Overqualified

Overqualified #1

by Joey Comeau

Cover letters are all the same. They're useless. You write the same lies over and over again, listing the store-bought parts of yourself that you respect the least. God knows how they tell anyone apart, but this is how it's done.

And then one day a car comes out of nowhere, and suddenly everything changes and you don't know if he'll ever wake up. You get out of bed in the morning, and when you sit down to write another paint-by-numbers cover letter, something entirely different comes out. You start threatening instead of begging. You tell impolite jokes. You talk about your childhood and your sexual fantasies. You sign your real name and you put yourself honestly into letter after letter and there is no way you are ever going to get this job. Not with a letter like this. And you send it anyway.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Canada, Short Stories, Comedy, Novels, Book Club

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

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

[Manny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dear Goodreads,

I am applying for the position of Advertising Sales Director and I enclose a copy of my resume. I have no previous experience in advertising or sales, but I hope you will view my qualifications from a broader perspective.

Goodreads, I understand Internet addiction. I know what it's like to get up at three in the morning because you can't sleep and your life is falling apart and how you log on to a useless shitty social networking site because you're too stressed out and brain-dead to be able to think of something more positive to do.

The rest of this review is available elsewhere (the location cannot be given for Goodreads policy reasons)

[notgettingenough · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was little I used to lie wide awake in the dark at night in bed wondering. How do I know I’m me? How do I know I’m not somebody else? Or if somebody else is me? And if somebody else is me, who is it? Was that me who pinched my brother’s comic book this afternoon? I’d do tests to try to work it out. I’d feel my leg to see if it felt like it was mine. Sometimes it did. But sometimes it didn’t. Once, after we watched ET, I even thought it felt like the leg of a weird space monster with tentacles coming out of it. I couldn’t really ever tell for sure.

I decided what I had to do.

I had to work out a way of doing something which would make me sure that I was me. When I grew up, I would write down everything that happened to me. I would put it in a book. It would be a special quirky little book, that was just about me and couldn’t possibly be mistaken for anybody else’s life. Nobody would be able to make me feel like I wasn’t me any more. Whenever I wasn’t sure if I was me or not, I could just read the book and then I’d be able to go back to sleep without worrying about who I was. It really worked!

......

Thanks Manny. http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Thanks a lot for bringing all the old fears back. Thanks for making me not sure any more again.

Sincerely, Joey Comeau

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up. Broad satire coupled with an affecting personal story in the guise of cover letters for job applications. Short and swift, it needed to be to work and it does, sweetly.

[Colleen AF · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book hasn't hit me this hard in the gut in a while. I expected funny. I expected to love it, but I really didn't expect to wind up crying by the first 15 pages. Little tiny things would get me. Single sentences had the power to change the tone of an entire page. Sentences that seems to slip through the subconscious, sneak into a cover letter, and turn it into a diary. The voyeur in me loved it. The obsessive nostalgia and regret mixed with hints into the present where nothing is going quite right. It felt like a diary or reading a pile of love letters...or perhaps break-up letters is more appropriate. Almost felt dirty for getting into the narrators brain so much and the idea of these letters, so open, obsessive and painful, being sent to HR drones at various soul-less companies completely warms my heart. Oh and I should note, it did make me laugh a lot still. Tears came from both ends of the spectrum. Can't wait to read his other books now.

Read: July 2009
2nd Read: Dec 2011

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

so this is my second review of the day and based on sleepiness likely my second best review of the day, but perhaps more to the point.

let's start simply, this book was a very good idea, this book was also a very good follow up to the last book I read. This book is basically saying the world has fallen to pieces, these pieces have fallen through the cracks and cannot be fixed, we accept and we live on. perhaps we are shells, we are not functional, we sit watching the weights press us down until we can no longer move, but until that moment we go through the functions as if we knew what we were doing as if we were normal. We get up each day, we go to work each morning, we move on each night, we do what we must, although we may not do it particularly well. It's not that we haven't given up, the narrator clearly has, it's that even when we've completely given up, when we've lost all sense we still fill time with the motions, with the cogs, as we are, and will always be part of the machine.

