Eight Minutes Idle

by Matt Thorne

When his father gets knocked over in a car accident, Dan is forced to economise, give up the bedsit the two of them share and secretly move into the call centre where he works. He takes with him a Ginger Tom called John and the telephone numbers of seven women. Soon, the boundaries between Dan's life and work dissolve completely, and, if weren't for the secrecy, his twenty-four hour residency at the call centre would mark him out as the perfect employee. EIGHT MINUTES IDLE focuses on the flip side of office existence, examining the strange things that can happen to the human brain after one too many hours in front of a terminal. It also explains how to turn your workplace into a dating agency, why it's a bad idea to sleep with your boss and exactly what's going on at the other end of the phone while you're left waiting on hold. Bold, sexy and constantly inventive, EIGHT MINUTES IDLE is an addictive, urbane treat.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published April 15, 1999

Reviews

[Nick Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably a four and a half as opposed to a perfect five, as this book did have some flaws, but I did overall so enjoy this and get so much from this that it would seem churlish to round down and focus on the negatives.

This is a first-person narrative by Dan, a call-centre employee and fairly fucked-up mess of a man, and the events after his father is involved in an accident and hospitalised. To look too intently for a coherent plot would be a mistake - there is quite a lot of this which is meandering and mundane regarding Dan's office life and the people in his life, and it did feel slightly overlong and wayward in places. On the other hand, some of these aspects made the frequent unexpected twists and numerous moments of human insight all the more powerful. It's visceral and shocking in places, chaotic and confused, but also placed within a somewhat ordinary setting. There were several descriptions of such explicit nature as to simultaneously repulse and admire.

Parts reminded me of Douglas Coupland but they felt more relevant due to this book having a British (Bristol) setting. Shamefully parts reminded me of myself as a younger person, men can be a mess.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wouldn't normally read this type of book, as I tend to go for fantasy/scifi, but the first person narrative hooked me from the start. I found this to be an unsettling read, overall, but darkly hilarious. If it weren't for the engaging prose, I'm not sure I'd have given it 4 stars. The ending was ridiculously unsatisfying, especially since, despite his almost sociopathic disengagement with the world, I quite liked the protagonist. I did genuinely question for a while whether or not he had some sort of psychological disorder going on, but who knows; the more I think about it the more surreal the whole story seems. I've never been to Bristol, but I imagine now that it's like a strange dreamworld where people live in their offices and murders happen routinely with no explanation. I'm torn between loving and hating this novel, but generally when I feel that way about something it's because it was worth my time. So I'd say go ahead and read this book. And I'm leaving my 4 stars, despite feeling slightly traumatized by the whole thing.

[Jayne Charles · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this. The start was quite promising, but the scenario went from being believable to completely surreal, the characters mutating in a similar way. The endless pseudo-comical diaries were an irritation, but the bit with the cat in the roof (what on earth was all that about?) was where the book and I pretty much parted company. I continued to the end, irritated by the obsessive sexual gymnastics, if only to find out whether the ladies in the support group were all going to turn out to be men in drag. Just dreadful.

[Alan · Rating 2 out of 5]

My daughter's just got a job in a call centre prior to Uni, and that reminded me of this book - I remember there were a few laughs, and the premise was good (man ends up living at the call centre - in the toilet? - as I recall), but there was a feeling of it being rushed and less than the sum of its parts.

[Reyanciviya · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting and odd.

[Tatyana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it very plausible. And believe that many of us being somewhere intelligent people can slip into situations similar to described. I am different age group and gender but found that I understand and sympathised with main character very much. All yong people I see in the office or pubs look so carefree but life is not that easy, not even when you are young and single. This book gives some insides into it

[Andy Murphy-Williams · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a chore to read. It started off so well! It didn't make me care about any of the characters, so when increasingly ridiculous things kept happening to them, or they kept being increasingly stupid and unlikable - it was easy to put the book down. I did struggle to the end, but immediately put it in a box of stuff ready to be donated to charity. What an utter waste of time.

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 2 out of 5]

When his father is hit in a car accident, Dan is forced to economize, give up the bedsit the two of them share and secretly move into the call center where he works. He takes with him a ginger tomcat he calls John and the telephone numbers of seven women his father wants him to contact.

There are some interesting details of working in a call center and what that experience is like, but other than that, this book has little to recommend it.

Winner of the Encore Award for 1999.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

A slickly-written, bizarrely cold novel where the disaffected and disconnected protagonist struggles with his relationship with his estranged father and his job in a U.K. call centre.

Given the quality of the writing, this is strangely unsatisfying.

[Mentatreader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very different from the movie. Was looking for more of the characters and instead got collection of totally unlikeable characters and no real plot. Except as an example of the slacker genre I really did not find anything worth recommending.

[Kasia Ela Wieczorek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really did enjoy reading that book.Actually I think it was quite good.

[Deanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't finish it. It started out well with an intriguing premise but quickly became too hard to believe.

[Laura]

DNF. Not even skimming made this any better. I read this properly until page 200 or so & then tried alternate chapters, but couldn’t do it. As with other books like this I became more interested in what was happening to the cat