Karen Woo
You know, no one from the staff nor the commentariat has yet even mentioned Karen Woo. In the early parts of the book she comes across as such a strong, even dominant presence, whether by aggressively chiding incompetent co-workers, or instigating the whole Janine-in-the-ball-pit episode.

I would say that "them" is anyone who dares to step, or indeed is forcibly pushed outside the confines of "we." When Chris Yop gets fired, he desperately tries to cling to his group role, but h'e viewed from then on as an outsider, an alien. Tom Mota becomes an active threat to "we" after his termination. In fact, all…

In hindsight, I think I overreached by suggesting that "We" were SINGULARLY responsible for the loss of their jobs, and for creating culture that brought on the dot com crash. Certainly there were many more factors at play than just lazy, overcompensated white-collar professionals. I still think that "We" is totally…

No, I don't think the book would have been amounted to little more than a well-written blog if Tom's Return and Lynn's Cancer had been excluded from its pages. I found that one of Ferris' most notable achievements was to subtly incorporate an important turning point in American history as the novel's background: the…

I'm with you on the artificial drama comment, Rowan. I'm waiting to see what the staffers make of that idea, assuming that they address it.

@ Alternative Folky: My impression was that once removed from the context that unified them as a group (working at that ad agency), the group members suddenly were thrown into relief as distinct individuals. Benny, Jim, Hank, Janine, they all become much more discernible as people in the closing pages of the book, now…

So can we look forward to a MYOF write-up of Sympathy for Delicious in 6-8 months' time?

Was the distancing effect of the "we" voice a negative for you guys? It wasn't for me; the myopic focus of the "we" voice on job security and office gossip prevents the book's characters from forging truly meaningful relationships with each other, which is reflected in the reader being prevented from having a…

The first-person plural was completely successful, in my estimation. He's telling the story of a community, albeit an unhealthy and disintegrating one, and the chronic irresponsibility and passivity of "We" in the story is a telling indictment of that office culture. How many times do "we" take intiative, rather than…

I remember Naveen Andrews as being dispiritingly lame in Planet Terror. He might win in a slap-fight against Roger Moore, but that's hardly a qualification for Bond.

I read somewhere that John Phillips once got kicked out of Keith Richards' house for being too out of control. For that reason alone, I'm inclined to believe that John Phillips was capable of anything, including long-term incest.

I have consciously avoided going to the Olive Garden ever since that commercial first aired…

Dear Lord, thank you for this bizarre/awesome/hilarious/embarrassing/informative/glorious album.

Swibble, you are not alone in looking to AVBookClub week as a monthly highlight; this is far and away my favorite feature of the AVClub, and I'm consistently grateful not only for being steered towards books that I would otherwise never have read, but also for having a chance to share my own longwinded, poorly…

Brakmaster,

I don't think I can get on board with the PTSD thesis. What would have Muldrow seen before the events of this book that would have driven him so far off the mental map?

I mean, according to Muldrow, hasn't he "won" by the end of the book? He has accomplished what he set out to do, against incredible odds, and driven himself as far into an animalistic, purely ego-fed state as a man can go.

Maybe I'm not up on my Buddhism, but I can't imagine a more flagrantly un-Buddhist thing to do then to sell out a refugee you've given sanctuary to in order to incur some sort of short-term material gain. That's like a Christian pastor declaring that Jesus wants you to make as much money as you can…

Donna, I checked into the book before I left for work this morning and found that same passage. I have to say though, doesn't p. 274 negate your premise?

I think that swibble repairman's right: Muldrow's romanticization of his own childhood gets projected onto any other children he encounters, be they human or animals.