have I told you anything about this book, well yes and no. I've told you it's about despair, I've told you it's about marking time. I haven't told you it's a descent into madness formatted in cover letters. or that it was the perfect follow up for city of lost souls. well now I have.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess I don't get it. This book is a loose collection of cover letters that have some narrative elements tying them together (Joey's brother, his girlfriend/wife, his Acadian heritage, etc). I guess it is supposed to follow a timeline from earlier to later but I'm not sure. It's occasionally funny but mostly just sad. I don't know what I thought this book would be (a collection of funny cover letters? A more direct narrative?) but I guess it wasn't what I expected. I didn't find it particularly enjoyable but at least it was short.

[Kes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the Softer World and liked it - but not sure if the style works for a novel. Basically a guy’s brother dies and he writes his story out in cover letters to companies. It’s an interesting kind of format - maybe kind of sweet? - but I can’t imagine being HR and reading that kind of letter. It’s too weird to only get part of a story.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

During spring break, I was bored and of course looking for a job. I also wanted to experiment with type. So, I wrote a cover letter in the form of a booklet with a non-traditional typographic layout. It wasn't a traditional cover letter, either. I wanted to play up my ability to write in English and three more languages, which, for an artist, is something unusual. Although there are artists that are also good writers, most visual people aren't very verbal. I wanted to tell prospective employers that I may not have a bachelor's degree strictly speaking, but my thinking and verbal skills are just as developed as though I had one. And I went with a whimsical design to show that I'm not afraid to experiment in my profession, which is graphic design. I wanted to tell prospective employers through a brief account of my childhood and adolescence that I was the ideal junior designer who can design *and* write *and* come up with fresh ideas that many of them were looking for. Unfortunately, they couldn't see it because they couldn't look beyond my resume, which doesn't feature a bachelor's degree or relevant experience in the field, other than a little freelancing.

Almost a couple of months after I did this, I read that the author of A Softer World, Joey Comeau, had written a novel in the form of cover letters. I've always liked the dark humor of the webcomic, and the concept of this new book sounded very similar to my own, so I decided that I had to read it. Now that I did, I have to say that his concept is different, but there are still some similarities...

Comeau's younger brother dies in an accident, hit by a drunk driver. The cover letters in the book show the author coping with his loss and the meaning of life in general. I think it's a great concept, and some of the letters are really compelling: you will relate to the contents, they'll make you reflect, and some will make you laugh, if sarcasm/dark humor is your thing. For some reason, however, I think the body of work isn't cohesive enough. You do get a glimpse into the author's life and the tragedy he's dealing with, but I wish this had been developed a little further. It's a wonderful concept that should have been explored more, at least in my opinion. But on one thing Comeau is dead right: in despair, you start writing a cover letter, which should be a formal series of lies, and you find yourself writing about your real self, your childhood, your life. "You put yourself honestly into letter after letter and there is no way you are ever going to get this job. Not with a letter like this. And you send it anyway."

Well, guess what? After almost one year of fruitless job search, I'm about to send my autobiographical cover letter, too...

[Anndra Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book in May 2014, on a lazy afternoon at a friend's house - it was their book and I just borrowed it to read. It took me about an hour and I loved it; last night I read it for the second time in bed and again it took me about an hour and again I loved it.

Overqualified is a book in which Joey Comeau writes cover letters for job applications to various companies. The entire book is nothing but cover letters, but they tell a story (fictionalised, as far as I know) - Comeau's brother's death after being hit by a drunk driver, his failing relationship with his girlfriend Susan, how he deals with his bilingual culture and First Nations ancestry that he has little means of relating to. The letters all quickly become surreal or comic or unsettling or deeply sad ruminations on this fictionalised-Comeau's life and there's something very human about it all, especially when it gets a bit uncomfortable with the honesty of it all. One letter sadly asks if all that will be left of us when die is the 'censored version', not the bad stuff or weird thoughts, and that's why he's writing them down - even in a cover letter to an impersonal corporation, just to get the uncensored version out there somewhere. It's pretty affecting, honestly, and it's a super short book too so if you don't like it then you won't have wasted too much time (and also you'll be wrong)

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took me less than three hours to read.

