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The Deep Whatsis
A gripping and hilarious satire of hipsters, consumerism, contemporary art and urban culture featuring a lost soul who navigates a toxic corporate world and, against all odds, stumbles toward redemption
Meet Eric Nye: hipster, player, philosopher, drunk, sociopath. A ruthless, young Chief Idea Officer at a New York City–based ad agency, Eric is in charge of downsizing his department, which entails firing dozens of long-time employees before their pensions kick in. In his free time, he guzzles the finest Sancerre, balances a hodgepodge of prescription pills, obsesses over his lavish furnishings and chases women.
One day, he meets Intern, whose name he can’t remember—it might be Megan or Caitlin or Sari—at a bar in Bushwick. After a few drunken sexual encounters with her, he loses his appetite for food—and seems to be losing his mind, too. Is she in love with him, or is she stalking him? Will she be the cause of his downfall or the cure for his sociopathic tendencies?
A timely meditation on the inherent absurdity of corporatism and our ubiquitous culture of branding, The Deep Whatsis follows a brilliant anti-hero’s quest for contemporary self-identity, with echoes of American Psycho, Cosmopolis and Fight Club.
Meet Eric Nye: hipster, player, philosopher, drunk, sociopath. A ruthless, young Chief Idea Officer at a New York City–based ad agency, Eric is in charge of downsizing his department, which entails firing dozens of long-time employees before their pensions kick in. In his free time, he guzzles the finest Sancerre, balances a hodgepodge of prescription pills, obsesses over his lavish furnishings and chases women.
One day, he meets Intern, whose name he can’t remember—it might be Megan or Caitlin or Sari—at a bar in Bushwick. After a few drunken sexual encounters with her, he loses his appetite for food—and seems to be losing his mind, too. Is she in love with him, or is she stalking him? Will she be the cause of his downfall or the cure for his sociopathic tendencies?
A timely meditation on the inherent absurdity of corporatism and our ubiquitous culture of branding, The Deep Whatsis follows a brilliant anti-hero’s quest for contemporary self-identity, with echoes of American Psycho, Cosmopolis and Fight Club.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
4 people are currently reading
310 people want to read
About the author
Peter Mattei
7 books4 followersPeter Mattei is a novelist, playwright, filmmaker, and writer for television and film. His award-winning plays have been staged in various theaters across the country to critical acclaim, and his first feature film, Love in the Time of Money, was developed at the Sundance Directors Lab and produced by Robert Redford. He’s created and written original series pilots for HBO, CBS, ABC, FOX, and other networks. He splits his time between Brooklyn, upstate New York, and Austin, Texas.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
June 7, 2013
Brilliant satire of consumerism, popular culture, hipsters, Brooklyn, music and the advertising world: there hasn't been anything that so sharply captures and skewers the current zeitgeist since American Psycho and Fight Club. Getting an advance reading copy of a book this brilliant from a debut novelist makes the low pay and long hours of working in the book industry worthwhile (seriously).
June 29, 2025
Main character is an awful person and the reader develops no empathy for him as he self destructs. Social commentary on branding and materialism or just another male character getting infatuated with someone 20 years younger?
November 10, 2017
I discussed The Deep Whatsis alongside Diary of an Oxygen Thief over on OTC in a venal men two-fer. It's a very long discussion so I'm sharing a snippet of it below. If you are interested in the whole shebang, have a look over on OTC. For those who prefer a briefer overview, here's a bit from my discussion.
I like unrepentant assholes. Don’t get me wrong – redemption arcs have their place and can be enjoyable, but after a while I tire of the trope of callow men with some measure of success deciding that their lives are empty and meaningless and that their chosen work is unsatisfying and that maybe, just maybe, they can be better men. If the catalyst for change is the presence of a manic pixie dream girl, all the better for the formula.
It’s jaded to think that this formula got hijacked from the early successful Palahniuk novels but, yeah, many books told from the perspective of a male protagonist who is sick of his immoral job, who meets an outsider woman and experiences a strong philosophical shift have the aura of Fight Club about them. I mean, it’s a common trope but perhaps I see it clearer after Palahniuk did it so much better. The Deep Whatsis doesn’t have a Tyler Durden twist and is almost 99% non-violent, but it follows the script and at the end left me feeling like I really needed the protagonist to burn something to the ground because otherwise this book is more or less just a version of several George Clooney movies, like Up in the Air, where the lovable rogue discovers he’s an asshole and learns from the experience and it’s all really heartwarming.
And that’s well and good to a point but sometimes you just want a self-aware asshole to suffer without trying to become a better man.
The Deep Whatsis is the story of Eric Nye, a “Chief Idea Officer” at an advertising agency. That job title is deceptive because what he really does is fire people and make it seem like a really good idea, like if someone ran Al “Chainsaw’ Dunlap, a sociopath if there ever was one, through a Park Slope hipster blender and poured him into a Jello mode constructed by Bret Easton Ellis, with Martin Amis consulting.
Just to be clear: The Deep Whatsis is not a bad novel. I enjoyed reading it. It was entertaining. But when I can easily describe it using so many specific cultural references, it’s hard not to see it as less than original in idea and execution.
Eric is a prick who is actively engaged in the worst sort of corporate cruelty. He’s the person whose back will be against the wall when the revolution is televised. He’s a stereotype – all the characters in this book are stereotypes, and that is why the redemption arc in this book isn’t particularly compelling. Eric Nye callously deprives people of their jobs with little concern for what will happen to them, he is part of a young, monied elite that spends carelessly, guzzles alcohol, drugs and name brands with a ferocious thirst, and he is very clever, handsome and witty. That he has a self-conscious awareness of his essential horribleness is supposed to make him more likable and it actually works because had Eric not known he is a piece of shit, this novel would have been unbearable.
