Fat Bald Jeff
A Novel
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- ¥1,000
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- ¥1,000
発行者による作品情報
"A slacker hell [with] a disgruntled, wisecracking protagonist . . . A hilarious send-up of hippies and hipsters" from the author of Permanent Record (Kirkus Reviews).
Addie Prewitt is a copyeditor for the National Association of Libraries. When her boss, the repulsive Coddles, heaps another new project on her department—with no additional remuneration naturally—she decides she's had enough. While spending her days battling with her roommate about whether Black Sabbath or Neil Diamond will occupy the turntable and her nights beating her overeager suitor away from the door of her boudoir, Addie discovers a piece of vile pornography in Coddles's dry cleaning. Finally, she has the means to retaliate.
Meanwhile, Fat Bald Jeff, the tech-support guy who has to cope with her mechanical self-sabotage, turns out to be even more disaffected than she, and they hatch the ultimate plan to give the pigs some of their own medicine. With a surreal wit and a keen eye that bring to mind Lily Tomlin set loose in Dilbert-world, Fat Bald Jeff is a sharp satire and a paean to the petty humiliations of workers everywhere.
"Stella provides a lot of freshly imagined fun . . . There are so many funny lines and scenes that even librarians may like it. As for the lumpen—they'll love it." —San Francisco Chronicle
"Warm the pockets of your heart watching this bereft waif find a little happiness in life." —Mademoiselle
"Amusing . . . caustic . . . entertaining . . . Read on company time!" —US Weekly
"A fun, harmless, and quick read. Don't look for inspiration, just amusement." —Booklist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Anyone who has worked in a cubicle will be drawn to this paean to the overworked, underpaid drone, but Stella's debut fails the performance evaluation. First, communication skills: it mistakenly employs a navel-gazing, deeply misanthropic heroine whose superficiality rivals that of Bridget Jones and Ally McBeal combined. By the time Addie Prewitt, a 26-year-old copy editor at the National Association of Libraries in Chicago, finds her narrative voice, this long short story is over. Second, teamwork: the characters are so over-the-top from Addie's Deep Purple loving roommate Val Wayne Newton to tech support co-worker Fat Bald Jeff that they continually steal the spotlight, the equivalent here of throwing a stapler into the assembly line. Third, productivity: more than two-thirds of the book passes before Addie takes decisive action. She and Jeff pool their respective writing and programming talents to get back at the slimeball management. Their naughty rebellion and the chaos it inspires are the strongest plotlines; unfortunately, Stella insists on dragging Addie back to her sentimental family troubles, which do not have any direct bearing on the final outcome. Fourth, follow-through: Addie's relationship to her hippie parents is like a quilt; every now and then she offers a new patch of history, but by story's end, it looks like the emperor's new clothes. And as for her sugar-daddy boyfriend (the obviously named Martin Lemming), he is a transparent plot device, not a fully developed character. All of these problems could have been more easily overlooked if the promised humor was sure and natural, but instead it is inconsistent and forced. The best bookmark for this novel is a pink slip.