I came for the gimmick of the style of the book (delivered in cover letters), and stayed for the humor and sentiment. The main 'arc' of the story is about loss and not knowing how to deal with it, with how that loss changes you for better or worse. The ending, where he is trying to resolve another different type of loss, seems to be how the protagonist is dealing with his grief.

I wonder how much of this story is autobiographical.

Yes, I am being vague because I don't want to piss away what this story is about should anyone actually be reading this.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joey's golden-boy little brother has been hit by a drunk driver. Joey's relationship with his girlfriend, Susan, is faltering. His brother will die, and his relationship will end. And Joey will begin sending out job applications, one after another, each with a cover letter full of violence and anguish and sweet, childlike humor.

Joey Comeau is one of my favorite authors, especially when it comes to biting, perverted, meandering prose. I loved this book. I recommend both it, and him, very highly.

[Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Selected bits that sum up the book better than I ever could:

"I feel weird writing this, I guess, but what if we die and nobody remembers those parts of us? What if all that's left is the censored version?"

"We'll wake up every day and we'll tell ourselves, 'Live for today, you retarded little shit. The end is near.'"

"People die, but that isn't any different from the edge of a table. The table is still there. It just doesn't stretch that far."

"I have a form of ESP that allows me to consistently pick losing lottery numbers, and generally make poor life choices."

[Lara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I nothing-ed this book. I only started reading it because my husband had borrowed it from someone and it was lying around the house and looked vaguely interesting. I think the idea was good, but it could have been executed much better--the funny parts weren't all that funny and the sad parts weren't all that sad. I felt like there was just never enough depth to it for me to actually care; everything seemed just a little too vague. So meh.

But yeah, at least it was short!

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about the excruciating process of writing cover letters while experiencing a devastating family crisis. Hit very close to home, brought up all the questions you have while you do this - what is the point of all these qualifications when tragedy can strike at any moment? does my grief even matter if I’m going to have to spend the majority of my daytime hours acting out this persona I’m creating? why am I working to attain something that’s going to take up all this time I could be spending with my loved ones? what is the point of making sure I have enough money to buy food and doctor’s appointments and heating when life is endless misery and all I’d be doing is sustaining this constant despair?

Funny and awful in a brutally relatable way, really captures the unpretty and angry and self-destructive parts of going through a tragedy

Knocking off one star bc oh my god this book is so sexist

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

God Joey’s good. You start out laughing, slightly nervous. And then the freight train hits, like the woman with the crowbar covered in needles, and you remember that what you’re reading isn’t what you thought you would be. It’s how I feel about all Joey’s work and the unknowableness of it makes him one of the most exciting authors to read. This is bonkers as a concept, but it ~works~.

[Alanna Why · Rating 5 out of 5]

Understated and uncomfortable. Low-key genius. Reminded me a lot of literally show me a healthy person by darcie wilder, a book I have the second-highest-rated review for on this website lmao. FUCK!

[Julia Wolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 - quite charming and honestly very touching

[Kate Stericker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was worried this book would freak me out, since I used to read Comeau's stories online as a tween and come away deeply disturbed. However, I think I've finally reached a point where I can properly appreciate the unsettling and melancholy aspects of his work. Those elements make Overqualified read like a long, sad book of poetry, and the overall effect is breathtaking.

[Hollowspine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've written a couple (thousand) cover letters in my ever, it seems, continuing attempts to become a real full time librarian, and each one really was just a form letter after a while, Dear Committee, I saw the posting for whatever on this board or that list, I think I would be A GREAT FIT for your position! !!! I really enjoyed reading the cover letters, laughing, even as I realized these were cover letters of someone who was past hope.

