I read Bing’s earlier novel, Lloyd What Happened, in 2006. Wow, what a different world that would have been. It was one of the first books I read after my first son was born, so I no doubt read it while being on call early in the nights during that first week. I was also an executive of sorts with an interactive marketing agency, so I could have been on my first step into the world where Stanley Bing’s characters live. Except, f course, I never was one for that way of life. Four years later, I’m in a different city and my life has slowed from a work-focus to a home-and-family-focus.
This book focuses on the head of a corporate Quality program who has a great secretary whom he helps through some life crises and gives good reviews and raises to, but she goes a bit off her rocker and brings a sexual harassement lawsuit against him and the company. This happens at the same time as a recession, so the man’s career ends pretty abruptly and under a cloud.
Bing chooses an unreliable narrator, a first person account from someone familiar with the story but not the characters under scrutiny. The narrator is a high level HR executive, friends with the eventual defendant, and a solid satirical corporate drone.
A very good book. I picked this up last week and jumped right on it. I could see why the Christian County Library thought this book was expendable; the last patron to check it out left her due date strip in it, and the book had sat on the shelf since 2006 without attention. A shame.
