The Right Man for the Job: A Novel

by Mike Magnuson

Dewy, a black man, and his partner, Gunnar, a white Wisconsin farmboy, spend their time working as "repo men" in a tough inner-city neighborhood, until an unresponsive customer triggers a tragedy that sends Gunnar's life hurtling out of control. A first novel. $30,000 ad/promo.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction

289 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1997

Reviews

[rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've spent a good chunk of these past two weekends weeding through my bookshelves in preparation to move, picking off things that I've read once and never will read again, or which have been lingering around for years unread and uninteresting to me any longer. This book was one I received from Bookmooch about five years ago, chosen on an idle day of reading summaries of available books when I had excess points to spend and had decided that nothing else looked even halfway interesting. It moved with me from college in Pittsburgh back to my parents house in Plumstead to my apartment in Doylestown, brightening up my bookshelves but remaining unread. Did I really want to bother moving it again?

It almost went into the giveaway pile this weekend. But as I held it I thought about all of the other books I've picked up and read and loved, without publicity being the first thing to alert me of their existence (Legend of a Suicide, Elisa Albert's books, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break). I decided to take the chance and put it back on the shelf.

And then it snowed in freaking October, and the electric and heat went out for 24 hours, killing -- pun completely intended -- the marathon of The Walking Dead I had planned for this weekend and my Halloweenish mood in general. With nothing else to claim my deficient attention, I picked up the book again and read it by candlelight in two layers of clothing huddled under two blankets.


I am always looking for working-class stories that aren't trite, that are subtle but effective and moving in their politicking. This book does that. It gets how white people placate black people in the name of being "allies." How a certain type of man relates to women and how the way he treats them makes him both full of fantasy and regret. How poor decisions can shape what happens to a person, but sometimes it's simply unfortunate circumstance that makes one life more livable than another. In short: The Right Man For the Job is about the complexities of life.

The plot summary makes this book seem like it might be suspenseful. It's not, not really. It's also not even fully "about" what happens when the titular man tries to repossess that one single lady's furniture set. So ignore the summary. The book is just about this guy Gunnar, living and working an asshole blue collar repo man job in a rough part of Ohio with a woman he once convinced himself he loved. He dreams daily of the home he left back in Wisconsin, where he had another blue collar job he hated and another woman he once convinced himself he loved but who he left after eight years in a heartbeat on the fantasy of his current girlfriend.

Some extraordinary things do happen to Gunnar and because of Gunnar. But this is not a "suspenseful" book. It's much more than that. At the risk of sounding like a cornball, I'd say it's basically about being American, although there are all sorts of ways to be American and this is just one particular. I'd recommend it to anyone who is a fan of working class lit, or books about men, but especially books about working class men (for which I'll admit I have a particular bias).

Plus, a book about repossessions in poor neighborhoods is pretty much the perfect thing to read while you're feeling whiny about having to cope with the heat being out for 24 hours. It really puts things into perspective. Just saying.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked it. A good story about a few folks with no much going for them. Don't look for a lot of redemption here. Start low and finish low.

[J Pearson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an unpleasant little book to read, but not without some merits. The 1st person narrator is not a person I'd want to hang out with at all, or really be around. He's an antihero and not in any sort of charming, roguish, or charismatic way. He's a thick, morose, pouting dullard. He's a loser with few redeeming qualities and again, he's not written in a way that lets you see a better person within, despite some authorial straining to do so.

His adventures, if that is really a good descriptor, consist of driving around Columbus, Ohio, repossessing furniture from folks who live in the ghetto; musing about the longtime girlfriend he abandoned in Wisconsin shortly before their wedding, musing about a bar in upstate Wisconsin which seems to be the center of his universe, being a terrible boyfriend to the woman he dumped his old girlfriend for and with whom he moved to Ohio (although she is depicted as an awful, nagging, vile person, so much so that it's impossible to see why one would be anything other than repelled by in the first place), getting with prostitutes, and generally being terrible at his job. None of this is humorous or counter-culture. It's just kind of bleak and overcast.

Also, in the course of his job, he kills a family's dog with a cinderblock because his coworker kind of goads him into it. It's awful. He feels a bit bad about it for a couple of hours until, that same day, his girlfriend kills herself by dousing herself with gasoline and lighting herself on fire in front of him (and news cameras.) He's mostly over that by nightfall. He steals the work van and the nightly deposit and heads back to Wisconsin to have a bloody mary (with gin!?) at the old bar.

