Final Accounting: Ambition, Greed and the Fall of Arthur Andersen

Book Description

A withering exposé of the unethical practices that triggered the indictment and collapse of the legendary accounting firm.

Arthur Andersen's conviction on obstruction of justice charges related to the Enron debacle spelled the abrupt end of the 88-year-old accounting firm. Until recently, the venerable firm had been regarded as the accounting profession's conscience. In Final Accounting, Barbara Ley Toffler, former Andersen partner-in-charge of Andersen's Ethics & Responsible Business Practices consulting services, reveals that the symptoms of Andersen's fatal disease were evident long before Enron. Drawing on her expertise as a social scientist and her experience as an Andersen insider, Toffler chronicles how a culture of arrogance and greed infected her company and led to enormous lapses in judgment among her peers. Final Accounting exposes the slow deterioration of values that led not only to Enron but also to the earlier financial scandals of other Andersen clients, including Sunbeam and Waste Management, and illustrates the practices that paved the way for the accounting fiascos at WorldCom and other major companies.

Chronicling the inner workings of Andersen at the height of its success, Toffler reveals "the making of an Android," the peculiar process of employee indoctrination into the Andersen culture; how Androids—both accountants and consultants--lived the mantra "keep the client happy"; and how internal infighting and "billing your brains out" rather than quality work became the all-important goals. Toffler was in a position to know when something was wrong. In her earlier role as ethics consultant, she worked with over 60 major companies and was an internationally renowned expert at spotting and correcting ethical lapses. Toffler traces the roots of Andersen's ethical missteps, and shows the gradual decay of a once-proud culture.

Uniquely qualified to discuss the personalities and principles behind one of the greatest shake-ups in United States history, Toffler delivers a chilling report with important ramifications for CEOs and individual investors alike.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Focuses on the Firm's Culture, Not on Audit Issues.......2006-07-12

This book is an analysis of the culture of Arthur Andersen, from 1913 when Andersen started the firm through its demise. The most interesting aspect of the firm's culture and history is the transition from a focus on reputation and integrity (Andersen's obsession) to the troubled culture focused on generating consulting fees; this allowed fraudulent accounting to go on at Waste Management, Sunbeam, Enron, Worldcom and others. This is really a organizational behavior/human resources book, but it does give the reader a window into the culture of a large firm during an interesting era in accounting history.

This book was a little bit disappointing (for those interested in auditing) because it doesn't focus directly on audit problems. But it is still an worthwhile look at the declining culture of a Big 6 audit firm. It is worth reading for the history and cultural analysis of Arthur Andersen, but it doesn't offer much accounting information outside of that area.

I enjoyed it, though sometimes boring........2005-08-05

Maybe you have experienced a situation, when you are not able to get away from the book you have started to read. From my point of view, that was not that kind of a book. I read it, because I wanted to know something more about Arthur Andersen itself. I found some very interesting things, mostly about their top brasses and their behaviour, but very often I came across sections, which bored me to death (description of day to day work of the author...etc.). Overall, I recommend this book to all of you, who would like to get to know something more about Arthur Andersen and its greedy behaviour.

Interesting, but questionable accuracy and motive.......2005-07-15

The book was an interesting read, but since it was written by an ethics consultant who clearly didn't follow the standards that she is trying to preach, it left a bad taste in my mouth. As other reviewers have mentioned -- the author is jaded, bitter, and angry at herself, but still tries to "teach" the readers a moral lesson. The result is a book that reads quickly but comes across as terribly one-sided and begs the question of whether this is really a fair portrayal or the work of a bitter ex-employee. Read the book for its anecdotal qualities, not for its ethics lessons or its historical accuracy and insight.

A biased, but excellent book.......2005-06-27

Final Accounting offers an inside view into the Arthur Andersen disaster. The book is not so much about people or events, but the modern corporate culture (especially in the accounting field) that has gone awry.

The author excels at covering the split between the accounting and consulting group, which ultimately led to AA's downfall. The author is biased, but never claims otherwise. However, for an "ethics expert", she seems as culpable as those she blames. Much time is spent talking about her enemies, business, and tenure at Harvard. Despite this, the book pulls through with some solid material. It's worth it - if you can pick it up used.

