The Job

Rating:
Summary: A Fast, Entertaining Read--But A Weak Ending
Review: The Job had me hooked throughout most of the story. During the course of about 80%-90% of the book I found the story to be very interesting and believable (although somewhat predictable), the characters to be credible and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. However, while Kennedy managed to maintain the fast pace to the very end, during the last 10%-20% of The Job the plot and the behavior of the key characters lost much of its credibility--thus reducing my overall evaluation from an excellent book to just a good book.

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: An interesting failure
Review: Three-quarters of a very good, sly novel about the vanity and shallowness of the yuppie lifestyle, marred by an unconvincing thriller plot in the final 1/4. Kennedy should really try his hand at a straight novel -- I don't think even he really believes in the thriller aspects of The Job.

Rating:
Summary: Predictable; I could have finished writing the story.
Review: Certainly was quick reading, but never really believed that the character was real. It read as a cookie-cutter type story with predictable results at each crisis that Ned Allen faced.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't have been smarmier
Review: It's a word that isn't in context with "yuppie America" and the influence of British life and language has crept into an American's writing. It's not a bad thing, American fiction (entertainment writing) does lack color. The plot was a testament of today's ladder-climbing society as we think it is as portrayed by Kennedy's characters. The "me" generation, void of any spiritual belief system or justice system. It was enough just to get money in the end, again that made the victims feel safe and secure. As always, Ned does it his way...and the FBI left hanging in the air.

Rating:
Summary: A rather dry read...
Review: Although this book had some interesting parts, and the story line was decent -- albeit a bit predictable, the book was still a little dry. In other words, there was very little excitement to the story. Some important element that would have made it suspenseful was missing. Unfortunately, I don't know what the element is--I just know it wasn't there. I listened to the abridged audio book version -- which is probably why I finished the book -- and the narrator didn't help matters much either. Would I recommend it? No, not if you're looking for a page-turner.

Rating:
Summary: not close to "The Big Picture"
Review: more detail on the business aspects on "the job" would have added some intrigue... rather than Ned's pathetic personal problems which grew tiresome and predictable.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as his "Big Picture" but still quite readable
Review: The only thing really amazed me during my reading was that I've never seen a sane guy could use his credit cards like this. Are there many people like him out there? I think that the answer might be yes. All in all, this is a quite sad and pathetic story about a heavily flawed person with a not quite likable and understanding wife, lousy job choices, bad decisions and goofy friends and foes. The whole story is a bit far-fetched and strung-out. Still quite readable since D.K. is a very good author who can write well if he really wants to.

Rating:
Summary: Fast read marred by cliches and sloppy plotting
Review: Gotta hand it to Douglas Kennedy. Somehow he pumps life into the minute details of the business and personal life of a salesman for a computer magazine. There is real drama in how this character wheels and deals. And it is interesting how the salesman gets over his head financially and how he screws up his career and marraige. It's not all black and white. There's a lot of gray. In other words, it's a lot like real life. The problem is that the dialogue is trite salesman-speak. That almost derails the first half of the book. The second half of the book turns into a mostly unplausible thriller as the now down-on-his luck salesman is blackmailed into being a courier for an unsavory businessman laundering money in the Bahamas. Several of the plot developments make no sense and strain belief. Kennedy has the potential to become a big time commercial author. But unless he pays more attention to critical details like realistic dialogue and fleshed out plot developments, he'll fall just short of his mark.

Rating:
Summary: 3 1/2 DAYS !
Review: ....thats how long it took me to finish this one ! A bit Grisham'ish, but being involved in sales, i could really feel what was going on. A bit predictable towards the end, but still a great read !!