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e #2
e Squared
Hijinks galore among the deliriously funny ad men and women in this electronic epistolary novel
e 's wickedly hilarious crew from the Miller Shanks Ad Agency is back with more office shenanigans. The staff has moved on to Meerkat360, a sleek and self-consciously hip boutique agency, where they are joined by a fresh cast of industrial-strength nutjobs. Through e-mails, texts, and blog entries they pitch ad campaigns—Estée Lauder's new Margaret Thatcher perfume, anyone?—mangle love lives, and barely navigate office and family politics.
Armed with the acid wit of e upgraded with the full arsenal of modern cyber tools, e2 leaves you rolling on your cubicle floor and snorting vile vending-machine coffee out of your nostrils.
e 's wickedly hilarious crew from the Miller Shanks Ad Agency is back with more office shenanigans. The staff has moved on to Meerkat360, a sleek and self-consciously hip boutique agency, where they are joined by a fresh cast of industrial-strength nutjobs. Through e-mails, texts, and blog entries they pitch ad campaigns—Estée Lauder's new Margaret Thatcher perfume, anyone?—mangle love lives, and barely navigate office and family politics.
Armed with the acid wit of e upgraded with the full arsenal of modern cyber tools, e2 leaves you rolling on your cubicle floor and snorting vile vending-machine coffee out of your nostrils.
505 pages, Paperback
First published January 26, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 146 reviews
February 2, 2010
Let me see if I can sum up how much I enjoyed this book. I parked my car on the same block as my apartment at about 10:15 PM or so. I picked up my copy of e2 and thought I'd go through a couple more pages. I actually got into my apartment at 12:30 AM, having burned through the last 240+ pages without stopping.
Did I mention that I didn't have the heat in the car on? And that here in Boston it's a nice, mellow 27 degrees right now? Didn't care. Didn't even feel it. Everytime I thought "It's getting cold/late" I thought "just to the end of this chapter." And that's how I read half the book.
I loved e (the original). One of my all time favorite books for it's warm ridiculousness. e2 did absolutely nothing to let it (or me) down. The characters you already knew managed to show 9 years of growth while still being the people you loved the first time around. The new characters fit in seemlessly, but still managed to be themselves and not placeholders.
As for what the book is about...it doesn't really matter. It's funny and it makes you think about life a bit. If you're asking more than that out of a book you may be depending on books a little too much.
No, that sounded pretentious. Try this. The plot did everything it could to resist a happy ending. The whole "there's someone for everyone, all you need is love, friends will see you through" sort of thing? Total bollocks. In fact, life is insane, unpredictable, and scary, so we might as well be good to each other, love each other, and help out where we can because we all deserve it, even if we don't.
Unless you're a loan shark. Or Simon Horne.
And it was funny! I'm not going to say something profound like "We all need a laugh." But I needed a laugh, and so does everyone I know. And I laughed well and heartily here (I'm sorry to say that every time I remember the phrase "I just googled 'African Machete Death!'" I still chortle. I'd better avoid my Amnesty International friends for the time being). I should add that while it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny, Caroline's last Out of Office AutoReply on page 482 is perfect (if you've already read the rest of the book). It's the kind of thing that was written by someone who isn't just naturally funny, but who has a deep and true understanding of comedy.
So thanks to Matt Beaumont for giving David Crutton a soulmate (in the form of Ted Berry), for introducing Roisin the foul mouthed receptionist, and for not only resurrecting Liam O'Keefe but also turning him into one of the surprisingly deepest characters I've read in a long time.
Did I mention that I didn't have the heat in the car on? And that here in Boston it's a nice, mellow 27 degrees right now? Didn't care. Didn't even feel it. Everytime I thought "It's getting cold/late" I thought "just to the end of this chapter." And that's how I read half the book.
I loved e (the original). One of my all time favorite books for it's warm ridiculousness. e2 did absolutely nothing to let it (or me) down. The characters you already knew managed to show 9 years of growth while still being the people you loved the first time around. The new characters fit in seemlessly, but still managed to be themselves and not placeholders.
