Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: I never buy new fiction, but I happened upon this one and read just the first few pages. I laughed out loud in the middle of the store! I'm not even finished reading it, and it's one of the funniest things i've ever read. Working in corporate America (well, whether it be America, the UK, wherever), I totally understand these emails! Buy this book!
Rating: 
Summary: I'm passing this around at work.
Review: A very fun little novel entirely of composed of fictional e-mails inside a fictional ad agency in London. Despite the almost total incompetence and scheming of most of the staff of the ad agency, they have a bid on one of the largest campaigns ever; a Coca-Cola promo. I was tempted to start labeling the characters with people from work, but as the novel progressed, I was really afraid to. The best part, though, is the author bio: "Matt Beaumont worked at several London advertising firms before he sold his first novel. In anticipation of the publication of in the United States and United Kingdom in Fall 2000, he is taking a break from corporate life." I'd imagine that he has to!
Rating:
Summary: Why don't more people know about this book?
Review: I literally fell across 'e' while looking for 'Syrup' by Maxx Barry...Matt Beaumont's first novel stood next to it alphabetically. Just got off a Dulles-to-SFO flight and confirmed that these 346 pages can be devoured in one sitting. I must have looked like a complete whacko sitting in my seat with tears of laughter running down my cheeks. Folks, this may be the funniest book you ever read bar none. And amazingly, it is told completely in e-mail format. Takes you about 10 pages to get used to it, but after that it flows smooth and easy. Who would have thought that such complete character development was possible via e-mail dialogue? By the end of the book, you could show me 10 of these missives and I could identify the author of each one. Beaumont is just amazingly creative in this effort. The groundwork he lays for the intricate e-mail exchanges is breathtaking. Just one character to watch out for (among many): Simon Horne, head of Creative Services. A completely amazing creation...all the more because Beaumont has no doubt drawn him from his experiences in the advertising industry. I feel the need to spread the word about this great book.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious
Review: The cover of the book caught my eye, and I took a look at it. I'm glad I did. I am a person who participates in a lot of mailing lists, and as you can see from other reviews, this focuses on the e-mail within a company. Thus, it was right up my alley. I found myself chuckling often. Some of the best parts are when one e-mail ("e" for short) is sent/read, then the next e has someone else talking about the repurcussions of what was said. The back stabbing and two-facedness of it all is wonderful. And for those who have read it, just how long does it take to fix a printer cable? As previously mentioned, this is a pretty quick read, but well worth the money. Buy this book. You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Very funny... dangerously close to the bone!
Review: There have been a number of books in a similar genre now: consisting entirely of emails and in which the reader eavesdrops on what should be private correspondence. This, however, is the first to have held my interest. I thought at first that a 'cast list', or Shakespearean _dramatis personae_, would have been a useful addition to the book, since I was having difficulty keeping track of who was who. But, after a chapter or so, it became much easier. The cast is full of larger-than-life characters; secretaries who judge their status by that of their bosses; copywriters who spend as much of the day as they can in the nearest bar talking about how crap their last campaign was; a creative director who is a big-headed idiot, and a managing director who can't figure out how to send email correctly, and so ends up copying everything to a Finnish CEO he detests. The Coke ad campaign acts as a backdrop for some crazy shenanigans; lots of backstabbing, plotting, intrigue, two-faced behaviour and even a bit of sexual impropriety (which gets filmed and exposed in a very public manner... ;)). Not forgetting Scandinavia's finest current pop export, Aqua, who play a minor supporting role. This is a quick read, but certainly enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: A book for the boss
Review: e is brilliant. This book is realistic enough to astonish and hilarious enough to have me laughing out loud on the train. It is brain candy for the cyber-addicted. "e" should be read by anyone who thinks their job is more important than their real life. The author has improved on the Bridget Jones idea. Thank you Matt Beaumont.
Rating: 
Summary: eeeeeasy
Review: If you're in an airport, need something lite, entertaining and with a trace of plot, pick this one up. Keywords: microsoft outlook, how to put your book together and get a job in advertising, the dozens (brit style).
Rating:
Summary: You've got mail (whether you like it or not)
Review: I read this book cover to cover in one sitting one evening. It consists solely of the emails sent between a fictional London based Ad firm and some of it's suppliers. The faint praise and petty politics of the employeees of the firm are bared through the email system - if wires could talk, in this book they do. The touch is light enough to raise a smile and perhaps a titter every now and then without it being quite a rollercoaster of fun. Intriguing to think of all the evidence of schmoozing and damning lying within the corporate email system. This book demonstrates nicely what gems lie within the office LAN. Undoubtedly truth is stranger than even this at times warped fictional account.
Rating:
Summary: e-Mazing - Maybe......
Review: "e" is a good book - an easy one to devour in one or two sittings, a great beach companion. The book is written consisting entirley of emails between employees at an Ad agency. A new approach to writing (as far as I know) and not entirely unsuccessful. The charcter development is good. I got a real feeling of hate/love for some of them. Although in the beginning I had to keep turning back to previous pages to see who had written what to whom. I would warn that there is a lot of English-ness in this book for US readers. It weaves a lot of the story around famous english/european people who most Americans will never have heard of - "Little & Large", "Reeves & Mortimer", "Gloria Hunniford" etc. Overall a good book if you have a few hours to kill on a plane, beach, car ride.
Rating:
Summary: Elightful
Review: This is the first novel to be composed entirely of e mail. Does it live up to the ideals of the novel of letters? Is it another Liaisons Dangereuses? Well, yes and no. The whole point of the billet doux in the Gothic novel of letters was that they were meant to be secret. E features a CEO who manages to send all his e correspondence to his opposite number in Finland, the ever chirpy Pertti van Helden. Passions do run high however, especially since the CEO of Miller Shanks UK thinks he's Stalin and the Creative Director of this Ad Agency thinks he's a rocket scientist. Hurled into this frenzy is the competition to win the next contract from the makers of the biggest soft drink in all the world. Add a pair of lost knickers, and the nerd in the accounts department, and you have got E. This novel has a great deal of authenticity about it. And so it should, since the author's blurb claims that he's been fired by some of London's leading Ad agencies. However, it's so authentic, that it's almost as if you're reading your own e mails at work, with all the boring ones edited out. There is a quite discernible narrative flow, as you follow the lives of the various Miller Shanks e mail correspondents. This sense of eavesdropping is quite addictive, almost as intrusive as the Big Brother house, and you can be sure that it's the kind of place where there'll always be a Sony minicam in the office to capture you at your most embarrassing moments. In the end though, it seems as though Beaumont's following quite a traditional narrative form in terms of the endless battle between good and incompetence dressed up as evil. Although, there is a hint that the pigs do start the resemble the farmers, as they did in Orwell's 'Animal Farm'. The tone of this novel, however, is mostly that of sardonic wit. Beaumont is an excellent comic writer, and it's this, more than anything, which keeps you reading. I just loved how all the characters unwittingly revealed their true nature in prose (I reckon Liam could be Beaumont's alter ego). There are excellent characters, like Pinki Fallon and the irrepressible Nigel Godley, but I think Simon Horne just takes the biscuit. He's certainly taking something. All in all, this is a very enjoyable and witty debut. Matt Beaumont has successfully marketed himself. But what for the next campaign? E2?
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