Slab Rat: A Novel [Paperback]

Ted Heller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 13, 2001

Zachary Arlen Post is an up-and-coming editor at It magazine, one of the glossiest jewels in the crown of Versailles Publishing. The son of socialite parents, Zack was educated at the right schools, is an excellent golfer....

Or maybe not.

He is really Allen Zachary Post from Long Island, a guy with a background too downmarket for someone who wants to move up the ladder at It. Despite his pose, Zack's ascent up the masthead has stalled, and his love life is complicated by two women: a cool English beauty with a hyphenated name and an eager, sweet-natured intern Zack could bring home to Mom. With the arrival of Mark Larkin, a determined, Harvard-educated editor who knows all the right moves, Zack's prospects for promotion grow dimmer. Mark seems to be the source of all of Zack's woes. Zack wishes Mark were dead.

Ted Heller has written a biting, outrageous story of how the rats that battle for dominance amid New York's skyscrapers -- or "slabs" -- survive and triumph, and the price they must pay to win.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A satirical look at the glitzy world of New York magazine publishing by a young insider, Heller's debut novel charts the progress of Zachary (Zack) Post, an overqualified underachiever with a fraudulent past. Zack is at the low end of It magazine's corporate ladder, and he is desperate to move up. Both Zack and his "friend" Willie (read: least likely to take Zack's job) are beside themselves with the arrival and meteoric ascent of New Boy Mark Larkin, a contemptible brat who cannot even work a fax machine. Larkin's inexplicable promotions set Zack and Willie scheming to sabotage him. But Zack embarks upon a series of progressively ridiculous assignments, which, unbeknownst to him, are being orchestrated by Larkin to keep him away from the office as the new star consolidates power. He thinks that Zack has too many "friends" on staff, such as the New Girl intern, Ivy Kooper (daughter of the magazine's lead counsel), and Zack's strategic marriage interest, rich Brit Leslie Usher-Soames. And Zeke's still pining away for his lost lust Marjorie Millet (the sexpot art director whom he used to shtup in Stairway B and who is now alternately shtupping both Ivy's father and, of course, Mark Larkin). Meanwhile, masochist extraordinaire Willie stops sleeping, begins talking to the walls and buys a gun, swearing to do Larkin in. Ever the rat scheming in his concrete-and-glass slab, Zack plays all the angles he can, forging alliances with powerful enemies and alienating his unsuccessful friends as he tries to get Larkin's job. Like the 1994 film Swimming with Sharks, the novel cutely depicts the full-contact politics, false loyalties and colossal waste of the Great American Office. Heller's Machiavellian comedy is a reasonably entertaining (if unoriginal) first attempt, with special appeal for publishing types. (Feb.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

If Dante were around today, hell would be measured not in circles but in cubicles. Heller's assured, darkly comic debut critiques the magazine publishing industry in much the same way that Jason Starr's Cold Caller (LJ 6/1/98) criticized telemarketing. Each magazine has one floor of a 60-story monolithic tower, and Zachary Arlen Post is a Gen-X cog in the wheel on one of these floors. Literally a self-made man--his curriculum vitae is a total fabrication--Zach has one sharp eye trained on promotion. When nemesis Mark Larkin confronts him, Zach gets caught up in office craftiness and begins to do things that even he at one time would have thought beneath him. The ensuing office warfare makes Antietam look almost mannerly, and Zach's just desserts, when finally served up, are properly Dantean. As one of his office pals might suggest for the headline of an article on this first novelist, the son of Joseph Heller--"Give 'Em (More) Heller." For all larger public libraries.
-Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO
Copyright 1999 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: 336 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (February 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684864975
• ISBN-13: 978-0684864976
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,028,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Slab Rat is a Riot!, February 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Slab Rat: A Novel (Hardcover)

Inventive, fast-paced and hysterically funny, Slab Rat traces the Machiavellian office antics of Zachery Post, an editor (and senior-editor wannabe) at a glitzy NY-based mag (It). Although the author has obviously kicked around the publishing biz, It magazine is a brilliantly-rendered any-job. The monthly editorial meetings that author Heller describes will remind you of your own job, no matter where you work: backstabbing, brown-nosing and other essential human charms are all on riotous display (sound familiar?). Meanwhile, brief excerpts from various of It magazine's stories and columns will have you in stitches.

Protagonist Post is an imposter in the literary tradition of Gatsby (but, as Post himself notes, without the mansion); passing himself off, by virtue of a heavily trumped-up resume, as one of the well-educated, moneyed young people that seem to succeed at It--a place where Euro-pretensions are an apparent prerequisite to advancement. Post's blatant (and hilariously contemptible) office and bedroom politicking, coupled with his own self-doubt and laughable failures, make him one of the most memorable anti-heroes of the last ten years. The minor characters that populate It's hallways and conference rooms are diabolically drawn and scathingly funny. This book packs a terrific one-two punch: the plot will have you up way past your bedtime and Heller's hilarious writing will have you howling.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm still cracking up., January 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Slab Rat: A Novel (Hardcover)

Slab Rat is getting a rap as a media insider's novel, which isn't entirely true: The story within is relevant to anyone who has ever worked in an office, wanted to get ahead, and wasn't sure how far he or she would go to get there.

It's also hysterical. Gags slip by, you laugh, and then a couple of days later you see something that reminds you of the book and you find yourself cracking up all over again.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hellerious!, February 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Slab Rat: A Novel (Hardcover)

Smart, sexy, and slick...this is an urban tale of publishing peril that sends you into satirical heaven. I was so sad to reach the end that I read it again and found it even smarter the second time around. Heller is smooth and clever, creating characters of moral disrepute that find warm and fuzzy places in your heart. You find yourself rooting for the reprehensible, sympathizing with the sinister, and, if you live in NY and work in publishing, wondering if this might not be better classified as non-fiction. If this is his first novel, I can't wait for the next...anyone this sharp and smooth has more to give.