Several People Are Typing
2021 • 256 pages
Ratings43
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings43
Average rating3.7
A Good Morning America Book Club Pick! * A work-from-home comedy where WFH meets WTF. "An absurd, hilarious romp through the haunted house of late-stage capitalism."--Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House Told entirely through clever and captivating Slack messages, this irresistible, relatable satire of both virtual work and contemporary life is The Office for a new world. Gerald, a mid-level employee of a New York-based public relations firm has been uploaded into the company's internal Slack channels--at least his consciousness has. His colleagues assume it's an elaborate gag to exploit the new work-from home policy, but now that Gerald's productivity is through the roof, his bosses are only too happy to let him work from . . . wherever he says he is. Faced with the looming abyss of a disembodied life online, Gerald enlists his co-worker Pradeep to help him escape, and to find out what happened to his body. But the longer Gerald stays in the void, the more alluring and absurd his reality becomes. Meanwhile, Gerald's colleagues have PR catastrophes of their own to handle in the real world. Their biggest client, a high-end dog food company, is in the midst of recalling a bad batch of food that's allegedly poisoning Pomeranians nationwide. And their CEO suspects someone is sabotaging his office furniture. And if Gerald gets to work from home all the time, why can't everyone? Is true love possible between two people, when one is just a line of text in an app? And what in the hell does the :dusty-stick: emoji mean? In a time when office paranoia and politics have followed us home, Calvin Kasulke is here to capture the surprising, absurd, and fully-relatable factors attacking our collective sanity...and give us hope that we can still find a human connection.
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Reviews with the most likes.
I've never used slack and I am def not the target audience but this was a quick and easy read. I never bought into the notion that the main character was trapped inside a virtual environment but there was some lampooning of office culture and the uselessness of bots that amused me. Ultimately, I think the book is hindered by the choice of format.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review.
That was such a fun format but while reading it I found myself wanting to :dustystick: react while I don't even use Slack.
This book was excellent. Such a quick read and so enjoyable. Like welcome to night vale and every office I've ever worked in had a baby.
Not only is it funny, but it's also sweet. Very touching and reflective in some of the more existential moments. Truly a delight.
Awful book. Three lines were funny out of the whole thing. The rest was a slog, impossible to read enjoyably when text of emojis are constantly-mid sentence, and just awful. The fact that someone in the publishing world thought this thing was worthy of their time is a blight on society. If you read this book, that is 2-hours of your life you will never get back. Ever.
