Customer Reviews

House of Cards: Love, Faith, and Other Social Expressions

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

For a 28-year-old man, ex-fundamentalist David Ellis Dickerson has remarkably little life experience. After getting his master's degree, he's only ever worked at one job, as a clerk at a government agency. He got engaged to the first woman he ever dated. Worst of all, he's a virgin.

What he's good at, and loves doing, is writing word puzzles and funny poems. When he gets the chance to work at the Hallmark greeting card company, he thinks he's found the perfect job. So he moves hundreds of miles away from his family and fiancee and, for the first time in his life, tries to fit in in the corporate world.

You can pretty much guess what happens next. Between his own quirkiness and the vagaries of corporate culture, David has a tough time at Hallmark. He does make some good friends. He also alienates several bosses and has an excruciatingly hard time figuring out the unwritten rules at his new workplace.

This is a well-written, cleverly observed, and very funny book. I also found it mildly disturbing, because I think Dickerson sometimes reveals more about himself than he realizes. It's still not clear to me, for instance, that he understands how deep the divide was between his own "romantic" but essentially self-centered fantasies about his relationship and his fiancee's actual needs and desires. And it takes the poor guy forever to figure out that some of his perfectly innocent habits are annoying the crap out of his patient but uncommunicative coworkers. At many points in the book, I felt simultaneously sympathetic and incredibly irritated with him.

Ultimately, though, I think Dickerson's perhaps unintentionally unsparing portrait of himself is what makes this such a good book. This was a one-day read for me; I picked it up and almost literally didn't put it down until I finished it. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys funny memoirs about quirky people.

This book is an entertaining memoir about an eccentric yet likeable dude. As you can probably glean from the title, the great majority of this book is focused on David Ellis Dickerson's time as a Hallmark employee in his late 20s. He details the various jobs he held there, the great friends he met, the crazy bosses he answered to, his relationships, and his lessons of growth and self-discovery.

When I read the description of this book, I was skeptical: "Wait, he is (or was?) an evangelical Christian? But he's a regular contributor to NPR? And he's funny? AND he got his doctorate at FSU, my alma mater? Hmm... this could be interesting." It turned out to be a great read. Without including any spoilers in this review, it's important to note that Dickerson, despite his intensely religious upbringing, is now a modern liberal man: highly educated, critical of fundamentalism, strongly feminist, and an LGBTQ ally. (I personally breathed a sigh of relief upon discovering this information, but it might be off-putting to some readers.) Apparently, many people find Dickerson insufferable because, as a true academic, he tends to "inform people against their will." However, I found him to be earnest and endearing; you can't help but identify with at least some little part of him.

The first 50-60 pages of the book are a little slow, but then it picks right up, and from that point I couldn't put it down! Dickerson is an extremely gifted writer, poet, puzzle-maker -- a veritable wordsmithing genius -- with a staggering lexicon and impeccable grammar. It's truly a joy to read such high-quality writing. He includes many original poems, cartoons, letters, and greeting card text. Even at a solid 370 pages, this memoir was surprisingly easy to get through because Dickerson's writing is superb, and the story itself is engaging and suspenseful.

During one chapter in the middle, Dickerson takes the reader through the actual process of writing a greeting card. It's fascinating and highly entertaining to read his different brainstorms, watch where he takes these ideas, and then see how the final card ends up.

Although the author begins his journey as a virgin and an evangelical Christian, there is surprisingly quite a bit of sex as well as theorizing about the act (including what some might consider graphic language) in this memoir. Some readers may feel that Dickerson is oversharing; however, he truly wears his heart on his sleeve, and to not include such intimate details would be to create an incomplete picture of himself and his life at that time.

Those who dislike reading descriptions of various sex acts, profanity, the occasional liberal rant, and serious (if infrequent) criticism of fundamentalism -- peppered intermittently with a poem in flawless iambic pentameter -- probably would not enjoy this book. However, if those elements sound like they would make for a great read, then you won't be disappointed! I highly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys funny, slightly eccentric, well-written memoirs.

Picture yourself choosing a birthday card. Imagine that you're roaming the racks and picking up one card after another. You browse the humor section, the religious section; you see photos, cartoons, all sorts of cards. Some make noise or have moving parts, or are die-cut. But on this imagined shopping trip, what if they all had the same sentiment inside?

Reading House of Cards: Love, Faith, and Other Social Expressions was a bit like that for me. Some parts made me reach out eager to pick them up and be entertained. Yes, great intro, then flip it open and ... oh my goodness, more of the same.

Author David Ellis Dickerson is a very funny guy, and his wordplay is to die for. I thoroughly enjoyed his verses and cryptic crossword work. Dickerson landed what seemed like the perfect job for his talents: writing for Hallmark Cards. I would have appreciated a clearer look at the systems and processes of Hallmark--and possibly more about his avocation as a puzzle-maker. Dickerson, though, is like the nerdy kid who throws himself in front of the camera every time, making monster faces. Granted, House of Cards is a memoir so by definition it's ABOUT him, but ... maybe he's a bit too invested in being annoying, to the detriment of this book.

