The Deep Whatsis
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- 5,49 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
A gripping and hilarious satire of hipsters, consumerism, contemporary art, for fans of Bret Easton Ellis and Don Delillo. When a successful Advertising Executive meets a mischievous intern, his whole sensational existence begins to crumble around him.
Eric Nye, a Chief Idea Officer at a New York advertising agency, is the ultimate corporate success story. Ruthless, talented and young, his employers pay him an extortionate amount of money to manage the ‘downsizing’ of their company, which entails firing dozens of longtime employees before their pensions kick in.
It’s only when he meets ‘Intern’ that cracks begin to show in his seemingly triumphant existence. Eric could have ‘Intern’ any time he wants her. So why hasn’t he? And why can’t he stop thinking about her. Before long, what begins as sexual frustration becomes an existential crisis that causes Eric to question his careers, his relationships, even his sanity.
Mattei’s addictive debut follows its anti-hero’s quest for contemporary self-identity in a toxic corporate world.
Reviews
‘With zingy, hilarious glee, Peter Mattei takes a sharp stick and pokes it at many deserving underbellies: the puffery of corporate America; hipsters, yoga dudes, and the general pretentiousness of north Brooklyn; and many more. The Deep Whatsis is a provocative, darkly subversive, deeply satisfying novel.’ – Kate Christensen, winner of the 200 Pen/Faulkner Award and author of The Astral
‘For a certain breed of asshole in the creative industries, The Deep Whatsis will read as a life guide. For everyone else, Peter Mattei's well-observed, deeply funny, and perfectly pitched satire is a gift.’ NIVEN GOVINDEN
About the author
PETER MATTEI is a writer and director working in both theater and film, and has written pilots for HBO and other networks. Love in the Time of Money was his first feature film, which he wrote and directed. The script was developed at the Sundance Filmmakers Lab in 1998, and was inspired by Arthur Schnitzler’s play La Ronde. He lives in Brooklyn.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Eric Nye, the conceited, perpetually titillated "chief idea officer" of a New York ad agency, fashions himself an artist but in reality earns his living firing people, in Mattei's morbidly satiric look at corporate culture at the crossroads of art and consumerism. An art snob and metrosexual, Nye relishes fine things his "Dalai Lama Edition Tibetan" rug, expensive Oma Blue Fin sushi, and now an intern with a face like "God smiling on sunshine." After a night with her becomes a prolonged crush, Nye finds himself unable to resist her stalkerlike infatuation and begins to push the limits of his power. When the intern shows up with a conspicuous shiner, "HR Lady," normally Nye's partner in crime, threatens to end the fun and go to the boss, "deranged pit bull" Barry Spinotti. It will take some ruthlessness and deft schmoozing for Nye to escape. When not cultivating his "Milgram-esque biosphere of doom" at work, Nye spends his time tormenting an old friend, lambasting Williamsburg's "fashionable white... little fishies," and indulging in prescription drugs. In this debut, Mattei serves up a rampant critique of haute New York society, but a frustratingly conventional finale makes you wonder if Nye has learned anything at all.