But then enters an intern whose name I can never remember but I’ll look it up again in a minute. Her name really isn’t that important because she’s just a plot device. She cleans Eric’s pipes and he develops an obsession with her as he staggers through his job and social life, and, like when “Jack” encounters Marla in Fight Club, things begin to change for Eric. The impetus for change is unlikely because Eric knows very well he is a despicable human being who fires coworkers so rich people can get richer. He delights in the head games he plays with long-time employees whose lives and careers will never recover when he fires them. Sabine, the pixie girl he falls for, is a borderline personality case who evidently gives amazing blowjobs, is scattered, unstable, and her appeal is never really clear for the reader, but a novel like this cannot exist without a completely deranged and messy girl. The power of DBT-therapy drop outs who manage to captivate even the richest man who can attract the most attractive (and presumably well-medicated) women in the world is becoming such a common literary and cinematic trope that it shouldn’t annoy me as much as it does, but fucking Sabine marks a change in how Eric perceives himself and the morality of his life.
And without spoiling it too much, Eric changes and slides neatly from the role of anti-hero you love to hate into uncomplicated Earnest Man. It is what it is and had Mattei’s writing not been on the mark, the work of an equally self-aware author who clearly knows more about the advertising industry than I could safely absorb without needing someone to punch me savagely in the face, this book would have been just so much pablum, bordering on a romance novel with a male protagonist. Mattei’s prose reflects the glibness of the subject matter yet can also effectively evoke empathy for Eric when he has his long dark seconds of the soul. We need these bones Mattei throws us because navigating Eric Nye is difficult for those of us whose shirts are blue and whose blood has a lovely Red hue.
I like unrepentant assholes. Don’t get me wrong – redemption arcs have their place and can be enjoyable, but after a while I tire of the trope of callow men with some measure of success deciding that their lives are empty and meaningless and that their chosen work is unsatisfying and that maybe, just maybe, they can be better men. If the catalyst for change is the presence of a manic pixie dream girl, all the better for the formula.
It’s jaded to think that this formula got hijacked from the early successful Palahniuk novels but, yeah, many books told from the perspective of a male protagonist who is sick of his immoral job, who meets an outsider woman and experiences a strong philosophical shift have the aura of Fight Club about them. I mean, it’s a common trope but perhaps I see it clearer after Palahniuk did it so much better. The Deep Whatsis doesn’t have a Tyler Durden twist and is almost 99% non-violent, but it follows the script and at the end left me feeling like I really needed the protagonist to burn something to the ground because otherwise this book is more or less just a version of several George Clooney movies, like Up in the Air, where the lovable rogue discovers he’s an asshole and learns from the experience and it’s all really heartwarming.
And that’s well and good to a point but sometimes you just want a self-aware asshole to suffer without trying to become a better man.
The Deep Whatsis is the story of Eric Nye, a “Chief Idea Officer” at an advertising agency. That job title is deceptive because what he really does is fire people and make it seem like a really good idea, like if someone ran Al “Chainsaw’ Dunlap, a sociopath if there ever was one, through a Park Slope hipster blender and poured him into a Jello mode constructed by Bret Easton Ellis, with Martin Amis consulting.
Just to be clear: The Deep Whatsis is not a bad novel. I enjoyed reading it. It was entertaining. But when I can easily describe it using so many specific cultural references, it’s hard not to see it as less than original in idea and execution.
Eric is a prick who is actively engaged in the worst sort of corporate cruelty. He’s the person whose back will be against the wall when the revolution is televised. He’s a stereotype – all the characters in this book are stereotypes, and that is why the redemption arc in this book isn’t particularly compelling. Eric Nye callously deprives people of their jobs with little concern for what will happen to them, he is part of a young, monied elite that spends carelessly, guzzles alcohol, drugs and name brands with a ferocious thirst, and he is very clever, handsome and witty. That he has a self-conscious awareness of his essential horribleness is supposed to make him more likable and it actually works because had Eric not known he is a piece of shit, this novel would have been unbearable.
But then enters an intern whose name I can never remember but I’ll look it up again in a minute. Her name really isn’t that important because she’s just a plot device. She cleans Eric’s pipes and he develops an obsession with her as he staggers through his job and social life, and, like when “Jack” encounters Marla in Fight Club, things begin to change for Eric. The impetus for change is unlikely because Eric knows very well he is a despicable human being who fires coworkers so rich people can get richer. He delights in the head games he plays with long-time employees whose lives and careers will never recover when he fires them. Sabine, the pixie girl he falls for, is a borderline personality case who evidently gives amazing blowjobs, is scattered, unstable, and her appeal is never really clear for the reader, but a novel like this cannot exist without a completely deranged and messy girl. The power of DBT-therapy drop outs who manage to captivate even the richest man who can attract the most attractive (and presumably well-medicated) women in the world is becoming such a common literary and cinematic trope that it shouldn’t annoy me as much as it does, but fucking Sabine marks a change in how Eric perceives himself and the morality of his life.
And without spoiling it too much, Eric changes and slides neatly from the role of anti-hero you love to hate into uncomplicated Earnest Man. It is what it is and had Mattei’s writing not been on the mark, the work of an equally self-aware author who clearly knows more about the advertising industry than I could safely absorb without needing someone to punch me savagely in the face, this book would have been just so much pablum, bordering on a romance novel with a male protagonist. Mattei’s prose reflects the glibness of the subject matter yet can also effectively evoke empathy for Eric when he has his long dark seconds of the soul. We need these bones Mattei throws us because navigating Eric Nye is difficult for those of us whose shirts are blue and whose blood has a lovely Red hue.