Dickerson was raised as a fundamentalist Christian and converted to Catholicism as an adult. At twenty-seven he was a virgin, he and his fiancee having decided to "just say no" until they married. He plays the humor card repeatedly in telling this part of the story, and frankly, it was just TMI for me. It contributes heavily, as you might imagine, to his sense of stress and dislocation in the Hallmark job. The focus on his sex life, and what seemed like ridicule of himself and the systems and staff of Hallmark, got in the way of my full enjoyment.

Dickerson, an NPR contributor, is brilliant and funny and there's lots to enjoy here. I'm hoping that his next book is just as brilliant and funny but with less self-deprecation. For me, three stars with the promise of a sunnier day next time.

Linda Bulger, 2009

OK - when a person's memoir mentions that his dream is to write greeting cards - how can you not want to read it? Obviously someone needs to write these things we attach to presents, send when someone dies, pass around the office when someone has a birthday...but I never put much thought into the thought behind the card.

David Ellis Dickerson did. Described on the back of the book as "a fundamentalist-raised twenty-seven-year-old virgin social misfit" - Dickerson writes of the time that he worked at Hallmark Cards with a great deal of self-deprecating humor and growing self awareness.

"...in the Main Writing staff. My new co-workers were more than two dozen women in their forties and sixties, half of whom were unmarried and childless. They loved nothing better than to work on condolence and grief cards. If you stood in the hallway outside Main Writing, you could practically smell the Zoloft. All this leads to a stark change in creative culture, and nothing epitomized this change more than the Crying Room."

Though drawn in first with the promise of a look into the corporate greeting card business, I started to become far more interested in the development of Dave as he underwent huge changes in his previously sheltered world. He gets his dream job, moves away from everyone he knows, deals with a long distance relationship with his fiancé and is in the midst of a great spiritual upheaval.

While much of the book is humorous, the discoveries Dave makes about his spirituality provide small anchors in his story. "This was a service where God met you in mid-verb, and that's the way I've always felt, I can be awed by the night sky or by standing on a seashore, just like anyone. But the stories of grace I remember most and love the best and the ones where joy comes as a complete surprise, the bird that flutters accidentally onto the bus. I looked around at this awkward, well-intended, completely human happiness, and thought, If they can keep this up every week, I'm definitely coming back."

Contrasted, of course, with zingers about his previous religious life like, "(Jane was Catholic and obviously liberal, and I'd been avoiding both Catholics and liberalism since I'd converted at eight.) But as I watched her over the next several months, I kept thinking, What a shame. Smart women sure are sexy. In the conservative Christian churches I'd grown up in, aggressively smart women were discouraged from showing up."

One of the most interesting aspects of the book was the realization that the reader gets that the inside of Dave's head is a bit of a sheltered environment. Because he is the leader on this journey through his life, one trusts his version of events because that's all we have. But as his tenure at Hallmark continues, I started to see him through his co-workers eyes. I started to realize just how different he was from most of the people there, and that what we were reading wasn't really about an everyday man in a unique work environment, but a very unique person learning to become a man in the everyday world. It's even uncomfortable at times as he gets moved around the company, as his managers (and he) try to discover just where Dave belongs.

"At the end of my second month, however, Evan came by and said, with an embarrassed look, "We have to talk." He led me into the Quiet Room, closed the door, cleared his throat, and said, "Dave, you're using too many literary allusions in your casual speech, and people are complaining."

"I defy you to quickly come up with a sensible reaction to that statement."

"House of Cards" was a very enjoyable book with more to it that I thought. The look behind the scenes of an industry that, in essence, sells feelings and sentiment to the world, was very interesting. The look behind the scenes of a man trying to find his place in that world, turned out to be even more so.

Surely any book which ends with the protagonist wanking into an umbrella in his cubicle and traipsing off into the sunset to start a graduate degree in literary theory is intended as farce? You need serious talent to carry a character so irrepressibly dimwitted--John Kennedy Toole talent, Richard Russo talent, Thomas Pynchon on a good day--and unfortunately Dickerson doesn't have what it takes.

I won't go into the endless, uninspired writing on sex: as one comment already said, "TMI." Frankly, the same goes for the protagonist's moribund ramblings on religion. This book isn't just monotonous, isn't just childish and unthinking and badly written, it's also memorably sexist, with a cast of two-dimensional women who exist to play mommy to this dude or screw him (or talk about screwing him, or be paid to screw him, as the case may be). I've got nothing against a bad book, or a boring book, or a wish fulfillment book, or a book that really could have been quite interesting had it not been written by a complete dunderhead, but a bad, boring, sexist book--if this book were a person, it would be that self-absorbed, self-congratulatory guy with a beard in that literary theory class in graduate school. If you've ever known that kind of guy--that sexist, self-satisfied, speechifying guy--ask yourself if you need--if you really need--to read his memoir on his sexual awakening.

