Rating: 
Summary: An Enjoyable, Quick Read (But A Dumb Ending)
Review: I felt Kennedy did a great job of developing the characters. The glimpse into the high-stakes, fast-paced world of advertising, sales, and Manhattan life was very interesting. This is truly "Death of a Salesman" for the 90s. You will breeze through the protagonist's rise and fall; I truly pitied his character, because he could easily be me if I were to make some less than optimal (but not necessarily "bad") decisions. I must agree with many of the other reviews I read here on Amazon: the ending is bad! I had to reread the last chapter just to make sense of this ending, and it is still a stretch. It almost feels as if he was in a rush to finish the book and tried to put together this over-the-top, suspenseful, thriller ending. Problem: it just does not work.
Rating:
Summary: Moral Dilemnas Abound
Review: Moral Dilemnas Abound in this fast-paced read about an average New Yorker trapped in a bizzare situation far beyond anything even he could imagine. A likable protagonist, even though at times you want to thump him on the head and say, "Ned!! Ned!!" "Ned, WHAT are you doing?" I enjoyed this book and would reccomend it to anyone who wants to read pure entertainment...with a twist. Also, an FYI to my fellow reviewer, 'Martina,' American Airlines just happens to own 85% of all gates in the Carribean market, as well as many places the character Ned traveled to throughout the novel. As an frequent traveler, I was actually thrilled to see an author be very accurate in his information and not simply create flights that do not exist in real life.
Rating:
Summary: It's a yuppie world
Review: To sell advertising space is the hardest job in the trade. How you do it, how to survive and how to have success and what happens , when you are unable to meet targets. - Douglas Kennedy tells it all.
And he knows what he is talking about. Forget about the weekend, forget about eating and forget about your dates, this novel will steal your time.
At first, it's hard to get used to the language Douglas Kennedy chose for this book. But it's a yuppie world and so is the writing. ...
Well earned four stars.
Rating:
Summary: A Fun Read, If You Try Not to Think Too Much
Review: Douglas Kennedy is great a taking an arrogant yuppie, and bringing him down a few pegs, and does a great job here. For some reason, it's fun to see Ned Allen's high-style life fall apart, and then watch him try to hold it together. One big quibble: Any time the protagonist or anyone else flew somewhere (South or East or out of the Country) Kennedy would always mention in the book that it was an American Airlines flight. Even a flight to Cayman is on American Eagle. It was so distracting, at one point, for no reason, Ned is asked, "Are you flying Delta" and he says, "no, American." I thought maybe the airline figured into the plot later, but now, having finished the book, I'm wondering if Kennedy received a stipend from the airline! Otherwise, it was a quick, fun, page-turning read, and ironically, I finished the book while flying an American flight from Boston to LA, so maybe the subliminal messages worked!
Rating: 
Summary: A gripping page-turner about a hard-to-like protaganist
Review: "The Job" grabbed my attention and I did read it in two days. The plot was very John Grisham-like and I found myself intrigued. It was hard to like the main character, Ned Allen. Although the author tried to make him likeable, the way he treated his wife and co-worker made it hard to truly feel sorry for him. I did find the ending disappointing. At the finish of the book, I had the feeling that Kennedy had been told, "The book is too long. You've got to wind it up in the next 5 pages. Don't use too much detail."
Rating:
Summary: Reminded me of The Firm.
Review: You will like the protagonist of this novel, Ned Allen. He is a believable character. Ned starts off as a salesman that can close deals. but then he has trouble with job and family because he has ethics and sticks to them. Which makes him ready to accept a "Too good to be true" job from an old buddy. Our hero forgets that if it is too good to be true.... Ned gets trapped in the dealings of his buddy in real estate and there seems to be no way out. We watch Ned extricate himself from one impossible situation after another. The author has done his homework. For he is very accurate on his details on even flight schedules and gates. (It is as if American Airlines hired him to advertise). You will not want to put the book down. Should take you two days or less. The ending should have been written better...but still an enjoyable read.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Fans of Steven Frey (The Takeover) will love this book! It starts out centering on the daily highly pressured business of selling advertising in the computer magazine business. It then progresses to corporate takeovers, off-shore investment funds, and money laundering. The main character, Ned Allen, is one of the best salesmen there is because of his "closing" ability. His decision to follow ethical rules leads him to lose his job, his wife, and be literally thrown out to the street with no future prospects. Desperate for anything to keep him going he meets up with Jerry Schubert, a friend from his old hometown. Jerry seems to be a godsend, taking Ned in and helping with many of his prior problems (credit card debts, etc.) with ready cash and a fairly well-paying job. As usual, what seems too good to be true, is in fact that. As Ned finds out he is sucked into being a "slave" for Jerry and his shady dealings. A situation, which seems there is no way out of. I read this book in half the time it normally takes me to read a book. It is one of those difficult to put down books. I found myself stopping at the end of a chapter but being so intrigued that I needed to look ahead to the next chapter. The only distraction is that the book is written in first person. When dealing with thriller type fiction I usually don't like this technique because you know right up front that the storyteller is not going to die so some of the suspense is lost. I recently read another Kennedy book called "The Big Picture." As much as I liked that one, I think this book is superior overall.
