This book is the debut novel of an Australian writer named Max Barry, who originally published this in 1999 under the name Maxx Barry, before deciding the extra x wasn’t necessary. I bought this book back in 2009 and absolutely loved it. It was one of those books that once I started reading it I couldn’t put it down, and i read the whole thing in one sitting. But I just found out this weekend that this book was also adapted into a film, which came out in 2013. I have no idea how I missed this.
Well, I mean, I guess I do, as I looked it up and saw it was released on Video on Demand, with only a limited theater release and made on a budget of under $3 million. So it was basically an indie project, with not a ton of promotion. I can see how it would slipped under my radar at the time. Anyway, I instantly had to look up and watch the film.
It’s nowhere near as good as the book.
The co-stars, Shiloh Fernandez and Amber Heard, do a great job in their roles, with excellent chemistry, almost perfectly embodying the characters as I saw them in my head while reading the novel (except Heard’s character is a brunette in the novel, not a blonde), but Kellan Lutz plays a character who is Japanese in the novel, which was the first completely unnecessary change that stood out to me. The film is sort of a dark comedy, with some clever writing and dialog, especially when the characters randomly break the fourth wall to address the audience. But some significant characters and subplots are removed from the film, with an entirely new third act and a less-than-happy ending. I know changes are often necessary for book-to-film adaptions, especially a book like this which features real-life corporate name brands and appearances by several major celebrities, (and Barry himself co-wrote the script with the director of the film, so he must have been happy with the changes). But after a good start, the film fell apart for me about halfway through
Nevertheless, after finishing it I felt compelled to re-read the novel, so I bought the ebook version for my Kindle, noticing that it’s now published under the one-x and has a new cover inspired by the movie.
The tagline of this novel could be Image Is Everything or Perception Is Reality (that latter phrase is repeated several times in the novel). It’s narrated by our lead character, a man named Michael George Halloway who, opening graduating from college as a marketing major, adopted the name Scat, because a unique name is part of self-marketing, and it’s something all of the major characters in this book have done.
Scat lives with his roommate from college, who goes by the name Sneaky Pete, He’s from Tokyo, and very rarely speaks, which adds to his aura of mystery. Despite rarely speaking and always wearing sunglasses, he apparently has a very expressive face, as Scat is able to have full one-sided conversations with him
Scat had no real ambitions in life, other than to be rich and famous, he even fell into marketing by accident. His plan, such as it is, is to come up with one Big Idea, which can make him rich and famous. That idea randomly hits him one day, a new soda called FUKK. Thanks to Sneaky Pete, Scat manages to get a meeting with the New Marketing Products Manager at Coca-Cola, a woman named 6.
6 is stunningly beautiful, making Scat instantly smitten with her, although it’s clear, not just by her name, that she’s just as image-minded as Scat is. It’s hard to tell what she says is true and what is just part of her image, including whether or not she’s actually a lesbian, although she has a wall-sized nude picture of Elle McPherson hanging in her office just to prove it. 6 likes the idea for FUKK, and plans to take it to her Board of Directors, but just as Scat’s dreams appear to be coming true, his life turns into a nightmare.
Sneaky Pete steals the idea of FUKK and ends up being the one who sells it to Coca-Cola (never trust a guy who chooses to call himself “sneaky”), leaving Scat aimless and then eventually homeless. A few months later Sneaky Pete screws over 6 too, and she brings in Scat to help her on a new ad campaign in order to regain control of the FUKK brand. But Sneaky Pete is always one step ahead of them, and screws them over again.
The rest of the book is a whirlwind of corporate machinations that make The Bold And The Beautiful look like a kid’s show on the Disney Channel. I don’t want to spoil too much of what happens (you really should read this book for yourself), but inexplicably Scat and 6 wind up back at Coca-Cola, reluctantly working under Sneaky Pete to complete the biggest advertisement for Coke in the history of soda advertisements which could either make their careers or break them.
And I use the word “inexplicably” just to say that there are a lot of things in this novel that you’ll probably think are completely unrealistic (like the inventive ways Scat talks himself into getting a free Porsche to impress 6 on their first meeting) but it’s so fun that you don’t mind and will just go along with it. Along the way, we meet characters like Sneaky Pete’s assistant @ (I presume it’s pronounced “at”) and Cindy, an aspiring model whom Scat briefly works as her agent who eventually changes her name to…Babe-A-Licious.
Clever, witty, and irreverent, the most shocking thing about it is that it’s Barry’s debut novel, as you’d think it was written by a seasoned pro. Chacebook rating: FIVE STARS
Categories: BOOKS
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