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The Man Whose Name Wouldn't Fit
- GenresFiction
206 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 20, 2011
The titular character, Arthur Duane Cartwright-Chickering, is fired from his job because the new computer that processes employee files cannot handle his long name. From this rather unlikely premise (why can’t management, and the machine, refer to him by a shortened name, even if Arthur himself refuses to shorten it?), a sort of Luddite committee develops, as he and some sympathetic friends use the accidental discovery of a plastic-eating fungus to commit acts of vandalism against large companies.
The book suffers from a surfeit of minor characters and a dearth of characterization, and the writing’s rather stilted at times. But there’s something of Philip Dick’s paranoid touch to the plot, and there are a few unexpected twists along the way, even if the ending is deus ex machina.
The book suffers from a surfeit of minor characters and a dearth of characterization, and the writing’s rather stilted at times. But there’s something of Philip Dick’s paranoid touch to the plot, and there are a few unexpected twists along the way, even if the ending is deus ex machina.
January 13, 2015
Like a cross between 'Fight Club' and 'Your Chance to Live', this book is a meandering sluggish diatribe against... what? Technology? Modernization? Plastic?
The protagonist seems to have more vitriol for the new computer that can't process his name than for the men who decided to fire him for it. Likewise, more rage at the beer bottle he slipped on than at the litterbug who left it there. All of his complaints stem from the system and from people, but he insists on blaming the tools.
The fact that he decides to attempt acts of anonymous sabotage with no message or explanation, instead of starting a wrongful termination suit or even just organizing an awareness campaign makes him come across as an unsympathetic, angry old man.
The protagonist seems to have more vitriol for the new computer that can't process his name than for the men who decided to fire him for it. Likewise, more rage at the beer bottle he slipped on than at the litterbug who left it there. All of his complaints stem from the system and from people, but he insists on blaming the tools.
The fact that he decides to attempt acts of anonymous sabotage with no message or explanation, instead of starting a wrongful termination suit or even just organizing an awareness campaign makes him come across as an unsympathetic, angry old man.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews