Overqualifieder

Overqualified #2

by Joey Comeau

Applying for a job is stupid. It is a demeaning, humiliating exercise in learning to grovel in front of faceless strangers. Everyone who has ever sent a job application letter has felt the urge, the temptation to say what they really think. To say something completely insane, or to be brutally honest. With 2007's "Overqualified," Joey Comeau acted on those urges and delivered a book collecting his cover letters. "It's sad and fragmented and, in places, funny," the "L.A. Times" said. "This slender epistolary novel is charming." But even after the dozens of insane, hilarious, and sometimes strangely sad job application letters, he still didn't get the job. So he's at it again. A person needs to work, you know? But he's had to step things up a bit. Were the letters not insane enough? Was he not sad or stupid enough? Did he not threaten to bite as many CEOs as he should have? There's only one way to find out: "OVERQUALIFIEDER."

Genres: Fiction, Humor

Unknown Binding

Published October 31, 2015

About the author

Joey Comeau is a Canadian writer. He is best known for his novels Lockpick Pornography and Overqualified, and as co-creator of the webcomic A Softer World (with Emily Horne).

Comeau currently resides in Toronto, Ontario. He has a degree in linguistics.

Reviews

[Tobias Langhoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joey Comeau is one of my favorite persons – not just as an author, but as a person. I really enjoyed his book Overqualified, which collected darkly humorous cover letters (that he says he actually submitted), and was overjoyed to learn that the six year old book was getting a sequel.

Unfortunately, I was already let down in the preface, where Comeau is honest and tells us that this book does not contain a hidden narrative that weaves the funny cover letters together as a kind of experimental novel, which was the best part of the first book.

If you liked the first book, you'll like this one as well, but you probably won't like it as much. That's fine, though. The letters and stories here are also good, funny, heartbreaking, creepy and dark. It's a good book, a good collection of funny one-offs.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun! A stand-alone companion to the first Overqualified book, featuring none of the characters we met or the storyline depicted in it, just a kind of experimental Taking The Idea and Running With It collection of jokes and bits. Obviously not as compulsively readable as the first, since there was no storyline, but still a fun way to pass the time. It’s really enjoyable to read something the author was clearly having such a good time writing.

[Rowena · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a long minute since I read Overqualified, so I'm coming at this fresh and it's as weird and funny as I'd expected. Kind of glad I apparently forgot to read this years ago - I've missed Joey's writing!

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyably more of exactly what you'd expect if you read his letters published online or read the first collection but understand that unlike that one this one isn't woven together into an overarching narrative.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always thought cover letters were bullshit. If you are trying to get an employer's attention and a cover letter is the only route you have, you are doomed my friend. However, if I'm asked for advice on job hunting, I will heartily recommend this book.

[Sally Clamps · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent

[Booklover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny and twisted!

[Kaylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still funny and satisfying, but without the experimental novel emerging in the middle, not as compelling overall as the first volume.

[RND · Rating 3 out of 5]

Without the experimental novel aspect of the first book (which the author mentions immediately at the beginning), it remains a humorous collection. Still, that threaded narrative of the original is what pushed it (for me) into a new level of clever/sad/delightful.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joey Comeau is creates these dark obsessive characters, regularly finding comedy in their misplaced humanity, eg a man who obsesses over cash as a metaphor for freedom, another who who wants to be an Xray technician to be a silent observer of violence. It's all pretty nightmarish but their monologues are so vulnerable and forthright that you get carried along. Very economic language to create these worldviews in just a few paragraphs. Very funny, not as ambitious as the first Overqualified but I still would have rated four stars if I hadn't read so much of the content already while constantly checking A Softer World to see if they had snuck in an update.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seems harsh to review a book by what it is not, but I kind of have to here. This book is very much not Overqualified, Comeau's earlier work. While it shares the conceit of bizarre cover letters, it lacks the central narrative that the other book has and as such loses a lot of cohesion.
What remains is still at turns funny, sad, confusing and grotesque, but all we get are minor snapshots and nothing in the way of character.
While I still fairly enjoy this little book, I wouldn't recommend it. Just go read Overqualified; it has the same concepts, but executed better and tied together.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This interesting collection of "cover letters" is the result of a "strange sense of humor", or if real, (which I doubt) strange minds.

At first, you are taken in by the author and feel sadness for the individuals who seem deluded. Ultimately, you realize that he is "pulling your leg" and even in Canada such lunatics do not apply for employment.

It is definitely unique and fun!

[CJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book compiled of cover letters that actually accompanied the author's resume to a variety of businesses. it is the content of said cover letters that probably led to the lack of response from the prospective employers. Some are utterly hilarious while others are a sad testament to this strange world that we live in today, but it is worth the read if you need a laugh.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was over way too soon. It was unsettling in the best way, and cuttingly insightful at times, which I've come to expect of Joey. He truly is one of my favorite weirdo creators. Losing A Softer World was a real blow but I'm delighted by the fiction he continues to write.

[Emily Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

sad, quirky & bitter. it made me miss 'a softer world' something fierce. simple and real.

my favourite letter was to the NSCC.
"GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS 4 LIFE".

the only downside was that it went by too quickly. can't wait to get my hands on 'overqualified' now.

[Jonathan Byrd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious, sad, fun.

[Andréa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Note: I received a digital ARC through NetGalley.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's no Overqualified, but still delightful.