April 29, 2013
Thank you for the ARC of The Deep Whatsis from Other Press via Net Gallery.
Where do I begin?? This book is very different from the typical book I read! Eric Nye is an a$!hole! He does drugs, treats people like crap, and I wonder if he knows the truth from all of the lies that he says on a daily basis . The one thing that kept me reading, was Sabine (Sabi). She is a young intern that Eric takes home one night and he somehow falls in love with her. Their interactions between the two characters are way too few throughout the book and only one of the three times they are together, the author gives just enough to let the reader see why Eric has fallen for her.
Eric Nye is rich, powerful, and messed up. He lives the lonely life of no friends and spends most hours firing people at his current job. He is however, funny and keeps the reader reading to find out what happens to him. I was constantly questioning if what he said was the truth and was he really paranoid (from all of the drugs) or were things really happening the way they unfolded in the story. I really wish the author had given Sabine more story time and let us see more of what happened when they were together.
There were times where Eric went off and rambled on about his past or about current designers and what people were wearing. I did not love the book, however I did not hate it. There is a good plot and the author leaves the book with the possibility of a sequel. I would read the second book, but would hope for more of the love story between Eric and Sabine.
I give this book two and a half stars. I would rate it higher if it had focused more on the relationship of Eric and Sabi. I do like Eric and found myself rooting for him and even felt sorry for him at times. I am still not sure about the title. I think it is related to the one event where the author explained what was happening between the two characters or if it is fro Eric saying, "It is what it is." Not sure, I really do not are for the title.
Where do I begin?? This book is very different from the typical book I read! Eric Nye is an a$!hole! He does drugs, treats people like crap, and I wonder if he knows the truth from all of the lies that he says on a daily basis . The one thing that kept me reading, was Sabine (Sabi). She is a young intern that Eric takes home one night and he somehow falls in love with her. Their interactions between the two characters are way too few throughout the book and only one of the three times they are together, the author gives just enough to let the reader see why Eric has fallen for her.
Eric Nye is rich, powerful, and messed up. He lives the lonely life of no friends and spends most hours firing people at his current job. He is however, funny and keeps the reader reading to find out what happens to him. I was constantly questioning if what he said was the truth and was he really paranoid (from all of the drugs) or were things really happening the way they unfolded in the story. I really wish the author had given Sabine more story time and let us see more of what happened when they were together.
There were times where Eric went off and rambled on about his past or about current designers and what people were wearing. I did not love the book, however I did not hate it. There is a good plot and the author leaves the book with the possibility of a sequel. I would read the second book, but would hope for more of the love story between Eric and Sabine.
I give this book two and a half stars. I would rate it higher if it had focused more on the relationship of Eric and Sabi. I do like Eric and found myself rooting for him and even felt sorry for him at times. I am still not sure about the title. I think it is related to the one event where the author explained what was happening between the two characters or if it is fro Eric saying, "It is what it is." Not sure, I really do not are for the title.
August 12, 2013
Mattei has talent. His writing style lopes along, giving enough realistic descriptions, and funny dialogue, and narrative threads to keep you interested. You want to know what is going to happen to the sociopath corporate hack, Eric Nye, hired by the ad agency to cut the payroll in half by firing over 40 people. Once his mission is complete, what will become of him? Is the girl he thinks he is falling in love with harassing him or is he harassing her? Is he just another unreliable narrator having a nervous breakdown, crushed by the materialistic culture he is paid to tout?
I admire the way Mattie creates suspense with each firing, and the characterization of the HR person who must accompany him. It is poignant when one of the victims who must be fired tries to negotiate her way to stay on in the firm. In fact, I liked the realistic bits that were allowed to leak out better than the edgy hipster bits. It is a relief when Eric throws all of his pills away, and stops talking about his penis. In the end, the description of Youngstown Ohio takes on a whole different flavor as Eric strikes off on a different path. What a burden it must be to maintain your hipness.
I look forward to reading the next novel Mattei writes. His voice is smart, perceptive, and there is a real story in this novel.
I admire the way Mattie creates suspense with each firing, and the characterization of the HR person who must accompany him. It is poignant when one of the victims who must be fired tries to negotiate her way to stay on in the firm. In fact, I liked the realistic bits that were allowed to leak out better than the edgy hipster bits. It is a relief when Eric throws all of his pills away, and stops talking about his penis. In the end, the description of Youngstown Ohio takes on a whole different flavor as Eric strikes off on a different path. What a burden it must be to maintain your hipness.
I look forward to reading the next novel Mattei writes. His voice is smart, perceptive, and there is a real story in this novel.
May 27, 2013
This was quite enjoyable and smart. It's like a an Ayn Rand novel where everything becomes inverted: how the mighty are brought low, and it's actually good for them. Or, it could be seen as just one in a series glamorous failures by ad man and self-proclaimed douchebag Eric Nye--think "Mad Men" set in the current North Brooklyn, Vice Magazine milieu of young, lazy cultural "creatives". Erics frantically narrates his own story as he teeters on the brink of utter self-loathing for his late-capitalistic mindset and compulsive, empty consumerism. I'd like to run with the Ayn Rand idea because her work is evoked at least twice, particularly vividly in scene where Eric recalls how a character in "Atlas Shrugged" ritually castrates himself to gain the upper hand. "Deep Whatsis", however, has something ultimately destructive to Rand's philosophy, which is a love story between the antihero and his anti-ingenue. And I won't tell you what is "the deep whatsis"--you'll have to find out for yourself.
