Company [Paperback]

Max Barry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 13, 2007

Stephen Jones is a shiny new hire at Zephyr Holdings. From the outside, Zephyr is just another bland corporate monolith, but behind its glass doors business is far from usual: the beautiful receptionist is paid twice as much as anybody else to do nothing, the sales reps use self help books as manuals, no one has seen the CEO, no one knows exactly what they are selling, and missing donuts are the cause of office intrigue. While Jones originally wanted to climb the corporate ladder, he now finds himself descending deeper into the irrational rationality of company policy. What he finds is hilarious, shocking, and utterly telling.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With broad strokes, Barry once again satirizes corporate America in his third caustic novel (after Jennifer Government). This time, he takes aim at the perennial corporate crime of turning people into cogs in a machine. Recent b-school grad Stephen Jones, a fresh-faced new hire at a Seattle-based holding company called Zephyr, jumps on the fast track to success when he's immediately promoted from sales assistant to sales rep in Zephyr's training sales department. "Don't try to understand the company. Just go with it," a colleague advises when Jones is flummoxed to learn his team sells training packages to other internal Zephyr departments. But unlike his co-workers, he won't accept ignorance of his employer's business, and his unusual display of initiative catapults him into the ranks of senior management, where he discovers the "customer-free" company's true, sinister raison d'être. The ultracynical management team co-opts Jones with a six-figure salary and blackmail threats, but it's not long before he throws a wrench into the works. As bitter as break-room coffee, the novel eviscerates demeaning modern management techniques that treat workers as "headcounts." Though Barry's primary target is corporate dehumanization, he's at his funniest lampooning the suits that tread the stage, consumed by the sound and fury of office politics that signify nothing. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–By turns amusing and wry, this novel is a pleasure to read. It opens with a view of a large corporation as seen by a new employee whose first day on the job is one of high suspense–one of the doughnuts for a staff meeting is missing. Moving beyond the usual cheap but funny shots taken at corporate life, Barry takes his tale to the next level. What if this giant maze for laboratory rats in which so many people work was actually just that? The characters are stereotypes but readers will sympathize with them, nonetheless.–Ted Westervelt, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (March 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400079373
• ISBN-13: 978-1400079377
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #240,682 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Max Barry is an Australian who pretended to sell high-end computer systems for Hewlett-Packard while secretly writing his first novel, Syrup (1999). In fact, he still has the laptop he wrote it on because HP forgot to ask for it back, but keep that to yourself. He put an extra X in his name for Syrup because he thought it was a funny joke about marketing and failed to realize everyone would assume he was a pretentious jerk. Jennifer Government, his second novel, was published in 2003 without any superfluous Xs and sold much better. Max's third novel, Company, was published in 2006, and his fourth, Machine Man, is due in 2011.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He's done it again!, January 21, 2006

By 

Jordan Michel (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Company: A Novel (Hardcover)

I was in the middle of reading The Kite Runner when this one finally arrrived (I preordered it months ago), but I immediately dropped everything else to read it.

It's got a great plot twist early on, so I can't say too much about the story. It's about a guy who gets a job at a company and realizes soon after he begins that he has no idea what the company does. He begins a quest to understand the enigmatic mission of Zephyr Holdings, and that's when things turn a little strange.

As in his others novels, Max Barry uses over-the-top parody to satirize the corporate world. This one's mainly about general management and office politics, so most everyone will see elements that they recognize. When you're not frightened by how familiar these characters and situations are, you'll be laughing.

For anyone looking to comparison to his other novels: I think it's better than Jennifer Governement, but probably not quite as good as Syrup. It shares their theme of corporate satire but with more focus on general management.

It's a quick read and a lot of fun, and I have a feeling it'll be one that I think about for a long time in the future.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, May 27, 2007

By 

Bill (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Company (Paperback)

I wanted to like this book, just like I wanted to like Jennifer Government but ultimately it fails and for the same reasons. There's just no depth here. Maybe I shouldn't look for any, just accept it as light-hearted satire. Still, the entire story line feels contrived, existing only to point out truths that we all know anyway: big corporations don't care about their employees. Maybe if just one senior manager was given a small amount of depth, rising above the expensive suit-wearing, golf-playing, Porsche-driving cold-hearted power grabber, the book would have been more memorable. Another reviewer compared this type of corporate satire to the movie "Office Space" and to the TV series "The Office." The reason "The Office" (US version) is so entertaining is that the characters are well-developed and likable. The boss, while giving the outward appearance of the crude, boorish status-seeker, is also genuinely concerned about his employees and strives to be well-liked. In Max Barry's story, we don't get to know any of the characters enough to care about them.

And I have to agree with what other reviewers here have pointed out, that use of the word "sacked" instead of "fired" is bizarre for a story that takes place in Seattle. It also seemed strange for the setting to be Seattle when no features of the city are incorporated into the story. It would have been better not to mention the city and keep the story generic.

I think Max Barry has a lot of skill as a writer, enough to keep my interest despite the flaws. I wish that he, like Chuck Palahniuk, would put his talents to better use.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ruthlessly funny: another send-up from Barry, May 24, 2006

By 

Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Company: A Novel (Hardcover)

Max Barry is the literary equivalent of Dilbert creator Scott Adams. Starting with Syrup, Barry's novels are both humorous and ruthless in their send-ups of the corporate world, satires that juggle biting wit with suspense. With Company, Barry skewers companies that reorganize with a regularity that rivals Old Faithful. Protagonist Jones is a newly hired sales assistant at Zephyr Holdings, a company whose employees are not exactly sure what the company does, although all are sure that the best way to survive is not to question the orders coming from Senior Management. The Training Sales Department, where Jones works, is embroiled in controversy because one of the reps did not get his morning donut, and there's talk of sabotage. When top-performing Wendell is fired for being "involved in some irregularities concerning morning snacks" and for having commissions that the unit wants to use for its own solvency, the reps realize that the company has begun to punish good results. The panic that ensues has sales reps scrambling to sabotage their own accounts so they can keep their jobs.

In Barry's hands, the destruction of a company has never been so tongue-in-cheek. Here, a series of forwarded calls lead to the crash of the entire computer network, and, because someone must be blamed, the entire tech staff is ousted. Without a viable computer network, employees can't work, although, after the initial panic subsides, they are all too happy to pretend to be working without actually accomplishing anything. Mini-dramas erupt like pimples. As friends disappear from their cubicles, abruptly escorted off the premises by security, people willingly sever all ties with them. Conclusions, often based on nonsense, are whispered. In the midst of all this is Jones: fresh-faced, idealistic, ethical, and determined to do a good job despite the advice he receives from his co-workers.

Barry's strength has always been in his absurdist touch, with individual scenes meaning much more than the characters that propel them, and Company does not divert from this winning formula. This novel's unrelenting mockery of American business practices will have readers alternately smiling and grimacing, especially if they have had even a small glimpse into today's corporate America.