Since The Layoffs: A Novel [Hardcover]

Iain Levison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

From the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, A Working Stiff’s Manifesto, comes this darkly entertaining first novel. Jake Skowran has been laid off from his job as a factory supervisor. The work he is offered is a lot less than legal, but he has little choice except to take it. He is going to carve off a piece of the economy or die trying.

"Levison is the real deal . . . bracing, hilarious and dead on."—The New York Times Book Review

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Like Donald Westlake in The Ax (1997), about an insurance executive turned hit man, Levison brings a burning rage to this accomplished debut novel. Ever since Jake Skowran lost his job when the town factory closed, he has been fending off his creditors with increasingly vitriolic rants. His longtime girlfriend has left him, and his unemployment is due to run out. So when Ken Gardocki, a backwater bookie and drug dealer, offers Jake $5,000 to kill Ken's wife, Jake accepts without hesitation. He goes on to kill three more people, including a corporate flack who hassles Jake about wearing a smock at his new minimum-wage job at the Gas 'n' Go. Levison has a wickedly sardonic sense of humor and a real feel for the disconnect between the line peddled in employee manuals and the way things actually play out in the workplace. In addition, the murder scenes are horrific--panic-laden, brutal moments of mayhem. A deep outrage over wrecked lives and towns underpins this ferociously articulate assault on corporate and personal ethics. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Iain Levison is the author of A Working Stiff’s Manifesto, an account of his postcollegiate work experience, consisting of forty-two jobs in ten years. He lives in Philadelphia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Soho Press; First Edition edition (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569473358
• ISBN-13: 978-1569473351
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.7 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,217,333 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Story!, December 1, 2003

By 

Cactus Ed (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Since The Layoffs: A Novel (Hardcover)

I bought this book when it came out last Spring and I must have read it five or six times already. A great story that is biting commentary on how the economic system we're all forced to live (and work) under is destroying our lives, country and planet. This book is extremely well-written. I highly recommend it!

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A satirical thriller, May 15, 2003

By 

Richard A. Ellis "arellis" (Mill Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Since The Layoffs: A Novel (Hardcover)

Jake, the protagonist, is a laid-off factory loading dock supervisor in a northern rust-belt city as the book opens. He has lost his girlfriend, his cable TV, his new car, and his heat has been turned off. Worst of all, he is in hock to the local bookie for $5000. Starting with this premise, Levison manages to pull off a neat trick, in combining a satirical look at the real effects of corporate "downsizing" with a suspenseful thriller. Without revealing the plot, Jake takes an unconventional career path to get himself out of the jam he is in, all the while retaining our sympathy. The real villains, the corporate execs who shut the factory for the sake of the bottom line, never make an appearance, as is only too common in real life.
While the satire is acute, Levison does not allow it to take over and become something a lot less enjoyable. The comparisons with Donald Westlake are apt, perhaps Carl Hiassen also. The writing is sharp and it will certainly keep your interest, as it did mine, with a lot of competition for my reading time right now.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lighter style than subject, May 12, 2003

By 

Dr Cathy Goodwin (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Since The Layoffs: A Novel (Hardcover)

After the factory closes, loading dock manager Jake Skowran can't get a job. His life is being repossessed by his creditors -- until old friend and book Ken Gorlocki invites him to take a lucrative part-time job. At the same time, another old friend gets him a job in a convenience store.

Jake gets carried away with his new career and some unpleasant people tend to disappear from his life. He's also turning out to be smart and resourceful. In the end, he combines his legal and illegal lives to find a new career -- not as lucrative as what he had before, but better than the alternatives.

The plot isn't new, but Iain Levison has a light-hearted style that keeps the pages turning. The hero Jake is more likeable and more believable than the hero of Donald Westlake's The Ax. And the crime scenes are creatively staged. And, to anyone following the economic news, there's a deeper meaning under the story.

I gave the book 4 stars because of the writing -- nice pacing and plot . It's not an easy book to forget. And I suspect it will inspire an awful lot of wishful thinking.