From the moment I got the book I liked it, the quality of the thick paper, the type written pages, appealed to me as a reader. It wasn't squishy like most books these days, but had a lovely crispness to the pages, which were white, instead of the over-used grey books get when they've been through the library system, assigned to home after abusive home.

I also loved the title of the book, "Overqualified." I try to be humble, but occasionally I'll lie to myself and claim that was the reasoning behind my rejection. I was overqualified for the job, so I wasn't hired, because they thought I wouldn't stay, because I was overqualified. Overqualified? Mainly they tell me I wasn't hired because they found someone who was a better fit. I want to say, tell me how to fit and I'll fit. Boy will I fit.

At first I was just enjoying the oddity of the letters, the hilarity of what Comeau was writing, but I was also starting to get a feel for the underlying story, which was subtly worked in. Readers have to read between the lines for some of it, but it's well worth it. Sometimes I feel things are best discussed in ink, only to be read by an underpaid temp or a computer. There are people who write letters only to tear them up or stick them in the fireplace. This narrator mailed his.

Questions that have no answers, stories that have no point, that's life, it's bleak and funny and Joey Comeau wrote it very well.

[Mina Villalobos · Rating 5 out of 5]

The internet is a very strange place. You don't really know a lot of people but it feels like you do, because even though they have no idea who you are you still follow their lives -or the bits they are willing to share- and in some strange way you feel like you know them. Like they are there for you, just outside your grasp, but there nonetheless.

I have that feeling about Joey Comeau. Like maybe he's not my friend, because I have been following him around for a very short time, but he's the friend of a friend. I guess that's kind of creepy? Anyway.

Overqualified made me laugh out loud and made me feel terribly sad, and it's wistful and human and despite the pain -through the cover letters, you get glimpses of Joey's life and the loss of his brother- you can see the way he pushes forward, not really caring how, just pushing for tomorrow, trying to live and keep living. His memories are somehow our memories too, the bits we all remember from our life, and I feel like we're closer friends, now, even if we don't know each other.

Joey makes me laugh, and he makes me think, and remember. And maybe he also makes me cry. But he doesn't know me, so it's okay.

[Hannah Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in less than an hour, but dang. I have never read anything quite like this before. In summary, it is a series of cover letters that the author writes to different companies, seeking a job. However, the author predominantly talks about his own life as opposed to pleading for a job and elevating his character. By the seventh letter - a mere 19 pages in - I was in tears. There is nothing censored in this book; the author exposes his feelings in the rawest way which, in turn hits every one of the reader's most sensitive nerves as well. I'm not sure if any book has made me feel as much as this one did and on such a wide spectrum. I mentioned the letter that had me in tears, but there are some that made me laugh and others that connected me with my own memories. I think this is a book that everyone should read at some point, if only to just reconnect them to their own emotions.

[Billy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hinted at this for a Christmas gift after spotting it on Tice's list; skimming the back cover blurb, I thought it was going to be a Financial-Crisis-Era riff on The Lazlo Letters, which my mom had a copy of growing up and which, like her, is silly and light in its sense of humor. I got about a third of the way through this on Christmas Day before realizing, through the blur of holiday cheer, that it was more sad than funny, that the cover letter conceit was ancillary (although the impersonal entities to which the letters are addressed are characters in the narrative) to the author's purpose, and that the humor was not dadaist but often despairingly cynical. Some lovely and true moments, though.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very fun, very different read. It was also super short (~100 pages?) which made it nice to read quickly. The book is made up of cover letters from the author Joey Comeau applying to every job under the sun. But the cover letters are a twist on traditional cover letters, in that he uses them to illustrate a part of his life and sort of tie it to the company. For example, in applying to General Electric, he describes a memory of him and his brother running up a stairwell at their apartment complex when they were children, stealing the light bulbs from each level, and then throwing them off the top of the building to watch the light bulbs explode below. The writing is very funny, but also dark and a little twisted. Joey seems like a smart guy, but deeply unhappy with his life and he uses these cover letters as an emotional outlet I thought it was a great read.

