Mone's sardonic debut novel is a curious hybrid, a coming-of-age-cum-business novel that begins when a young man who believes himself to be the second coming of Albert Einstein takes a job with a high-flying dot-com at the height of the Internet boom. Edward is the naive first-person narrator and would-be genius who tracks his intellectual development by comparing his ideas to Einstein's in a series of cheeky opening chapters. After bypassing the traditional educational system, Edward lands a job with an e-business company called Global Leading Edge E-Business Solutions, or Gleebs for short. Never mind his lack of discernible skills-the company's entrepreneurial CEO quickly gives Edward the title of general analyst and charges him to help "advance our study of nothing." Edward succeeds remarkably well, coming up with several fluffy, conceptual projects that mirror Einstein's ideas but do next to nothing for the company. When the dot-com bubble begins to deflate, Edward's lack of productivity is noticed by his fellow employees and the company's venture capitalist, who does a one-on-one interview with Edward that reveals his total lack of tangible duties. The combination of the business parody and Edward's sly Einstein parallels make for a heady blend in the early going, but unfortunately Mone is hard-pressed to maintain his inventive conceit in the second half as the prose unravels into a patchwork of hackneyed, clumsy scenes when the company begins to bottom out. Mone is a solid writer with a flair for satire and a nice touch in his understated characterizations, but like the dot-com boom that frames his narrative, he lacks the staying power here to close out a promising idea.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Edward, a brilliant (though his IQ has always been "difficult to quantify") graduate student in particle physics, is mired in the murky depths of his dissertation. Unable to summon the "focus" urged by his advisor, he opts to take a "working sabbatical." Influenced by the fact that Einstein, with whom he feels an affinity, was publishing his greatest theories at his same age, Edward jumps to the vague position of general analyst at Gleebs (Global Leading Edge E-Business Solutions). With few concrete duties, Edward sees his success at Gleebs as "potential and possibility incarnate." "I defy definition," he encourages himself, as he dabbles with ideas such as Relativistic Concepts for the Office. When a board member wises up to the fact that Edward actually does nothing more than keep the kitchen clean, and, like others, has been hired merely to up the company's stock value, Edward decides to leave before he is fired. Mone's debut is both humorous and prophetic, echoing the ads popping up daily on television, promising e-business solutions to companies in need of a magic fix. Deborah Donovan
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