December 15, 2013
If you want to read something off beat and deeply psychological, then this is the book. The Deep Whatsis is about a cynical jerk who is extremely interesting. This book has drugs, parties, alcohol, sex, and money to blow. It's one of those reads that wakes you up to a completely different life style and view point and that just intrigues the mind. Great book for those who aren't very sensitive.
Read
December 9, 2014In my opinion this book is still in a draft state.
April 27, 2025
This book was painful to read in an entertaining way, which made it addictive. At times the commentary on our society felt profound and well written, but I was consistently disappointed by how stupid this book is. Why did the main character have a perpetual erection? Why is every character absolutely unbearable? I understand that this is a satire but it just came across weirdly - the bones are there, but the book still feels like a draft.
November 30, 2025
bought this in high school and never finished it — naturally, I picked it up a decade later, only to come away with the reassurance that my teenagehood was filled with books with the same thesis: succumbing to and struggling against the temptation of capitalism, sorting through the taboos of greed, all through a generic white man of a certain age, standing on the edge.
May 13, 2020
“Isn’t life, after all, as some German hipster once wrote, nothing more than one long, comical, failed (and ultimately successful?) suicide attempt?”
March 3, 2021
Stupid AF.....especially the cover, a book to broadcast u read, laugh out loud.
Book is a lousy blow job, literally.
Author wanted the cover to be presentable to a Starbucks consumer.
Book is a lousy blow job, literally.
Author wanted the cover to be presentable to a Starbucks consumer.
August 8, 2013
It’s Brett Easton Ellis meets Joshua Ferris in Peter Mattei’s satire, The Deep Whatsis.
You might think that I’d had enough of over-privileged Gen-Y brats after The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. but the caustic humour and the extreme ridiculousness of character Eric Nye well and truly had me turning the pages.
The Deep Whatsis follows antihero, Eric – he’s self-indulgent, a player, apparently sensationally successful and rich, full of self-importance and (interestingly) self-loathing – all in all, quite detestable. His world is fast-paced and emotionally empty – he works in advertising, lives amongst Brooklyn hipsters and is a poster-boy for gross consumerism and a wasteful lifestyle.
“I sit in a deck chair and face away from the beach; something about the ceaseless idiocy of one wave after another strikes me as profoundly unimaginative.”
One night he crosses paths with a woman who he later discovers is an intern at his ad agency. For the first half of the book he doesn’t remember her name (it’s Sabine) but nonetheless, she changes the course of his future – is it love? Will Sabine lead to his downfall? Is she stalking him?
Eric’s role at the agency (his title is the ludicrous ‘Chief Ideas Officer’) is actually about firing people.
“But I was the one at the helm, with my year-long schedule of lay-offs, my Outlook calendar entries, and alerts. Outlook was my faena, my sword.”
Teaming with a woman from human resources (‘HR Lady’), Eric spends his days laying the groundwork for terminating employee contracts and it is these scenes that truly shine (in particular, the character of Henry is brilliantly rendered).
“The campaign is doing well in the marketplace, too, but that’s not really the point. The point is, Henry was old and he wore pleated Dockers, which I told him not to wear but he did anyway.”
Mattei drops names and scatters pop-cultures references like hundreds-and-thousands on fairy bread. They’re everywhere. It’s exhausting reading. Which is the point. Instead of being annoyed by the style remind yourself that it’s a satire and therefore sentences such as the following, are okay -
“That night we all go out to dinner at Koi. After the edamame steamed in Finnish lake ice slow-melted over smoking Brazilian rosewood, I step out and call Sabi’s number again…”
“Crossing east along Delancy and over the Williamsburd Bridge into my hood I suggest to Seth that we get a cocktail at the Hotel del Homo, on Berry Street on the North Side. It isn’t a gay bar, but that’s what I call it, because the cocktails are ridiculously bespoke.”
“…and a matching Albert Right-Facing Chaise, in front of them a white Eva Zeisel coffee table with an inch-thick glass top. (I ordered it custom because I felt the three-quarter inch standard glass top was too thin for the base, it just looked wrong.)"
Eric’s constant cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol make him a suitably unreliable narrator – is he playing others or is he being played? Mattei strings it out until the very end however the reveal was just a shade too conventional and a little too neat for my liking. There was one particular moment (where Eric chooses to keep an important bit of information to himself) that really didn’t sit right with me – it took the ending a little too far and seemed out-of-character, yet I suspect Mattei was trying to show the reader that Eric was a changed man. Furthermore, I wasn’t entirely convinced of the motivation of the various characters who contribute to the final scenes.
My take-away message? I did like Mattei’s thoughts on corporate culture and society’s ceaseless need to consume. Lines such as “…advertising is how corporations outsource their lies” and the idea that technology is “…taking away the fundamental truths about our humanity and making us pay to get them back” are uncomfortably close to the truth.
3/5 Read it if only to discover what ‘the deep whatsis’ actually is.
I received my copy of The Deep Whatsis from the publisher, Harper Collins via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Review originally published here: http://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wor...
You might think that I’d had enough of over-privileged Gen-Y brats after The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. but the caustic humour and the extreme ridiculousness of character Eric Nye well and truly had me turning the pages.
The Deep Whatsis follows antihero, Eric – he’s self-indulgent, a player, apparently sensationally successful and rich, full of self-importance and (interestingly) self-loathing – all in all, quite detestable. His world is fast-paced and emotionally empty – he works in advertising, lives amongst Brooklyn hipsters and is a poster-boy for gross consumerism and a wasteful lifestyle.
“I sit in a deck chair and face away from the beach; something about the ceaseless idiocy of one wave after another strikes me as profoundly unimaginative.”
One night he crosses paths with a woman who he later discovers is an intern at his ad agency. For the first half of the book he doesn’t remember her name (it’s Sabine) but nonetheless, she changes the course of his future – is it love? Will Sabine lead to his downfall? Is she stalking him?