Interesting read from a bitter insider........2004-11-01

The Good: Great examples of ethical quandries facing those in registered companies, consulting groups and public auditing firms. It reads like a novel, entertaining to those with an interest in corporate culture and a short attention span. It also provides a great overview of the other literature written about the core topic--This might be a great first week assignment in a class called "The Fall of Arthur Andersen".

The Bad: Tends to be a bit preachy, self-righteous, apologetic and hypocritical--often all at once. It skips over a lot of relevant details, tends to get a little repetitive and needs to be read with a cynical eye if your purpose is to gather "the truth" about Arthur Andersen.

The Ugly: Everything in the book is perfectly plausible, which is scary. While Toffler tends to betray herself on the way to a "lesson", it is best used as an example of what not to do and what to look out for, rather than a chronicle of what happened. If you're looking for an intro into the accounting world, you should probably look elsewhere--almost any of the books written that Toffler references.

Product Description

Ecuador¡¦s impressive fiscal performance of 2003 is encouraging, but fragile. Several structural bottlenecks could impede fiscal discipline and recovery, which is a pre-condition to develop a poverty reduction agenda. Tax earmarkings and exemptions and an expansive payroll and pensions bill have reduced to a minimum the available fiscal space for development needs. Reversing poverty trends is critical for the country¡¦s stability, and this can only be achieved with well-targeted, effective and efficient pro-poor programs. The status quo is not an option for poverty reduction. Preserving a sound fiscal position and deepening positive social outcomes is well within reach. Among the country¡¦s many strengths are: a prolonged oil windfall; the existence of and compliance with fiscal rules; decreasing arrears that should fully disappear in 2004, substantive progress on social outcomes despite decreasing budgets; and a series of on-going reforms on budget management. If reforms are to succeed, they have to be pro-poor. Ecuador¡¦s fiscal stress and poor budget management is deeply rooted in a governance system benefiting the elites, be it reflected on pro-rich subsidies, especially on basic infrastructure; off-budget operations that prevent transparency and foster corruption, or regressive transfers to subnational governments explained by party politics. The challenge for the Government is to provide more effective, efficient, sustainable and equitable assistance to the poor.

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"Ecuador's impressive fiscal performance of 2003 is encouraging, but fragile. Several structural bottlenecks could impede fiscal discipline and recovery, which is a pre-condition to develop a poverty reduction agenda. Tax earmarkings and exemptions and an expansive payroll and pensions bill have reduced to a minimum the available fiscal space for development needs. Reversing poverty trends is critical for the country's stability, and this can only be achieved with well-targeted, effective and efficient pro-poor programs. The status quo is not an option for poverty reduction. Preserving a sound fiscal position and deepening positive social outcomes is well within reach. Among the country's many strengths are: a prolonged oil windfall; the existence of and compliance with fiscal rules; decreasing arrears that should fully disappear in 2004, substantive progress on social outcomes despite decreasing budgets; and a series of on-going reforms on budget management. If reforms are to succeed, they have to be pro-poor. Ecuador's fiscal stress and poor budget management is deeply rooted in a governance system benefiting the elites, be it reflected on pro-rich subsidies, especially on basic infrastructure; off-budget operations that prevent transparency and foster corruption, or regressive transfers to subnational governments explained by party politics. The challenge for the Government is to provide more effective, efficient, sustainable and equitable assistance to the poor. "

Book Description

Equality in law between men and women in the European Community is an integral part of the EC's social policy and crucial to its economic and social cohesion. This 15-Volume Encyclopedia analyzes the legal framework for equal opportunities which now exists in the Community due to the adoption of EC Directives on equal treatment, equal pay and social security, and to the work of the European Court of Justice in this area. It looks at how the EC Directives have been implemented and interpreted in each Member State, and at the other legislative and constitutional provisions affecting the principle of equality. All the principal legal provisions are reproduced or translated. Extracts from or digests of national case law are also included. Each volume is structured so that Member States's provisions on equality can be directly compared. The editors of this Encyclopedia are Michel Verwilghen, Professeur ordinaire a la Faculte de Droit, Universite catholique de Louvain, and Ferdinand von Prondzynski, Professor of Law and Dean of the Law School, University of Hull. A French version of this text has been published through Les Editions juridiques Bruylant, Brussels.