As for what the book is about...it doesn't really matter. It's funny and it makes you think about life a bit. If you're asking more than that out of a book you may be depending on books a little too much.
No, that sounded pretentious. Try this. The plot did everything it could to resist a happy ending. The whole "there's someone for everyone, all you need is love, friends will see you through" sort of thing? Total bollocks. In fact, life is insane, unpredictable, and scary, so we might as well be good to each other, love each other, and help out where we can because we all deserve it, even if we don't.
Unless you're a loan shark. Or Simon Horne.
And it was funny! I'm not going to say something profound like "We all need a laugh." But I needed a laugh, and so does everyone I know. And I laughed well and heartily here (I'm sorry to say that every time I remember the phrase "I just googled 'African Machete Death!'" I still chortle. I'd better avoid my Amnesty International friends for the time being). I should add that while it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny, Caroline's last Out of Office AutoReply on page 482 is perfect (if you've already read the rest of the book). It's the kind of thing that was written by someone who isn't just naturally funny, but who has a deep and true understanding of comedy.
So thanks to Matt Beaumont for giving David Crutton a soulmate (in the form of Ted Berry), for introducing Roisin the foul mouthed receptionist, and for not only resurrecting Liam O'Keefe but also turning him into one of the surprisingly deepest characters I've read in a long time.
April 15, 2020
This is an epistolary novel, in that it is written entirely in emails and text messages. It is a hugely entertaining novel about a year in an advertising agency. Zany and completely politically incorrect. I must admit that I laughed a lot, which was a nice change from my usual reading.
February 24, 2011
So about a year ago this book came out and I thought it looked super awesome. But I didn't read it, instead I read the first one. I'd like to say cause this was hard cover and I was waiting but it looks like this wasn't ever in hardcover here, maybe it was and I'm not looking hard enough.
Now to recap according to my first review I read E in one shot walking along the hudson river, must have been a long walk, but it sounds like something I would have done so it's probably true. This book I read over 2 or 3 days (which is longer than it should have taken, it clearly can be read in one) mostly on the subway or while eating grill cheese sandwiches once in the middle of the night cause I was pissed at michael and david and I couldn't sleep.
Now after I read the first book I had no intention of reading this one, mostly out of pretentiousness, lets be honest here, last year I was more concerned with looking like an idiot. Reading one book written in email that's considering the form reading multiple... well that's laziness, well now I want the one inbetween (the e before christmas,if you want to buy it for me) and all his other books. Who cares about looking stupid.
A bit ago Karen asked me why I kept wanting to buy books I thought would be bad. First I think I use the word bad differently than some people. For me there is a strong floor effect with badness, basically there are many books I would just never read or even consider so probably what I'm calling bad has a tendency to be closer to the mediocre side of bad and is better called lowbrow. Second, the thing about lowbrow is if you are reading a book that's lowbrow and the author knows it, it relieves a lot of the pressure that causes annoying things to happen in literary novels. I mean if you are already writing something that won't be a prise winner you can just do it your way no need to pander to the literati (no offense to those books that do I love you to). So when I'm all stress and unhappy and I can't really focus I can go back on my previous positions pull out my friend matt beaumont and we can bond over the fact that this is a ludicrous, hilarious, and mostly plotless book. And god it was a shitload of fun.
Now to recap according to my first review I read E in one shot walking along the hudson river, must have been a long walk, but it sounds like something I would have done so it's probably true. This book I read over 2 or 3 days (which is longer than it should have taken, it clearly can be read in one) mostly on the subway or while eating grill cheese sandwiches once in the middle of the night cause I was pissed at michael and david and I couldn't sleep.
Now after I read the first book I had no intention of reading this one, mostly out of pretentiousness, lets be honest here, last year I was more concerned with looking like an idiot. Reading one book written in email that's considering the form reading multiple... well that's laziness, well now I want the one inbetween (the e before christmas,if you want to buy it for me) and all his other books. Who cares about looking stupid.