Eric’s role at the agency (his title is the ludicrous ‘Chief Ideas Officer’) is actually about firing people.
“But I was the one at the helm, with my year-long schedule of lay-offs, my Outlook calendar entries, and alerts. Outlook was my faena, my sword.”
Teaming with a woman from human resources (‘HR Lady’), Eric spends his days laying the groundwork for terminating employee contracts and it is these scenes that truly shine (in particular, the character of Henry is brilliantly rendered).
“The campaign is doing well in the marketplace, too, but that’s not really the point. The point is, Henry was old and he wore pleated Dockers, which I told him not to wear but he did anyway.”
Mattei drops names and scatters pop-cultures references like hundreds-and-thousands on fairy bread. They’re everywhere. It’s exhausting reading. Which is the point. Instead of being annoyed by the style remind yourself that it’s a satire and therefore sentences such as the following, are okay -
“That night we all go out to dinner at Koi. After the edamame steamed in Finnish lake ice slow-melted over smoking Brazilian rosewood, I step out and call Sabi’s number again…”
“Crossing east along Delancy and over the Williamsburd Bridge into my hood I suggest to Seth that we get a cocktail at the Hotel del Homo, on Berry Street on the North Side. It isn’t a gay bar, but that’s what I call it, because the cocktails are ridiculously bespoke.”
“…and a matching Albert Right-Facing Chaise, in front of them a white Eva Zeisel coffee table with an inch-thick glass top. (I ordered it custom because I felt the three-quarter inch standard glass top was too thin for the base, it just looked wrong.)"
Eric’s constant cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol make him a suitably unreliable narrator – is he playing others or is he being played? Mattei strings it out until the very end however the reveal was just a shade too conventional and a little too neat for my liking. There was one particular moment (where Eric chooses to keep an important bit of information to himself) that really didn’t sit right with me – it took the ending a little too far and seemed out-of-character, yet I suspect Mattei was trying to show the reader that Eric was a changed man. Furthermore, I wasn’t entirely convinced of the motivation of the various characters who contribute to the final scenes.
My take-away message? I did like Mattei’s thoughts on corporate culture and society’s ceaseless need to consume. Lines such as “…advertising is how corporations outsource their lies” and the idea that technology is “…taking away the fundamental truths about our humanity and making us pay to get them back” are uncomfortably close to the truth.
3/5 Read it if only to discover what ‘the deep whatsis’ actually is.
I received my copy of The Deep Whatsis from the publisher, Harper Collins via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Review originally published here: http://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wor...
September 10, 2013
What would you do if you were an über-rich, super-successful ad exec who was hired by a firm simply to lay off half of its work force? If you meet your quota (that is, if you fire enough people) by the deadline, you and the head of HR each get a hefty bonus. Everyone hate-slash-fears you for this, and when you do the math you can't help but realize that if you refused your bonus, it would cover all the terminated people's salaries for the remainder of the year.
Do you handle your guilt so "well" that you're on a combination of about five different medications in order to keep yourself functioning from day to day? Do you lie to your shrink just to see how much you can get him to believe? Do you have panic attacks on a regular basis? Do you fool around with an inappropriately-young intern then demand that she, too, is fired? Do the faces of the people whose livelihoods you destroy haunt you? Eric Nye, our mind-blowingly dysfunctional narrator, does all of these things and more. So much more. He screws with his employees' heads in a variety of ways to keep them off the scent of their upcoming layoffs. He tells one guy he's up for a promotion (ha! just kidding!), snubs another in order to make him work harder, and gives one woman bogus assignments at the end of the day for a "meeting" the next morning. Then he fires them all. Of the logic behind this, he says,
...I thought it would be an interesting juxtaposition to compare their reactions back to back. I mean this whole business is pure evil, why sugarcoat it? In fact, why not broadcast it?
And broadcast he does. This is one of the most twisted tales I've read in a while. The book reminded me of a Chuck Palahniuk/Bret Easton Ellis cocktail (though, to be fair, I didn't finish Glamorama, the only Bret Easton Ellis novel I've picked up). Palahniuk makes me queasy, but I read him anyway, and that's sort of how I felt about The Deep Whatsis. (Please note that this book, while in the same vein as the others mentioned, isn't quite at their level. And not just because of the ridiculous number of comma splices.)
All in all: Read if you've read everything by Palahniuk and are looking for something similar to read. Don't read if you don't like sex, drugs, and pure evil in your books. It's not that this book is bad, but I can't think of a single person I know to recommend it to, and I know lots of different types of people. It's just not the best of its ilk.
Note: I received a free copy of this book from Goodreads's First Reads program.
Do you handle your guilt so "well" that you're on a combination of about five different medications in order to keep yourself functioning from day to day? Do you lie to your shrink just to see how much you can get him to believe? Do you have panic attacks on a regular basis? Do you fool around with an inappropriately-young intern then demand that she, too, is fired? Do the faces of the people whose livelihoods you destroy haunt you? Eric Nye, our mind-blowingly dysfunctional narrator, does all of these things and more. So much more. He screws with his employees' heads in a variety of ways to keep them off the scent of their upcoming layoffs. He tells one guy he's up for a promotion (ha! just kidding!), snubs another in order to make him work harder, and gives one woman bogus assignments at the end of the day for a "meeting" the next morning. Then he fires them all. Of the logic behind this, he says,
...I thought it would be an interesting juxtaposition to compare their reactions back to back. I mean this whole business is pure evil, why sugarcoat it? In fact, why not broadcast it?