Rating:
Summary: A well written thriller
Review: "The Job" of course echoes John Grisham's "The Firm", as earlier reviewers have correctly pointed out, but I found Mr. Kennedy's book to be a shade darker and more sinister than the Grisham novel, and it is also a notch above Grisham's prose quality-wise. The main character, Ned Allen, comes across as very human and believable, even though the over-the-top ending spoiled a lot of that credibility for me. Ned stumbles through the twists and turns of the book, barely reacting to all the massive blows aimed at him (which does make the character so sympathetic), and suddenly, in the bleakest of moments, he comes up with the grand scheme and brings down a whole network of big-money thugs? Hmmm... Otherwise, "The Job" is a very exciting read, a novel that for once really deserves the phrase "hard to put down".
Rating:
Summary: Great Read!
Review: I read the Big Picture and I thought this was even better. The story sure makes you think about enjoying what you have while you have it. Go Ned!
Rating:
Summary: Tough to Like, But Resourceful Main Character/A Quick Read
Review: The main character in this book is from the get-go, tough to like. As the novel continues, he screws up by the numbers and gets himself into deeper trouble. He is one of those men who really doesn't stop to smell the flowers and in the process, misses all the details of life that are important to him. As the book opens, Ned Allen is a Regional Sales Manager for a computer magazine. He is living the yuppie dream without the ability to pay the bill. He has a beautiful young wife who loves him, but who also accuses him of not communicating or sharing his fears, hopes and aspirations. As we get to know Ned, it seems that the only redeeming character trait that he has is his loyalty to the people who work for him. As the book continues, Ned plans on becoming a bigwig at his magazine after a German conglomerate takes over. However, plans don't work out, the Germans flip the company quickly (to the competition, no less) and the new buyer decides to quickly close the magazine. Ned is out of work and almost as quickly, out of his home and marriage, when a night of drunken carelessness leaves him with the telltale marks of illicit sex. Within hours, it seems Ned is not only jobless and homeless, but penniless as well. As he grows desperate, an old high school friend seems to step in to the rescue. But just remember, when things appear to be too good to be true, they generally are. Ned is hired to market a private equity fund. He quickly comes to realize that all is not as it appears to be. Just as quickly, he finds that his high school buddy is more sinister than altruistic and Ned realizes that his friend has him in a deadly and vice-like grip. The author Douglas Kennedy, has done a very fine job of capturing all of the tension, fear and emotion that Ned feels as he realizes that his predicament may be inescapable. But as other readers of this finely plotted and paced thriller will tell you, Ned Allen, not always likeable as a person, is more resourceful than we would suspect. Kennedy paces this story at just the right speed to move Ned along from one predicament to another. The reader finds himself beginning to sympathize with Ned and hope that he finds a way out. Because, despite his failings as an employee and a husband, Ned Allen has really done nothing to merit the problems that have been heaped on his plate. I enjoyed this book. Mr. Kennedy does a very effective job of fleshing out his characters and although I did not like Ned too much at the beginning of the book, he reminded me of John Grisham's main character in THE FIRM by book's end. This is a fast read that gets faster as the story progresses. To be sure, it is not Tolstoy, but it is an entertaining look at the world of magazine publishing, sales, and some of the shadier and more sordid sides of investment banking and high finance. There is also a well wrought description of the money laundering process and how Ned is sucked into it as an unwitting dupe. All in all, an entertaining, quick read. Give it a try.
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