Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I liked this book quite a bit, particularly the chapters on his experiences at Nobody Beats the Wiz and at "Wegman's Auto". I've always wanted to know how they trained though heinous car salesmen and now I know. There were a few minor things which bothered me though. For one thing, throughout the book, I had a hard time dialing in where Cheever was coming from in terms of his own financial situation. Take a scale from 1-10 where 1 = a desperate need to find a job out of a genuine fear of poverty and not knowing where your next meal is coming from, and 10 = an absolute lack of need to find work due to total financial security, and where the only reason to take these types of jobs is strictly as research, "for the sake of the book". Where do we put Cheever on that scale? Is he towards one of the two extremes? In the middle? I had a hard time telling and that was bothersome to me. Clearly, the other reviewers would put him much closer to the 10 end of the scale, primarily as a result of being Janet Maslin's husband (and presumably as a result of being John Cheever's son as well). And he himself admits that he's "not out of money". Nevertheless, there were plenty of instances throughout the book where I felt like he was not as close to the 10 end of the scale as some people seem to imagine. (Besides how much money can a NYT film critic make?) At least with Barbara Ehrenreich's excellent book to which this will undoubtedly be compared, you knew exactly why she was doing what she did and where she was coming. Cheever however left me guessing, although I don't think that was his intent. (I do have to add however that, to the extent he didn't need these jobs, I thought that those who criticized him for that very reason were way off-base and that such a criticism is absurd.)

Another thing that bothered me a bit was what seemed to be the totally random chronology of the book. It seemed as if, with each new chapter, his previous job has diappeared without rhyme or reaason and he's on to the next one. But what happened to the old ones? A few times we are told, but not often. One minute he's at Nobody Beats the Wiz, the next he's not. One minute he's at Border's, the next he's not. And so on, from job to job to job. How long was he at each job? Why did he leave? Which job did he have when? What periods was he unemployed altogether? (And, apropos of the previous paragraph, would it really be correct to say he ws "unemployed" at all?) All these jobs just seemed to float into and out of the ether of his life. Perhaps no one else could have cared less about this, but I wouldn't have minded a little chart which at least gave the chronology of his jobs.

Finally, I was annoyed by the way he constantly would identify someone by saying "let's call him John Doe." If he wanted to mask the identity of 75% of the people in the book, why not just say that one time at the beginning of the book, rather than using the "let's call him" technique over and over again. Anyway, these are obviously small criticisms and I recommend the book.

Page-turner may be too strong, but this book is engaging and hard to put down. Cheever is too good at story-telling; he's a master at developing character and setting scene. So it's a fun read. At the same time, this book is disturbing. Anyone counting on the security of a job needs to read this. Times have changed, and Cheever has captured it. He's ventured into the chaos of our economy with a frankness that is at once both instructive and alarming. If you're just a little bit worried about your prospects, get this one and see what you can learn...

All I can say is better Ben than me. He jumps into a bucket of ice water and stands there, again and again. There's a sort of reckless adventure in always being the new guy, trying to figure out how the workplace, well, works.
Working a short stint as a car salesman seems to be a great education for being a savvy car buyer in the future.
//Another thing that interested me was his relationship to his father's fame, how he had to deal with that over and over.(neat that the son of Saul Bellow helped get the book published)

I have the impression that "Selling Ben Cheever" was pitched as being timely, for it was written in the mid-1990's when downsizing lead to massive layoffs of white-collar workers. "... That's the American dream, then: half nightmare. The song: `America the beautiful'. The game: musical chairs. The tempo has never been so frantic."

Cheever's working title was "Square One," a perfect title given the subsequent travails of some of those downsized. Since most Americans are largely defined by their work, when one of us is knocked off his pedestal - particularly one of the taller models adopted by the management- and executive-class - the victim is both stunned and set adrift. Those who are over 45 are often unable to regain their lofty perches and instead must indeed start over.

In his late forties, Cheever decided he was one of these victims. He claims his lifetime output of three not-very-successful novels qualify him as a bust, at least as a writer; plus he was laid off from a high-paying executive position at Reader's Digest. While his fall is cushioned by having a successful spouse (and probably royalties from his father's books), the pain is nonetheless real. "Work is about identity almost as much as it's about cash. People without jobs are people without status. The unemployment rate is universally accepted as a misery quotient."

So Ben Cheever becomes the George Plimpton of the middle-aged unemployed white collar worker. He takes a variety of jobs: security guard, sandwich maker, and salesman. Most of the book is really a collection of insights into life on the "other side of the counter," a behind-the-scenes peek into the world of those working for the minimum wage or on commission. My favorite chapters were about when he worked at CompUSA and then as a car salesman, for they illuminate the darker areas of businesses we all must venture into as customers.

In fact, far from being a depressing story relevant only to a demographic not even TV cares about, "Selling Ben Cheever" is highly entertaining and brimming with insights valuable to readers of all ages and economic status.

It's also exhibits some inspired writing. The fruit has not fallen far from the tree.

If this book had been a magazine article, it would have been excellent. As it stands, though, I found it really hard to get through the last hundred pages or so. Cheever tells a few amusing anecdotes, and he has some insightful comments -- but there is not enough substance to justify writing an entire book.

Here's the plot -- rich guy decides to dabble in the world of work with the rest of us and realizes it isn't pleasant. Too long. Too pompous...

"Working Stiff's Manifesto : A Memoir" by Iain Levison was a much better book.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is especially timely and relevant in our present economy - one in which down-sizing and lay-offs have become the norm and it becomes increasingly difficult for those who have lost their jobs to secure employment. After "surviving" several lay-offs, my husband had a number of experiences that paralleled those of Ben Cheever. I was particularly impressed with his depiction of the car sales "game" and how he found himself caught up in it.

Ben Cheever is able to write in a manner that is both thought-provoking and witty. This book is definitely worth a read!