And broadcast he does. This is one of the most twisted tales I've read in a while. The book reminded me of a Chuck Palahniuk/Bret Easton Ellis cocktail (though, to be fair, I didn't finish Glamorama, the only Bret Easton Ellis novel I've picked up). Palahniuk makes me queasy, but I read him anyway, and that's sort of how I felt about The Deep Whatsis. (Please note that this book, while in the same vein as the others mentioned, isn't quite at their level. And not just because of the ridiculous number of comma splices.)
All in all: Read if you've read everything by Palahniuk and are looking for something similar to read. Don't read if you don't like sex, drugs, and pure evil in your books. It's not that this book is bad, but I can't think of a single person I know to recommend it to, and I know lots of different types of people. It's just not the best of its ilk.
Note: I received a free copy of this book from Goodreads's First Reads program.
August 17, 2013
The Deep Whatsis
Deep within the ad agency of Tate Global Inc. lies the all-consuming essence that shapes Eric Nye's world. Booze-drinking, drug-sniffing Nye, is the Chief Idea Officer for Tate Global. He's a narcissist who thinks everyone is lower than he is. One night at a bar close to work he meets a girl whose name he can't remember. After a highly toxic night of philandering Eric heads in to work the next day, where his HR Lady calls him to her office to explain why the new intern has a black eye. He finds out who the random girl is, but can't remember what happened between them last night.
In his first novel, Peter Mattei sheds some light on the advertisement industry; the best and worst parts of what it is to be part of a life of materialism. Nye owns the best products out on the market, but his life lacks genuine human interaction. Because of this, he has constant struggles with himself, and can't understand what he is doing wrong in social situations. Throughout the novel Eric drops names that only a person who follows trends will know (Chantal Goya, an exotic french actress; Au Revoir Simone, a popular musician). He lets us know about all the designer swag that he has: the expensive bottles of Sancerre, the Ligne Roset dining tables, Rimowa Topas aluminium suitcase, and his Sony Bravia KDL-70XBR3 seventy-inch flat-screen television. Nye's Sex and the City life goes through its highs and lows. Eric Nye embodies the truth that throwing money around doesn't always make for a better life. In fact, in some cases it leads to more problems. His character in The Deep Whatsis brings to mind one akin to Jay Gatsby with his need to have the best of everything.
I chose this book because the plot resembled of a mixture of Coupland meets Bret Easton Ellis. The name dropping and materialism is very Ellis'esque. The story telling is as fluid and down to earth as Douglas Coupland's works. The novel is told in a first person narrative making the story flow smoothly.
I highly enjoyed The Deep Whatsis and later learned what the title of the book meant, but I will leave it to you to find out.
Deep within the ad agency of Tate Global Inc. lies the all-consuming essence that shapes Eric Nye's world. Booze-drinking, drug-sniffing Nye, is the Chief Idea Officer for Tate Global. He's a narcissist who thinks everyone is lower than he is. One night at a bar close to work he meets a girl whose name he can't remember. After a highly toxic night of philandering Eric heads in to work the next day, where his HR Lady calls him to her office to explain why the new intern has a black eye. He finds out who the random girl is, but can't remember what happened between them last night.
In his first novel, Peter Mattei sheds some light on the advertisement industry; the best and worst parts of what it is to be part of a life of materialism. Nye owns the best products out on the market, but his life lacks genuine human interaction. Because of this, he has constant struggles with himself, and can't understand what he is doing wrong in social situations. Throughout the novel Eric drops names that only a person who follows trends will know (Chantal Goya, an exotic french actress; Au Revoir Simone, a popular musician). He lets us know about all the designer swag that he has: the expensive bottles of Sancerre, the Ligne Roset dining tables, Rimowa Topas aluminium suitcase, and his Sony Bravia KDL-70XBR3 seventy-inch flat-screen television. Nye's Sex and the City life goes through its highs and lows. Eric Nye embodies the truth that throwing money around doesn't always make for a better life. In fact, in some cases it leads to more problems. His character in The Deep Whatsis brings to mind one akin to Jay Gatsby with his need to have the best of everything.
I chose this book because the plot resembled of a mixture of Coupland meets Bret Easton Ellis. The name dropping and materialism is very Ellis'esque. The story telling is as fluid and down to earth as Douglas Coupland's works. The novel is told in a first person narrative making the story flow smoothly.
I highly enjoyed The Deep Whatsis and later learned what the title of the book meant, but I will leave it to you to find out.
December 11, 2013
Summary: corporate shills just keep getting richer. Hip people don't have much furniture but all of it is white and expensive. Best Coast and Pretty Lights were somehow the best indie music references the writer could come up with, which is just silly because there's an entire website called Pitchfork that exists for people who want to know what "the best new music" is so that they can namedrop in exactly these types of situations. Manic pixie dream girl. Creative types never seem to do any real creating but real creating can also be kind of bullshit and what is art anyway? Pharmaceuticals. Manic pixie dream girl climax (see what I did there?). Opaque denouement.
Yeah, so I liked this more than I thought I would. I mostly just read it because I liked the cover and I wanted to read something fairly light so I figured why not read a light book with a nice cover? That, by the way, is a pretty good example of how I make decisions.
So this book has an asshole protagonist who's sadistic, satirical, and amusing. I saw a couple negative reviews of this book that said that it was not good because the protagonist isn't relatable, which is a bullshit reason to dislike a book. When Nabokov asked his students what it meant to be a good reader, he said that "the students leaned heavily on emotional identification, action, and the social-economic or historical angle. Of course, as you have guessed, the good reader is one who has imagination, memory, a dictionary, and some artistic sense–-which sense I propose to develop in myself and in others whenever I have the chance."
Right, so the character is not one you'll identify with on an emotional level, but if you think that's important than you're doing reading wrong.
