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Mar 15, 2010

Courtney added it

I picked this up last night and got about 50 pages in before I reluctantly put it down, so I could sleep, and then I woke up and finished it before I physically got up to drink coffee. Reading before coffee! It's possible to do that, you know. I wouldn't have believed it before today. I am now living proof.

ANYWAY. Overqualified is a novel told in cover letters (if you're a fan of A Softer World, yer probably no stranger to Overqualified), by a dude named--oddly enough!-- Joey Co More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 20, 2012

notgettingenough rated it:

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 tenta More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2011

Colleen rated it:

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 ri More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 19, 2012

Manny rated it:

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 stre More...

11 comments like (31 people liked it)

Mar 14, 2009

Benjamin rated it:

Overqualified by Joey Comeau is not so much a book as it is an experience. Or rather, it is a set of experiences, both his and your own. Through the artful cover letters that constitute your glimpse into Joey's life, you see back into your own. Your experiences. As I sat and read this book in an abandoned college town during spring break, the ghosts of my past and future came and read with me. I could recall all of the past letters that I had composed pouring out my heart in an odd jumble of exp More...

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Dec 28, 2009

Billy rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 28, 2009

Lori rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 27, 2011

Madeleine rated it:

I ran across a webcomic called "A Softer World" years ago. This webcomic is equally sad, touching, strange and hilarious. I imagine if ghosts sat around and made comics, it would be that comic. But instead of ghosts, it is actually alive Canadians!

Anyway, Joey Comeau is one half of that brilliant duo and sometimes he does other stuff like write things. This book is a little treasure of letters written to corporations commenting on product, cover letters for jobs, and other ra More...

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Jul 06, 2011

Aaron rated it:

Brilliant. At times, laugh out loud hilarious, and at other times poignant and insightful, sometimes even to the point of depressing. Some of the cover-letters feel deeply personal and cathartic self-realizations about oneself, while most are simply irreverent and absurd. While reading them they personally made me reflect about the nature of the cover-letter, and just how much bullshit we try to shove about ourselves. Short stories full of these practically inconsequential descriptions of our go More...

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Apr 07, 2009

Mina rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 09, 2009

John rated it:

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 particularl More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 18, 2009

Sean rated it:

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, v More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2009

Warnie B. rated it:

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!

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 29, 2009

Ezra rated it:

I've never needed more than one sitting to finish anything of Joey's. Sure his stuff is pretty short, but it's also really really good. Overqualified gives you a glimpse into a man's life through a series of comical and heartbreaking cover letters. Familiar scenarios are given a fresh and interesting perspective in a number of these letter. My only gripe is that I sort of think Adrian was a dick and would have driven me nuts had I known him.

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Jun 04, 2010

Carl rated it:

This book sits in my living room on a coffee table. Whenever the mood strikes, I pick it up and open to a page and read a letter. If I find the letter to be particularly funny, I dog-ear the page. The book has been on the table for nearly a year now, and all but three pages are dog-eared. I love this book, and I've read it in a non-chronological fashion ten or twelve times at this point. Highly recommended for coffee tables everywhere.

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Apr 29, 2009

Corey rated it:

"Let's give Canadian author Joey Comeau this much credit: he's made the writing of cover letters seem like a pleasure. More importantly, he's made the reading of said letters a joy. And in the process, he's provided an epistolary novel that surprises, moves, and makes one chuckle incessantly on the plane ride home. OK, that's a personal experience, but you get the gist: Overqualified is one gem of a read."

Read the full review here. More...

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Dec 07, 2011

Kendra rated it:

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 More...

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Jun 15, 2009

David rated it:

If this book doesn't make you giggle and occasionally find yourself nodding with recognition when Comeau writes something so gloriously deviant yet nevertheless so goddamn true, so accurate, so revelatory of the human experience, then you're living under so many layers of safe, cozy denial that it's beyond sad.

Of course, if it does, you got bigger problems.

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Oct 10, 2011

Graham rated it:

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." More...

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Mar 07, 2011

Steven rated it:

Overqualified is a collection of humorous cover letters sent by joey Comeau to various companies and organizations about employment. It is a great idea but the big joke here gets old about half way through the book through I do think it is an overall a great idea (especially when you think about the poor HR person whos job it is to read every cover letter) and the writing is clever but in the end this is a one laugh premise stretched out for a 100 pages.

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Feb 24, 2011

Travis rated it:

With sparse brush strokes, Comeau paints a strangely compelling novel. This book is a journey through anecdotes and emotional states, and somehow the whole thing works. Affective, effective, whatever. This guy is good. Pick this up if you like novels that feel like poetry, or poetry that reads like a novel.

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Sep 09, 2009

Everthere rated it:

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.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 02, 2011

Kevin rated it:

Interesting idea, not very well executed. You do get some sense of the writer from his various ‘cover letters’, but there’s no real story involved, no real characterization, and after the first dozen or so, they really just blend together. (Fortunately, it’s also very short.)

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Sep 15, 2010

Tristan rated it:

I loved how Mr. Comeau wrote this book. Just brilliant and originally done. Who'd have thought to tell a story while giving characters depth and criticizing myriad different corporations all in the form of cover letters? Not an easy thing to do and he not only does it, but makes an interesting story out of it too.

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Mar 25, 2009

Karen rated it:

Being in Canada, I wanted to learn about a new Canadian author. This collection of fictitious application cover letters began hysterical and absurd, but then opened up into a deeper level of sadness and regret. It was unpredictable, the best compliment I can give to a piece of art.

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Dec 11, 2011

Bposin2 rated it:

This was one of the best books I have ever read. Joey Comeau represents a new style of writing that draws readers in and holds their interest. His writing is certainly unusual. All I can say is that I don't think there is anyone out there who wouldn't be affected in some way by his work.

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Sep 03, 2010

bannikin rated it:

I love this book. I love its format and its content. I love the quirky style and the heart-felt threads. I love the way it made me keep laughing even as it closed in on stark emotional truths. My hat goes off to Joey Comeau. He made this look so easy. I'm impressed.

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Jul 31, 2010

David rated it:

My God did I ever enjoy this book.
Laugh out loud funny and by the next page you're misty eyed, Joey Comeau did an incredibly good job at weaving an underlying story through the guise of a series of cover letters.
Highly recommended for everyone.

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Jul 17, 2009

Mark rated it:

Joey Comeau's slim book of cover letters are anything but the soulless missives that I and a bazillion other job-seekers spit out daily to HR departments around the globe. They're funny, painful, and well worth reading. [ full review ]

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Jun 12, 2009

Greg rated it:

This book is 94 pages.
It starts on page 7.
There are 12 completely blank pages in this book.
I am very happy I did not buy this book.

There are a few chuckles and a few good spots but overall stick with his web comic A Softer World, it's much better.

4 comments like

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