Women in Academia and Equality Law: Aiming High, Falling Short? Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom (Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations)

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Women in Academia and Equality Law: Aiming High, Falling Short? Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom (Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations)

Manufacturer: Aspen Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 9041124276

Book Description

Although European policy initiatives to advance the position of women in Academia (and especially in science) have proliferated, both at national and EU levels, serious inequities of many kinds remain. This situation is exposed and investigated in this outstanding book, which presents reports and discussions from a two-day conference held at the Law Faculty of Lund University in December 2004. The participants law professors and social scientists present detailed reports on domestic experiences and regulations in eight European countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Among the many provocative issues raised and explored are the following:

positive action in theory and practice;
the progress of the EU Commission s strategy to integrate equal opportunity into all Community policies and activities;
the motives for promoting women in Academia;
the importance not only of setting targets but of funding to achieve them;
the extensive group of part-timers and fixed-term employees at the margin of the traditional academic career;
the importance of creating a situation in Academia where woman excellence shows; and
the development of marketable research disciplines embodied in private research institutes.

Book Description

In this era of globalization, new forms of diversity co-exist with longstanding patterns of systemic discrimination in employment on the basis of gender, race, religion, ethnicity or culture, disability, aboriginal status or immigrant status. Several countries have responded to discrimination by implementing affirmative action or employment equity policies. These proactive approaches seek to end and prevent discriminatory employment practices and to work toward a workplace that is representative of the diversity of the labour market.

Workplace Equality provides theoretical perspectives on systemic discrimination in employment and an overview of policy and institutional responses in eight countries, focusing on affirmative action and employment equity policies. Chapters contributed by leading experts from each country examine workplace equality policies in Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, South Africa and the United States. Legislation, policy development, implementation and effectiveness are situated within the changing political context of each country, and legal as well as social issues and debates are examined.

As a unique international comparative survey and assessment of affirmative action and employment equity policies, Workplace Equality is a sourcebook for researchers, practitioners and students in the fields of public policy, employment law, sociology, industrial relations and human rights.

Advies voorontwerp Wet Gelijke Behandeling: Advies inzake het voorontwerp van een wet gelijke behandeling, uitgebracht aan de staatssecretaris van Sociale ... (Publikatie / Sociaal-Economische Raad)

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Advies voorontwerp Wet Gelijke Behandeling: Advies inzake het voorontwerp van een wet gelijke behandeling, uitgebracht aan de staatssecretaris van Sociale ... (Publikatie / Sociaal-Economische Raad)
Sociaal-Economische Raad
Manufacturer: Sociaal-Economische Raad
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 9065870342

De Algemene Wet Gelijke Behandeling (Publikatie van de Rechtskundige Afdeling van het Thijmgenootschap)

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De Algemene Wet Gelijke Behandeling (Publikatie van de Rechtskundige Afdeling van het Thijmgenootschap)
B. P Vermeulen
Manufacturer: Tjeenk Willink
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 9027134588

Effectuering van sociaal-economisch recht volgens de chaostheorie: Beleidsinstrumentering en rechtshandhaving van (supra)nationaal gelijke-behandelingsrecht ... enforcement of (supra)national equality law

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Effectuering van sociaal-economisch recht volgens de chaostheorie: Beleidsinstrumentering en rechtshandhaving van (supra)nationaal gelijke-behandelingsrecht ... enforcement of (supra)national equality law
Albertine Veldman
Manufacturer: W.E.J. Tjeenk Willink
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 9027142866

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Gelijkheid en recht (Recht en welzijn)

Manufacturer: Tjeenk Willink
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ASIN: 9036800498

Het verschoningsrecht van de journalist: Preadvies van T. Koopmans. Gelijkheid van man en vrouw in het nationaliteitsrecht : debat over het preadvies van ... Vereniging voor Rechtsvergelijking ; no. 26)

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Het verschoningsrecht van de journalist: Preadvies van T. Koopmans. Gelijkheid van man en vrouw in het nationaliteitsrecht : debat over het preadvies van ... Vereniging voor Rechtsvergelijking ; no. 26)
Thijmen Koopmans
Manufacturer: Kluwer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 9026810628

Interpretatie in het straatsrecht: Interimverslag van een onderzoek naar rechtsvorming in relatie tot grondrechten (Mededelingen van het Juridisch Instituut van de Erasmus Universiteit)

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Interpretatie in het straatsrecht: Interimverslag van een onderzoek naar rechtsvorming in relatie tot grondrechten (Mededelingen van het Juridisch Instituut van de Erasmus Universiteit)