Anyway, the hipster assholes who populate The Deep Whatsis would probably enjoy that reference, expect that Nabokov on literature is a pretty obvious one to make and probably I should have found something from one of Ingmar Bergman's minor films, but whatever I don't have time for that and I don't care.
3.5 stars, but I'm rounding up to 4 because I'm heavily caffeinated and I like the cover.
Yeah, so I liked this more than I thought I would. I mostly just read it because I liked the cover and I wanted to read something fairly light so I figured why not read a light book with a nice cover? That, by the way, is a pretty good example of how I make decisions.
So this book has an asshole protagonist who's sadistic, satirical, and amusing. I saw a couple negative reviews of this book that said that it was not good because the protagonist isn't relatable, which is a bullshit reason to dislike a book. When Nabokov asked his students what it meant to be a good reader, he said that "the students leaned heavily on emotional identification, action, and the social-economic or historical angle. Of course, as you have guessed, the good reader is one who has imagination, memory, a dictionary, and some artistic sense–-which sense I propose to develop in myself and in others whenever I have the chance."
Right, so the character is not one you'll identify with on an emotional level, but if you think that's important than you're doing reading wrong.
Anyway, the hipster assholes who populate The Deep Whatsis would probably enjoy that reference, expect that Nabokov on literature is a pretty obvious one to make and probably I should have found something from one of Ingmar Bergman's minor films, but whatever I don't have time for that and I don't care.
3.5 stars, but I'm rounding up to 4 because I'm heavily caffeinated and I like the cover.
August 2, 2013
Disclaimer: I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
I gave this book 3 stars, but I think it should be closer to 3.5. It reminds me of a mixture between "American Psycho" (not as sick and twisted, but similar in the main character's disregard for others, as well as his existence among the young, powerful and partying types), Nick Hornby novels, and Carrie Fisher's "Postcards from the Edge."
When I first started reading this, I disliked it. This feeling persisted for the first several chapters. This dislike did not stem from the writing style, but rather from how awful the main character is. He is self-centered, unfeeling, narcissistic, rude, cold, etc. etc. Not a likable individual or one you can easily relate to, nor would you probably want to. However, the further into the story I got, the more I could overlook how much I disliked the main character, and focus on the actual writing style and story line.
This is easy to read (I read it in one sitting tonight), offers some moments of humor and insight, and would be good for a beach read, or perhaps something taken on a trip. I do not know that I will seek out another book by this author, however, this is one I'll probably pass on to a friend looking for a quick and easy read.
I gave this book 3 stars, but I think it should be closer to 3.5. It reminds me of a mixture between "American Psycho" (not as sick and twisted, but similar in the main character's disregard for others, as well as his existence among the young, powerful and partying types), Nick Hornby novels, and Carrie Fisher's "Postcards from the Edge."
When I first started reading this, I disliked it. This feeling persisted for the first several chapters. This dislike did not stem from the writing style, but rather from how awful the main character is. He is self-centered, unfeeling, narcissistic, rude, cold, etc. etc. Not a likable individual or one you can easily relate to, nor would you probably want to. However, the further into the story I got, the more I could overlook how much I disliked the main character, and focus on the actual writing style and story line.
This is easy to read (I read it in one sitting tonight), offers some moments of humor and insight, and would be good for a beach read, or perhaps something taken on a trip. I do not know that I will seek out another book by this author, however, this is one I'll probably pass on to a friend looking for a quick and easy read.
June 1, 2016
Easy read, and funny in places, and if you live in NYC you'll recognize all the places and people that get described.
But it's basically what if American Psycho and Fight Club were one book? So I guess it's aimed at all the dudebros who totally missed the point of both books?
It's a cynical douchebag, obsessed with money and status, who rattles off the brand and cost of everything he consumes or owns, just like Patrick Bateman did, and has one friend who he treats like shit, and a bunch of employees that he plays headgames with for months before firing. And a girl who maybe exists, maybe doesn't? She seems into him, but is constantly screwing up his life.
By the time she's accused him of beating her, but is still sending him texts to hang out, you realize she's either: a concoction of his alienation and the cocktail of mood-altering drugs he's on, or a person who just happens to be the one woman in the entire city he can fuck and not immediately forget, somehow knows this in advance, and uses it to destroy him.
It ties up with a neat little catharsis to explain why sammy runs, but it's only surprising in that it's nothing unexpected. And he basically learns nothing and doesn't change.
But it's basically what if American Psycho and Fight Club were one book? So I guess it's aimed at all the dudebros who totally missed the point of both books?
It's a cynical douchebag, obsessed with money and status, who rattles off the brand and cost of everything he consumes or owns, just like Patrick Bateman did, and has one friend who he treats like shit, and a bunch of employees that he plays headgames with for months before firing. And a girl who maybe exists, maybe doesn't? She seems into him, but is constantly screwing up his life.
By the time she's accused him of beating her, but is still sending him texts to hang out, you realize she's either: a concoction of his alienation and the cocktail of mood-altering drugs he's on, or a person who just happens to be the one woman in the entire city he can fuck and not immediately forget, somehow knows this in advance, and uses it to destroy him.
It ties up with a neat little catharsis to explain why sammy runs, but it's only surprising in that it's nothing unexpected. And he basically learns nothing and doesn't change.
June 13, 2013
i am reading the ARC and for the first 50 pages i cannot stop thinking, "but American Psycho was already done..." just because of the tone, pace, a lot less name dropping but still, and the overall ambiance.
