On the HahaFiction shelf
Discontent
Audiobook available · 5 hr 18 min
Marisa has a management job at a Madrid advertising agency and a carefully maintained reputation for competence. She spends much of her day avoiding colleagues and actual work. A compulsory retreat threatens to expose how little lies behind the performance.
From the publisher’s blurb
“an audacious, darkly funny novel”Read the full description at Vintage / Penguin Random House description
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What makes it funny?
During an opening Zoom meeting, Marisa watches a raccoon eat birthday cake while her colleagues discuss a campaign. Asked for a deadline, she proposes one she knows they will reject, then graciously offers the date she had planned all along.
The comedy at work
Serrano gives Marisa a precise account of her own evasions: invented vacation chatter, thoughtful-looking questions and solemn notebook consultations. The office rewards these gestures, and Marisa knows exactly how to supply them. Her participation keeps the satire from letting her off the hook.
Try this if…
For readers who recognize the rituals of pointless meetings and enjoy a caustic narrator who is implicated in what she despises. Expect to spend considerable time with her dissatisfaction; that sustained resentment is part of the appeal and may also be tiring.
Good to know
Mara Faye Lethem translated the Spanish original. Drug use, sex, suicidal thinking and the aftermath of a colleague’s suicide give the office comedy a dark context.
A few distinguishing details
- A manager who excels at appearing productive
- Advertising jargon and online distraction
- A compulsory company retreat
More funny workplace comedy
Sources & further reading
- The Skinny review
Review
- Publisher
Publisher
- Publisher sample
Reading sample
- Apple Books audiobook
Book information
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