Selling Ben Cheever: Back to Square One in a Service Economy [Paperback]

Benjamin Cheever (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 11, 2002

In 1995, America was in the throes of downsizing fever. Many thousands then, as now, were losing their jobs to the corporate demand of more money for the top, by tightening the belt below. Unable to sell his latest novel, Ben Cheever started to think about what employment opportunities were out there. Selling Ben Cheever is the frank, self-effacing, and enlightening chronicle of his five years in the service industry. As we watch Ben confront his own demons about what a particular job means to him, we are compelled to consider how our egos are affected by not only what we do, but how we do it. Through his experiences, we begin to think about our approach to our own jobs and to confront our fears about what we would do if we didn't have them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Where Barbara Ehrenreich surveyed the low-wage workplace with righteous indignation in Nickel and Dimed, novelist Cheever (Famous After Death) recounts his entry-level service jobs with rueful humor. His economic security (thanks to his wife) allows him to write about ventures that otherwise would be shrouded in shame, he says, leaving him with "bragging rights as a failure," since his novels haven't sold. Not everyone will buy that posture, but Cheever manages to combine empathy and edginess in his episodic chapters. As a security guard, he follows instructions to the letter, calling the cops to report a suspicious garbage truck. On the selling floor at CompUSA, he concludes that customers often just wanted to be listened to. At the more Darwinian electronics store Nobody Beats the Wiz, he finds the job's "moral unpleasantness" always pushing that extra insurance compounded by physical privation, as employees must ask permission to use the toilet. Versions of the best chapters have already appeared in print. At the high-volume, high-quality Cos¡ Sandwich Bar in Manhattan as reported in Gourmet magazine Cheever is known as "Slow G," short for "Slow Grandpa." At Borders Books & Music as he recounted in the New York Times Book Review he writes, "My enthusiasm seemed strangely out of place, and actually alarmed many of the customers." At the Auto Mall as told in the New Yorker he learns, "When you come here, you'll be selling Ben Cheever first." He likes the work, despite the inevitable deception, suggesting that the semi-faux charm of car salesmen is much like that wielded in other social circles. "I've grown to respect the people on the other side of the counter," concludes Cheever, declaring that there is camaraderie and decency in even humble jobs. (Oct.)~Forecast: Though more of a meditation than a manifesto, this book should be a natural for talk show and other discussions.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

You've heard the moral of Cheever's tale before: never shop retail. Actually, that's only a by-the-by message of this quick-reading riff on working life in the malls of America, conceived when this boomer writer living in suburban New York comfort in the mid-1990s, rather acutely conscious of being the less-famous writing child of a celebrated practitioner of fiction had the idea that he could sell extended journalism after failing to sell the manuscript of his third novel. So off he went to work at a series of jobs he never really needed, as a guard for a nationally known security firm, salesman for a chain computer store (Apple to the discerning only), sandwichmaker at a Gourmet-approved franchised outfit, clerk at a Borders bookstore (librarians are right to snort), appliance flogger at a discount giant (discount, heck!), and, finally and most sadly, as a wannabe Toyota jockey peddling Oldsmobiles. Despite the smug tone he drops his medium-intellectual celebrity wife's name so much that she will probably regret her gig as a film critic and a constantly pushed irony button that sometimes edges over into outright class snobbery, this is a very funny and informative look at downward mobility just prior to the dot-com prosperity that's already nostalgia fodder. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries. Scott H. Silverman, Bryn Mawr Coll. Lib., PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 286 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (October 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582343268
• ISBN-13: 978-1582343266
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,843,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ehrenreich theTraveler, Cheever the Tourist, December 4, 2003

By 

takingadayoff "takingadayoff" (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Selling Ben Cheever: Back to Square One in a Service Economy (Hardcover)

This is NOT Nickel and Dimed. Cheever admits that his wife is earning enough money to support the family, so he is not going to starve if he doesn't take these low-paying jobs. Barbara Ehrenreich was a traveler in the world of poverty-level jobs, mixing it up with the natives, living as they do, as much as was possible for a successful author with a doctorate. Cheever is a tourist, sightseeing and participating as an outsider.

Cheever's book is meant, I think, to be a bit more fun than Ehrenreich's. And it is. While I admire the heck out of Ehrenreich and agree with her completely, I also appreciate looking at the light side of crappy jobs. I can remember flipping burgers and working the counter at McDonald's, and was in stiches over Cheever's stint at the sandwich shop.

If you are fortunate enough to be able to look at minimum-wage jobs from the outside, I think you'll find Selling Ben Cheever entertaining. This may not be the best book to read while you are waiting to be interviewed for your next job, though.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars On re-consideration ..., February 12, 2005

By 

John Speer (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Selling Ben Cheever: Back to Square One in a Service Economy (Hardcover)

I read the reviews here part way through listening to the book on audio, deciding that others were (perhaps) a bit harsh on him for being a "dilletante" in the workforce. Now that I've finished the book, I'm tempted to agree that he was.

I'm baffled that he got most of these jobs (for which he was clearly over-qualified) in the first place. Specifically, he is hired at Cosi and Borders in Manhattan for jobs that barely cover his train fare (after taxes). Agreed that his exits seem abrupt. And, yeah, "names have been changed ..." would have worked better than "let's call him 'Joe' ...."

To be fair, he gives the job his all when he does get hired, whether he needs the money or not. The book is fairly well written. Another case where I wish Amazon had 3.5 stars available.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cheever's Big Ticket, November 16, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Selling Ben Cheever: Back to Square One in a Service Economy (Hardcover)

How could a thoughtful book about downsizing and starting over again with entry-level jobs be so amusing? Like a wonderful comedian, Cheever makes his points with humor, and he's always willing to be the goat. But what stories he digs up along the way! I laughed, but I also got a brutally honest take on class in America -- and I learned a few tricks about buying big ticket items, too.