This book had all of the right elements; memoir, sex (or lack thereof), fundamentalism gone awry, insight into a profession not often thought of. The only thing it was missing on my list of memoir requirements was heavy drug use. Can't win 'em all.

Dickerson does a wonderful job of letting into his slacker life and mentality. He tried his best to open himself up and let us see how he came to be a 30 yr old virgin in a 6 year relationship. His foray into greeting card writer makes for some very funny writing and memorable stories about corporate life.

There were parts that I couldn't stop thinking that I was talking to an overly sensitive friend that was going around and around about her problems and what people think about her and as I was about to slap her, I realized that this was just a book that a guy wrote and I had to snap out of it.

It was entertaining and some parts memorable. Best memoir ever? Not hardly. Interesting enough? Sure!

I picked up this book because I worked with David Dickerson at Hallmark and expected his memoir to be funny and well-written. Like him, I'm a former Hallmarker, and I'm certainly not an apologist for the company; it can be maddeningly "corporate" at times.

But I'm disappointed that David went out of his way to malign some really good managers, writers, and editors, all the while trying to convince the reader that they were just too uncool to recognize his sheer genius. I didn't dislike David, but he was not brilliant (or at least he didn't exhibit brilliance, if he was), and he alienated a lot of people for some really sound reasons.

I found David's admission on page 12 really telling: "I've always despaired of ever impressing anyone with my resume, and my writing so far had gotten almost no attention. But I know that in person I'm charming. It's what I've counted on my whole life to get me out of trouble for being late, or for forgetting assignments, or for all the other difficulties that my absentminded brain gets me into. People are generally receptive to my jokes and my friendly nature, as long as they aren't humorless office manager types."

This explains a lot, because David missed a fair number of meetings, writing deadlines, and other important obligations. "Charm" (and I'm being generous to use his word, although I wouldn't call him charming - just friendly) doesn't make up for that. Sometimes his jokes were really funny, and sometimes they bombed. David's book also misrepresents the creative work process at Hallmark to the point where I would characterize it as a fictional account. Maybe his lack of understanding contributed to why he struggled so much in his job? But for all you readers who think, "Oh, THIS is what it's like on the inside..." - sadly - no, this book does not deliver a glimpse of how it really works.

The bottom line is that David, who was around 30 years old at the time he agreed to work at a corporation, expected to shine without working hard or behaving like a responsible adult. The real world doesn't work that way. And it also doesn't revolve around him, although it appears that he has yet to figure out that particular truth.

This insipid small-minded tale annoyed me to no end! But my grandmother taught me that once I start a book I should always finish it. I wish I had crossed my fingers on that promise when I began this book! By less than a third of the way through I was finished hearing about David Dickerson's sexual fantasies and hangups. I mean come on, TMI as another review has said! Or better, TMSGI: Too much stupid and gross information. To each his own I guess, but rather than entertain, his tales demonstrate he is chauvinist, sexist and juvenile. I guess it succeeded on one aspect: it made me dig out my thesaurus to look up new words for banal. But ultimately, banal is spot on.

Readers may know Dickerson from This American Life. The former fundamentalist turned writer is almost disturbingly frank. The memoir is a hilarious journey through his experience working at Hallmark, his celibate relationship with his 1st girlfriend, religious crises and his decisions about the rest of his life. Dickerson doesn't shy away from his own faults and foibles. Whether it's overestimating how funny he is in front of his coworkers, visiting a hooker just to touch her breasts, or desperately trying to assimilate into Hallmark's corporate culture, Dickerson lays himself bare. He gives us an amusing window into the business of writing and marketing cards. Dickerson gives equal time to his career trajectory, his sexual frustration and his inability to connect with those around him. When he asks himself if he has Aspirger's syndrome without being aware of it, the reader is already starting to wonder the same thing.

I never even heard of the author before ordering the book, which is surprising because I listen to NPR often - I guess I just keep missing him! After reading this, I'll be keeping an ear out for Dave Dickerson because I want more.

This book is at times funny, poignant, eye-opening, surprising, and never pulls a punch. For someone who supposedly gets into trouble for using too much flowery language and "literary allusions," this guy never beats around the bush when it comes to sex or God. He is frank to a fault, never makes you guess what he's really thinking!

Many of us can relate to having your "dream job" slowly turn into a FAIL of epic proportions...it can feel so much worse because expectations were so high. Following the author on this journey through the levels of corporate hell is cringe-inducing while still being delightfully entertaining.

Dickerson is fascinatingly human, and his writing is incredibly open. While he isn't like anyone I ever met (poetry-writing, dictionary-reading, deeply religious virgin), at the same time he's just like everyone I know (smart, witty, confused, vulnerable). I imagine this book would be fun for anyone to read. I couldn't put it down, it was a lot of fun. Highly recommended!