. His ex-wife, Amelia, however has had enough of it. After he kidnapped her from her office a few years back claiming that he was protecting her from the alien horrors of the Mythos, they're on less than ideal relationship territory and it's driving him (even more) insane.Soon, he finds a new horror lurking at his newest place of employment and the cycle of madness begins anew.The best thing about this book is that it's written in such a way that it's entirely possible, even plausible, that Philip is really just batshit crazy. It could all be in his head. Yet, there are little inconsistencies that could point to the fact that in an unreasonable world, Philip may be one of the few sane people in it - frightening stuff.
—Monk
