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A review by utopiastateofmind
Company by Max Barry
2.0
Unfortunately, Company was a book I found really hard to get into while reading. If you like the idea of a corporate setting which is almost self-cognizant of it's takes on office culture - then you might enjoy the first parts more than I did. While I only briefly experienced office culture, I definitely could appreciate the wry comical nature of the interactions - but also see the kernel of truth behind them. The petty office politics, the ways we are all absorbed, at the end of the day, in our own worlds. But I think the main reason why Company didn't work for me was the lack of character depth.
I am a huge fan of character driven stories and the fact is that I didn't feel like we got to know any of them particularly well. I wanted to know more about what made each of them tick, why they found themselves there. We get senses and snapshots, but it never felt substantial. And part of that might just be the point of Company - that we never really know people we spend hours with a day. But for me, that made it hard to keep my interest. That combined with the fact that the intrigue builds pretty slowly throughout the book - paired with the many POVs - made it hard for me to read a pretty long time.
I am a huge fan of character driven stories and the fact is that I didn't feel like we got to know any of them particularly well. I wanted to know more about what made each of them tick, why they found themselves there. We get senses and snapshots, but it never felt substantial. And part of that might just be the point of Company - that we never really know people we spend hours with a day. But for me, that made it hard to keep my interest. That combined with the fact that the intrigue builds pretty slowly throughout the book - paired with the many POVs - made it hard for me to read a pretty long time.