Manufacturer: Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 9068560069

Nota gelijke behandeling mannen en vrouwen: Nota gelijke behandeling mannen en vrouwen, uitgebracht aan de ministers van Justitie, van Sociale Zaken, van ... (Publikatie / Sociaal-Economische Raad)

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Nota gelijke behandeling mannen en vrouwen: Nota gelijke behandeling mannen en vrouwen, uitgebracht aan de ministers van Justitie, van Sociale Zaken, van ... (Publikatie / Sociaal-Economische Raad)

Manufacturer: Sociaal-Economische Raad
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 9065870040

Book Description

What do chalk, limestone and marble have in common? They are all composed of calcium carbonate with the chemical formula CaCO3.The diversity of uses of this mineral are just as multifarious as the diversity of its compounds encountered in nature. Calcium Carbonate - From the Cretaceous Period into the 21st Century presents all the facets of this white mineral, thereby uniting the entire world of calcium carbonate within its covers - its geology, art history, extraction and processing and, self-evidently, its uses in modern industry.The most important limestone deposits, the role of marble in antiquity, and the characteristics of calcium carbonate as a pigment and filter for paper, plastics and paints, are all presented in a concise, readily understandable form.This makes the book an invaluable companion in the day-to-day work of the specialist in industry and research, and it gives interested laymen access to the complex interdependencies of this fascinating mineral.

Customer Reviews:

Life-altering.......2003-09-10

I'm a big fan of books that give the sweeping histories of common, overlooked substances, particularly when they use language that a layman can understand. (One of my favorites is The 13th Element, which gives the complete history of phosphorus and its promethean relationship to mankind.) Dealing with Calcium Carbonate, this book lives up to its ambitious title, showing how the mineral has influenced everything in civilization, from the earliest chalk artworks, to the plastic on our keyboards. Read this book and you will never look at limestone or paper or a bottle of Tums the same way again. Calcium is as indispensible a part of our experience on earth as carbon or oxygen or nitrogen or cadmium, or any other elements. And what's most remarkable about this book is that it's compelling for everyone. As most of you can probably already infer--I'm not the brightest bulb around. Yet I was enlightened and entertained, from the Cretaceous Period straight through to today. Nice work.

Book Description

Although the theory behind solitary waves of strain shows that they hold significant promise in nondestructive testing and a variety of other applications, an enigma has long persisted-the absence of observable elastic solitary waves in practice. Inspired by this apparent contradiction, Strain Solitons in Solids and How to Construct Them refines the existing theory, explores how to construct a powerful deformation pulse in a waveguide without plastic flow or fracture, and proposes a direct method of strain soliton generation, detection, and observation. The author focuses on the theory, simulation, generation, and propagation of strain solitary waves in a nonlinearly elastic, straight cylindrical rod under finite deformations. He introduces the general theory of wave propagation in nonlinearly elastic solids and shows, from first principles, how its main ideas can lead to successful experiments. In doing so, he develops a new approach to solving the corresponding doubly dispersive equation (DDE) with dissipative terms, leading to new explicit and exact solutions. He also shows that the method is applicable to a variety of nonlinear problems. First discovered in virtual reality, nonlinear waves and solitons in solids are finally moving into the genuine reality of physics, mechanics, and engineering. Strain Solitons in Solids and How to Construct Them shows how to balance the mathematics of the problem with the application of the results to experiments and ultimately to generating and observing solitons in solids.

Customer Reviews:

See a prominent scholar review written by Prof. G. Maugin.......2001-10-09

Professor Gerard Maugin
in:
(ASME) Applied
Mechanics Reviews,
Vol.54, No.4, July 2001, pp.B61-B62.

Look the professional review written by:.......2001-10-09

Professor G Maugin.
(ASME) Applied Mechanics Reviews,
Vol.54, No.4, July 2001, pp.B61-B62.

