The narrator works at an advertising agency where everything is falling apart. Budgets are shrinking, free bagels have vanished from the cafeteria, and the entrance no longer displays flower arrangements. Rumors spread that Lynn Mason, the competent but cold director, might have cancer. Business is declining rapidly. Employees kill time between gossip sessions as heads begin to roll and tension builds. Then hope appears in the form of a mysterious project: a breast cancer awareness campaign designed to make patients laugh about their symptoms. The race is on to create the perfect slogan and avoid the layoff machine. The narrator observes colleagues like sharp-tongued Marcia Dwyer, unpredictable Tom Mota, office entertainer Benny Shassburger, redheaded suck-up Jim Jackers, and Yop, who keeps sneaking back to work in empty offices after being fired. Ferris tracks this cast of characters with humor and warmth, capturing the countless details and quirks of office life that becomes, for so many people, life itself.
Genres: fiction, american-fiction, humor, business, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: ensemble-cast, office-politics, workplace-comedy
Editions Denoël