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Who Moved My Blackberry? The Martin Lukes Chronicles
by Lucy Kellaway with “Martin Lukes”
(Hyperion; $21.95)
It’s a law of nature, like gravity or perpetual motion: Any critically and commercially successful work will spawn legions of pale imitators. So we’re not particularly surprised by this Office knock off. Much like The Office’s David Brent, Martin Lukes is a boorish, self-centered middle manager who speaks in faddish management jargon and harbors delusions of grandeur. But that’s where the similarities end.
The Office succeeds by combining over-the-top, cringeworthy antics with moments of pathetic humanity and by populating the office with likable supporting characters with whom we can identify and share the laugh. Lukes’ offenses, however, are more tedious than amusing (sending self-help exercises to his son, offering his “ladywife” unsolicited and condescending advice), and he is nearly as flat as the pages of the book. Kellaway has not given him a single redeeming feature or spark of humanity. The format of the novel exacerbates this problem: It’s told almost entirely through e-mails and text messages sent by Lukes. Although we know who the recipients are, we never get to meet them or read their replies. Thus, we never get to sympathize with them or see a fuller version of Lukes.
The novel began as a column for Financial Times, and we can see how it could be mildly amusing in small doses. But more than 300 pages of e-mails from an uninteresting, unlikable character make us long for the excitement of a three-hour staff meeting.
How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life
by Kaavya Viswanathan
(Little, Brown & Company; $21.95)
Update: This book has been recalled by the publisher due to allegations of plagiarism. See our report in the Books section.
An ambitious, talented overachiever has worked tirelessly toward one goal but finds that goal in jeopardy when she chokes during the crucial moment. A high school geek reinvents herself as a teen queen to fit in with an elite clique and land her dreamboat crush. A good girl is assigned to help a burnout boy; animosity turns to attraction as she discovers his deeper side and he teases her out of her shell. A teen is plagued by overattentive parents trying too hard to be cool.
Viswanathan’s debut novel crams in nearly every teen movie plot of the past decade. And much like those movies, the novel is highly predictable and filled with clichés. We’ve seen enough teen flicks to know that unless someone shows up in a mask, the kids are going to be all right, so we’re never really worried about Opal’s chances of getting into Harvard or getting kissed by the right boy. Most of the characters are one-dimensional—particularly the parents, who come across as caricatures rather than people—and the incessant pop culture references are already outdated. Much as we hate to pick on a 17-year-old author, we have to fail her on this one.
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