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Great short story - lousy book

Out of Body Experience in a Pancake House

Nothing more seductive -- and dangerous -- than pancakes

Taking the novel to a new place

Great experimental yet accesible novel

The Verificationist: A Novel
Donald Antrim
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679769439
Release Date: 2001-03-27

Amazon.com

The narrator of Donald Antrim's The Verificationist is a middle-aged psychotherapist who meets a handful of colleagues at a pancake house one evening to engage in the seemingly innocuous activity of socializing while eating stacks of fried batter. What commences is a psychosexual deadpan comedy fraught with academic grandstanding, subtle flirting, and lots of good eatin'. Before long, Tom decides to start a food fight, but is restrained in a bear hug by Bernhardt, the father figure of the group. Our hero then proceeds to have an out-of-body experience in which he eavesdrops on his cohorts and ruminates on such things as the very essence of the pancake:

We eat pancakes to escape loneliness, yet within moments we want nothing more than our freedom from ever having so much as thought about pancakes. Nothing can prevent us, after eating pancakes, from feeling the most awful regret. After eating pancakes, our great mission in life becomes the repudiation of the pancakes and everything served along with them, the bacon and the syrup and the sausage and coffee and jellies and jams. But these things are beneath mention, compared with the pancakes themselves. It is the pancake--Pancakes! Pancakes!--that we never learn to respect.

Antrim's prose, at home somewhere between the psychologist's couch and a diner's Naugahyde booth, follows this tack for just shy of 200 pages, without chapter or page breaks. Readers familiar with the writer's earlier novels, The Hundred Brothers and Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World, will spot this as his preferred modus operandi.

Tom, likewise, follows in the tradition of Antrim's other narrators--a timid yet well-meaning intellectual training his considerable observational and confessional skills upon a tableau at once pathetically banal and rife with meaning. Antrim has a talent for creating characters who speak contemporary psychobabble that falls far short of explaining the absurdity of their dilemmas. Rebecca, the pulchritudinous teenage waitress, and Escobar, Tom's suave Mediterranean friend, not only play their hour upon stage with earnest precision but serve to accentuate Tom's essentially pitiful nature. While Antrim's cast this time out is considerably downsized (literally 100 brothers appeared in The Hundred Brothers), he remains a writer who delights in bouncing disparate characters off one another with hilarious, disastrous results.

In plumbing the pathologies of millennial manhood, The Verificationist is part Robert Bly men's retreat, part sex comedy, and part doctoral thesis. It is served up like a combo platter, best enjoyed in a single sitting, and undeniably tasty. --Ryan Boudinot

Book Description

With The Verificationist, Donald Antrim, acclaimed author of The Hundred Brothers, confirms his place as one of America's strangest and fiercely intelligent young writers.

One April night, a group of psychologists from the Krakower Institute meet at a pancake house, where they order breakfast foods and engage in shop talk and the occasional flirtation. At the center of this maelstrom of pyschobabble and unrequited lust sits Tom, program coordinator for the Young Women of Strength, who has been known to sob uncontrollably at meetings. When Tom tries to initiate a food fight, a rival psychologist bear hugs him into submission, resulting in an out-of-body experience that leaves our Tom hovering over his colleagues. In the hands of Donald Antrim, this unique perspective becomes an exuberantly funny riff on our culture that does nothing less than expose the core of emotions underlying the most basic of human needs.

Customer Reviews:

Great short story - lousy book.......2007-07-20

This book worked for about the first 30 pages and then not at all after that. The idea of a bunch of screwed up shrinks getting together was very creative and the execution of it was hysterical. The whole thing about the out-of-body experience didn't work and the book went downhill from there. I felt like I was wasting my time and couldn't wait until this book was over. I skipped a bunch of pages toward the back and resumed reading at the end, but it never got as good as in the beginning.

Out of Body Experience in a Pancake House.......2004-02-05

This 179-page novella is in a way the stream of consciousness of Tom, a middle-aged pyschologist who, meeting with his colleagues in a lower end pancake house, tries to start a food fight when a rival colleague, a burly man with a swollen ego, puts our narrator in a bear hug upon which Tom has an out of body experience in which he does a glorious exposition on the nature of pancake houses. The real business of this absurd (I mean that as a compliment), allegorical novel is to poke fun at the human need for safety, for mother, for the womb, all embodied by the pancake house. Tom's quest for a mother in the metaphorical sense compels him to invite his colleagues at this pancake emporium every year or so where they try to mend the their bruised egos, a quest that backfires. Antrim's major conflict in the novel is the human drive for safety vs. our utter sense of helplessness in this metaphysical parody, which showcases Antrim's brilliant writing skills. Why only four stars? Because after about 100 pages, I grew a bit tired of the metaphysical explorations. Similar themes are pursued with far more intensity and efficacy in my opinion in Antrim's 20-page essay, "I Bought a Bed," published in Best American Essays 2003.