HOWEVER i can see this book is going somewhere else, even if it is in the neighborhood. i am looking forward to continuing. because, let's face it, this is the kind of tone, pace and ambiance i like.
i am now about half way through and loving this. my brain no longer compares this to AP and the subtle humor is just my kind, as it is planted amidst the crazy...
finished. well. i really enjoyed this book and i think this author has a good voice. there were some shaky areas, in my opinion (like the places where it sounded too derivative of AP and the revelations towards the end were almost great but then, to me, were just a tiny bit disappointing because they were more, let's say "traditionally revealed" than i had hoped... yeah, i was hoping for slightly more edge). but overall, i will definitely read more from this author.
HOWEVER i can see this book is going somewhere else, even if it is in the neighborhood. i am looking forward to continuing. because, let's face it, this is the kind of tone, pace and ambiance i like.
i am now about half way through and loving this. my brain no longer compares this to AP and the subtle humor is just my kind, as it is planted amidst the crazy...
finished. well. i really enjoyed this book and i think this author has a good voice. there were some shaky areas, in my opinion (like the places where it sounded too derivative of AP and the revelations towards the end were almost great but then, to me, were just a tiny bit disappointing because they were more, let's say "traditionally revealed" than i had hoped... yeah, i was hoping for slightly more edge). but overall, i will definitely read more from this author.
August 11, 2013
Full disclosure: I received this book free as part of Goodreads First Reads.
Mr. Mattei's style is very similar to that of Tom Robbins and Stephan Jaramillo, the later of whom is one of my favourite authors. That said, Mr. Mattei's book lacks the cohesion of their books. He tries very hard to make an unsympathetic character sympathetic but gives us no reasons or back story to. He falls in love, but we're not sure why, we are not shown any real courtship or even mutual communication between the two characters. With more in depth exploration of the characters, this would actually be a very good book, not a mediocre book.
Mr. Mattei's style is very similar to that of Tom Robbins and Stephan Jaramillo, the later of whom is one of my favourite authors. That said, Mr. Mattei's book lacks the cohesion of their books. He tries very hard to make an unsympathetic character sympathetic but gives us no reasons or back story to. He falls in love, but we're not sure why, we are not shown any real courtship or even mutual communication between the two characters. With more in depth exploration of the characters, this would actually be a very good book, not a mediocre book.
August 31, 2013
The Deep Whatsis is a fast paced fugue where the lines between reality, paranoia, and outright lies are blurred to the point of running over each other. The characters are intriguing and exciting. There is just the right amount of mystery behind everyone. The shots at consumer culture are seamlessly inserted in the story and add some humor in unexpected areas. This book may be satire, but I have the feeling that high ranking corporate America is not too far from what is described in this novel. I found it to be a truly entertaining read from beginning to end. *I received this book free through goodreads.com's "First Reads" program*
June 27, 2016
Readable satire about a self-involved advertising executive named Eric Nye who's fully aware that he's a narcissist and a horrible person, and who spends his life in service of what he views as the greatest evils of our current age, namely consumerism and general shallowness. But seeing fault in himself and the world around him doesn't mean Eric will change. Indeed, for most of this book we get to follow him around behaving like a horrible person, and he isn't exactly redeemed in the end, despite a chance at love and a brush with death. Still, I'm a reader who's always entertained by people behaving badly.
July 10, 2014
I had high hopes for this but it left me disappointed. Nothing actually happens within the plot leaving loads of space for character development but to my dismay the main character Eric is an absolute twat. He's the head of creative ideas at an advertisement company, he hates everyone and everything apart from a girl he doesn't remember the name of. He remembers her name and the book ends. Whoever said Mattei was the love child or Brett Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk must have meant literally because they can't possibly have meant it figuratively.
August 25, 2013
This book just wasn't my cup of tea. It seemed like a low rent "American Psycho" without the killing and populated by boring hipsters. The fact the book title is taken from a sex act between the lead character and a dull hipster girl is a bit sad. I finished the book but it left me with a cold, unsatisfied, feeling.
Saying all that, I am sure the hipster generation will eat it up. It seems right up their alley.
Saying all that, I am sure the hipster generation will eat it up. It seems right up their alley.
September 15, 2013
I absolutely loved this book. The main character has a fantastic dark sense of humor. This book is a mental re-set on what a five-star rating really is... I know now that I've given some books in the past five stars just out of kindness or generosity. But this one deserves five stars, while all but about three other books I've read in my entire life should honestly be knocked down to four stars. I hope Peter Mattei is working on another book.
July 27, 2013
Not sure what the point of this book was. I guess I am not hip/boring enough to care about anything detailed in this book, and I am not surprised the author lives in both NYC and Austin Texas, two of the most phony, elitist, narcissist places, add in the fact that the author worked on a "short film" at Sundance with Robert Redford, and you can pretty much figure out how dry/boring this book is.
March 20, 2014
Someone said that Peter Mattei is the bastard love-child of Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk. The imitation of Ellis' style is clearly present, and I think that it partly ruins the book. At first it feels like another American Psycho, but that feeling subsides after about 70 pages as the story progresses. The story could've been a lot better.
August 31, 2016
Aspirations of being a Douglas Coupland novel, but it never really gets there. I can't see myself reading this again in the future, which is quite telling for a book hoarder. Additionally, I feel like the author is probably laughing at the fact that he puts one over on the reader with the title, but the joke is pretty juvenile and not at all clever.
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July 18, 2013dark and soulless musing on a guy who fires people at an ad agency in nyc, reminded me a bit of bret easton ellis, but more philosophical. there were funny, thought-provoking parts, but i couldn't keep going, it was too depressing.
September 4, 2013
Such a fun book! I found it buried on a shelf at a bookstore in Rehoboth, DE.... Went to the beach, read the book in one day. Couldn't put it down. Giving it a five for a fun, escape, and easy read.
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