Again, it's not written in a spiky way, allowing us to see around an unreliable narrator. It's not artfully bleak or nihilistic or existentially flat and unfeeling. It's kind of mean and gray and kept me more than an arm's length away from the narrator. He's not a dude I would want to have a beer with and listen to him yarn. The narrator is a dullish, egocentric, criminal mope.

I wanted to see him suffer at the end.

It did think the setting was well done and the ins and outs of being a repo man were interesting. That is a world I knew nothing about and I would have read more of that. But after a while, even that didn't really vary. It became one note.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark, funny and sad story about a real dick. I mean this guy Gunnar, who narrates the story, is a first class jerk, but he's a well observed first class jerk, who is more than vaguely aware what he is doing is wrong. And what he is doing is repossessing furniture in a very poor and very Black part of Columbus, Ohio. He is also living with his girlfriend, who he moved to Columbus for after breaking up with his fiance a month before her wedding. And mostly he's there for the sex.

Gunnar is essentially an aimless adolescent stuck in a 20 something body. His sole friend is fellow rep man Dewey Bishop, who is large, Black, funny and completely at home in his own skin and LOVES his job.

The humor comes from their interactions with the people that they have to grab the furniture from. Here is here the novel dips into black comedy as, in one case, Dewey sits on a very large woman while Gunnar shoves a fridge out the door.

The Right Man for the Job buts its ugliness and raunchy humor out front as a thin veneer for the hopelessness that resides beneath. This is a working class novel about what it takes to survive with, hopefully, but not always, some dignity attached.

It is very well written. Your not going to get a torrent of fancy words, run on sentences or deep statements. This is a very conversational, easy to read novel, which has happens to be very precise in its word selection.

Highly recommended.

[Thomas Cannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is raw, powerful, and funny. The down on his luck guy from Wisconsin has run away from his problems and finds himself trying to collect from people behind on their rent to own payments. I read this book a long time ago, but its tone and emotions has stuck with me. The main character is not your Wisconsin dude that farms or works for the state and listens to NPR. No, this novel is about a guy you would find drinking at a local bar with his last 5 dollars on the counter. He is an antihero for sure, but Mr. Magnuson does get you to root for his success. A fun story when an author like Magnuson can pull it off.

[Mlhoganjr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnuson captures the essence of the streets of many crumbling Midwest cities well. He also presents the main character as a man who trancends poverty and unhappy relationships. Overall, this is worth reading, if not for an example of really quality modern literature, then for a good narrative on the plight of being poor, lonely and trapped in somewhere like Columbus (which, to be fair, has one or two nice parts).

[Amy Siemel · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a terrific book! I've been cleaning out my bookshelves and this little gem had been sitting around for years. A sad, funny story of a repo man in the hood, but about so much more, too. I've never read a book quite like this and I would recommend it to anyone.

[10thumbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up somewhere along the way b/c I really loved Magnuson's memoir(?) Heft on Wheels: A Field Guide to Doing a 180. Enjoyed it enough to run through it in a week, looking forward to getting back to it each evening. I guees this really should be 3.5 stars.

Reasons for 4 stars? Good fiction writing about working class folks; engaging story and characters.

Reasons for 3 stars? Ending, while good surprising also felt a bit insane; Set in Columbus, OH (and f*ck Columbus, OH... that's probably only germane to this reviewer.)

[Patricia Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

i've had the book for years and have tried on several occasions to get through it. never managed more than the first chapter though. but, these are different times and i'm bound and determined to NOT pack this book up and haul it 3000 miles. i may be wrong but i just don't think this is one of those books i'll be rereading, ever. so, final chance to finish it before i give it away.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story starts out promising with the fish out of water tale of a white repo man from the backwoods of Wisconsin dragging cribs and couches from the project houses of ghetto Cleveland. Then to the detriment of the yarn the author channels Catcher in the Rye, turning this fun book into a tragedy about an aimless drunk.

[Tom K · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book I read by this author. Pretty good.

[Cathryn Cofell]

I bought this only because I went to college with this guy and had to find out what he was up to. I was glad; it was a good read.

[Peg · Rating 2 out of 5]

A white repro man working in black inner city.

[Marti Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very different for me but engaging nonetheless. Engaging cast of oddballs - good, bad, not-s0-good, not-so-bad, and all the others. Found the longing for place to be exceptionally well written.