Nothing more seductive -- and dangerous -- than pancakes.......2002-09-11

Antrim is probably my favorite "literary fiction" writer. Up until this point, his unreal invocations of worlds that are loosely connected to our own are the perfect places for his self-centered, monologuing protagonists.

THE VERIFICATIONIST, unfortunately, is less fantastic. It takes place in an entirely plausible pancake house, in a mostly plausible New Englandish town, with a slightly less plausible group of blathering shrinks sitting around trying to avoid talking either "shop" or each others sex lives, which is more or less the same thing.

Tom, the protagonist, ruminates endlessly, both before and during his infamous out-of-body experience. The soliloquies range from the tedious, as he contemplates various aspects of his profession, or his surprisingly mundane conflict with his wife. On the other end, you have the amazing speculations, like the digression on pancakes and their demon-hold on the human psyche. Also waiting to give you the creeps are his appalling weaknesses. His interest in the teenage waitron serving his party is thinly-veiled as he encourages her to join his Young Women of Strength discussion group.

It is hard to say why this book doesn't drive me as much as Antrim's previous efforts. I suspect it has much to do with the setting. While pancake houses and their denizens often offer their own particular horrors, they don't carry the atmospheric menace that existed in the 100 Brother's crumbling library, or Mr. Robinson's aggressively paranoid neighborhood. I'm afraid I need the obvious -- the violence. The only violence in this book either never actually happened, or is limited to an aborted food fight. Yes, give me DIE HARD over THE AGE OF INNOCENCE any day. There, I've faced my shame.

All this is to say that this book is still a fascinating read, though it ultimately seems less "fun" than Antrim's other books. The difference, the other books dealt with physical torture, like drawing-and-quarterings, or human sacrifice, while this one resides in the realm of the emotional torture of listening to the angst-ridden droning of a high-school literary magazine editorial meeting. Trust me, bring on the Vogon poetry!

Taking the novel to a new place.......2001-11-23

Somehow I think the definitive novel is one that is free to say anything about anything as Antrim does here and in his other novels. The trick is( or the art is) if its enjoyable and interesting. Antrim 'Verificationist' takes writing freedom to it's limits in a wonderful spell-binding way.Strange, beautiful, very funny masterpiece. It seems perfect while being unlike any book one has ever read.

Great experimental yet accesible novel.......2001-07-12

This book is not for everyone, but it was an inspirational delight to me. It's so nice to read something so playful. To me it comes across like a fun intellectual flight of fancy. Basically, a neurotic man attends a pancake dinner which he orgnized for his fellow clinical psychologists. When it comes his turn to order, he is panicked by indecision. Soon he gets a mischiveous urge to start a food fight, and a colleague restrains him in a bear hug. He apparently has a nervous breakdown, because for the rest of the evening--and the rest of this zippy novel--he has something like an out-of-body experience, flying near the ceiling looking down on the events of the rest of the evening, thinking about his relationships, and imagining a scenario where he flies away with the waitress--to the local Revolutionary War burial mound. Yet he's also locked tight in Bernhardt's grip all evening. It makes no sense, because neither scenario feels like the literal truth (how could he be held in a suffocating lock all night?)--but it works.

Now that's the setup, which is interesting enough, but what I like is the zany way it allows the author to create a character unbounded by normal rules of realism. We see the workings of a mind that is very educated yet comically and wildly lacking in self-awareness. A psychologist who's an utter psychological mess. Every ten pages or so I found myself laughing out loud at--they're too unusual to call them punchlines--moments when this contradiction comes through pointedly. (It cracks me up that his escapist fantasies are as messed up as his real life.) The author writes hilariously about a modern Peter Pan's life, riffing on the New England town he lives in, with its brand new hospital with the Egyptian pyramid-style top and its book warehouse, and its amusingly trivial role in Revolutionary War history. It's the kind of story where people court one another with remarks like, "Was that the documentary on Madagascar, by any chance?...With the tree lemurs?" or "Are you saying that people have UFO sightings as a substitute for working through their sexual hysterias?" The novel reminds me a bit of the writing of Mark Leyner but also Italo Calvino, a great combination. Can't wait to read his earlier novel.

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