Customer Reviews

Since The Layoffs: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

Author Iain Levison accurately captures the quiet desperation that comes from losing one's job in a layoff. I should know, as I have been a downsizing victim myself. It's a devastating experience, one that has a visceral and insidious impact since you are told you are no longer worth a paycheck and adding insult to injury, you're losing your job so someone higher up can keep his. Bottom line, someone has deemed you worthless so someone else can keep his/her livelihood. Levison manages to detail this feeling with fierce honesty, illustrating the rape of a worker's dignity and the dread it begats. His focus is Jake Skowran, a laid-off loading dock manager in small-town Wisconsin, not too dissimilar to the depressed world painted by Michael Moore in "Roger & Me", his documentary about Flint, Michigan. Angry, in debt and abandoned by a cheating girlfriend, Jake doesn't give in to his depressed circumstance and instead, discovers a vocational direction that is both financially lucrative and emotionally healing. He becomes a hit man to pay the bills, but it becomes much more since from his perspective, work becomes his life, and the prospect of being out of work is to lose touch with life. Jake apparently finds his calling.

What I like most about Levison's book is his matter-of-fact attitude toward the heinous profession Jake has chose for himself. He is surprisingly pensive and calm about his new job. In fact, aside from the killings, the drama is of the more observational variety where we see Jake otherwise live his mundane everyday existence with friends and family. Levison's less-is-more style works well because this doesn't become a personal revenge tale (in fact, the boss doesn't even play a role in the story) or a socioeconomic statement about the disenfranchised. In fact, Jake's emotional detachment serves the reader to help root for him to get back on his feet and feel self-sufficient again. This stark novel feels almost like a black comedy version of Barbara Ehrenriech's non-fiction treatise on the blue-collar worker, "Nickel and Dimed" in that both capture the economic hardship of working people who are not in the position to fulfill themselves in other ways. It still seems like a most timely book to read, and even as a novel, it feels more authentic in its portrayal of blue-collar workers than a lot of books who simply observe and analyze their conditions from a distance. Highly recommended.

Not only is this book an excellent read, you really sympathize with the main character's plight and the way he gets out of it. God, I hope Iain Levison writes more like this!

This is a great read. He has just the right tone, understands people who have been laid off. Both insightful and hilarious at times. Memorable.

Loved this book, couldn't put it down until I was finished. An interesting look at one man's desperate choices after layoffs and factory closings in a small, forgotten town. Startling, funny, smart and insightful.

If I'm lucky, two books a year are books I can't - won't - will not put down.

This is one of them. This dude can flat out write. It's funny and sad and beautiful and poignant.

Write more, Iain. We'll read 'em.

I have owned and given away several copies of this book.. I think it is hilarious! there are a few favorite chapters of course.. but all in all.. what the author went thru and the way he tells the story is very unique. I really enjoy this book... as well as the other 2 by the same author, "Since the Layoffs" and "Dog eats Dog" Mr. Levison is one of my favorite authors.. and truly look forward to many more to come I hope!

This is really a fun read. The sense of humor is hilarious, but that seems to add to the sense of suspense of this story. I highly recommend this book.