[Fidan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joey Comeau'nun 2010'dan beri büyük bir hayranıyım, bu kitabın da benim için hep özel bir yeri olmuştur, Türkçe'ye çevrilmesi beni çok mutlu etti.

İlk defa Comeau okuyacak biri için gerçekten çok doğru bir kitap. Joey'nin komedi/çaresizlik/öfke/cinsellik/nostalji/pişmanlık gibi öğeleri, birlikteyken hiç sırıtmayacak bir şekilde aynı sayfada işleyebilmesine hep hayran kalmışımdır, Ben Size Fazlayım bunu sunma konusunda başarılı bir kitap.

Bundan zevk aldıysanız ve yeterli İngilizce seviyesine sahipseniz size Lockpick Pornography, We All Got It Coming ve One Bloody Thing After Another'ı öneririm. Ayrıca kendisini keşfettiğim webcomic serisi olan A Softer World'e de mutlaka göz atın derim.

Not: Joey'nin yazdığı her şeyi okumuş ve profesyonel olarak çeviri yapan biri olarak; bu kitabın çevirisi benim için 7.5/10 değerinde, daha iyi yapılabilirdi ama kötü de değil.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overqualified geniusly employs one of the most original concepts for a story: the author's collection of actual cover letters sent with résumés to major companies chronicle his complicated struggle with failed romance, cultural identity and the death of his younger brother. Hilariously uncomfortable and totally flawed, Comeau's job-seeking persona is not only funny but painfully charming as he inappropriately indulges in cathartic prose in cover letters. Overqualified has genuine charm and is brilliantly funny but is also far too short. I would have loved to see more of this fleshed out before publication. The cost of admission is a bit steep for even this memorable trip down Joey's emotional baggage-laden path. On the other hand, you won't likely read a short story like this ever again.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down one of my favourite books. It's made me laugh and cry, often at the same time.

At the centre of a series of disconnected cover letters (which contain mostly lies) is a tragic story. Each, when taken individually has a dark humour that is witty and clever, but reading them in order builds up a certain sadness that creeps up on you as the true motivation behind the author of the letters becomes ever more clear. It's a book with a lot of thought and messages, not all of which are on the surface and many of which just have to seep in through exposure.

It is a genius idea that is beautifully executed. To say much more would spoil it.

[Kendra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overqualified is a delightfully humorous and surprisingly heartbreaking collection of cover letters addressed to different organizations. Wait... Did you say cover letters? Yes, that's correct. From corporations to cable channels, non-profits to universities, Comeau's letters to potential employers delight us with irreverence and then stab us unexpectedly with some brief, poignant phrase. These letters are so much more than a jab at a silly professional custom, together they weave a delicate and haunting story of love and loss.

[Ian Mathers · Rating 4 out of 5]

My housemate left her copy of this on the coffee table and I read it while waiting for my Chinese food to show up one night, which tells you how quick a read it is; but I was riveted enough that if they delivery had been five minutes earlier I might not have answered the door. Like a lot of people I know Comeau's work from A Softer World, and I'd always meant to get around to reading Overqualified after seeing some bits of it on the site years ago. The whole thing - funny, pointed, sad, moving - did not disappoint.

[Hakim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overqualified is a surprisingly funny, witty and touching collection of job application cover letters written by Joey Comeau himself to various corporations and companies. The letters take unexpected turns when the author starts sharing life experiences and all sorts of childhood and teenage memories.
The sheer originality of this book is a pure delight. Don't let the format put you off, for Joey Comeau makes the reading of cover letters a pure blast!

[Everthere · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overqualified is a short novel of cover letters. It features both funny and poignant moments with clever observations about human relations. Overall it is perhaps a bit too much of a gimmick to stick. A tasty snack rather than a hearty meal but those can be delicious and a real pick-me-up too - and this is what this charming little book is.