A bit ago Karen asked me why I kept wanting to buy books I thought would be bad. First I think I use the word bad differently than some people. For me there is a strong floor effect with badness, basically there are many books I would just never read or even consider so probably what I'm calling bad has a tendency to be closer to the mediocre side of bad and is better called lowbrow. Second, the thing about lowbrow is if you are reading a book that's lowbrow and the author knows it, it relieves a lot of the pressure that causes annoying things to happen in literary novels. I mean if you are already writing something that won't be a prise winner you can just do it your way no need to pander to the literati (no offense to those books that do I love you to). So when I'm all stress and unhappy and I can't really focus I can go back on my previous positions pull out my friend matt beaumont and we can bond over the fact that this is a ludicrous, hilarious, and mostly plotless book. And god it was a shitload of fun.
November 2, 2010
I first tried reading e Squared last year, but didn’t find it particularly amusing, and so gave up. But, this year, I decided to give it another go; I’m glad I did, because this time, I found the novel hilarious.
e Squared is a follow-up to Matt Beaumont’s debut novel e, and its short sequel The e Before Christmas (both published 2000). It concerns a London advertising agency (sorry, I mean “thought collective”) called Meerkat360, and is told entirely through emails, instant-message and SMS conversations, and blog posts. I haven’t read either of the two earlier books, but, although I inevitably missed some of the context, it didn’t matter too much – enough time has passed in fictional terms for e Squared to pretty much stand alone.
Since so much of the fun of reading Beaumont’s novel lies in discovering the absurdities of its characters and situations, I won’t reveal too much here. But the cast of e Squared includes: David Crutton, the CEO of Meerkat360, whose relationship with his wife Janice becomes so strained at times that they resort to communicating with each other via their PAs; Liam O’Keefe, whose debts are so large that he’ll filch anything he can from the office and sell it on eBay; the hopelessly naive Harvey Harvey, who doesn’t understand the concept of spam email, and is deeply concerned about all the lonely girls who keep emailing him; and Caroline Zitter, who’s forever out of the office at some outlandish seminar or other. I’m holding back a little in my descriptions, there; the absurdities of these (and other) characters are turned right up to the maximum.
The events of e Squared are also gloriously daft. The Creative Department of Meerkat360 employs various staff to enhance their creativity, including a hairdresser and clown (much to the consternation of David Crutton). Some of the agency’s commissions are rather dubious (e.g. cigarettes with added vitamins and minerals – “your 5 a day”). A former creative director of Miller Shanks (the forerunner to Meerkat360) has retired to France, from where he chronicles his life in blog posts that nobody reads. Transworld Publishers make a cameo appearance, and are shown to have some of the same emailing habits as Meerkat360 (though surely it’s not like that in real life…).
What really adds an extra dimension to e Squared for me is the way that Beaumont uses the epistolary form for effect. For example, the first chapter intercuts Janice Crutton’s annual Christmas email to her family and friends – which paints life in the Crutton household as a model of familial happiness and harmony – with other emails and exchanges which suggest a rather different reality. And there are times when the distancing effect of having events reported to us in emails, rather than “witnessing” them directly, gives the humour a deadpan quality.
But, you know, e Squared is a whole lot funnier to read than it is to describe like this. So I shall stop there and just suggest that you go and read it.
e Squared is a follow-up to Matt Beaumont’s debut novel e, and its short sequel The e Before Christmas (both published 2000). It concerns a London advertising agency (sorry, I mean “thought collective”) called Meerkat360, and is told entirely through emails, instant-message and SMS conversations, and blog posts. I haven’t read either of the two earlier books, but, although I inevitably missed some of the context, it didn’t matter too much – enough time has passed in fictional terms for e Squared to pretty much stand alone.
Since so much of the fun of reading Beaumont’s novel lies in discovering the absurdities of its characters and situations, I won’t reveal too much here. But the cast of e Squared includes: David Crutton, the CEO of Meerkat360, whose relationship with his wife Janice becomes so strained at times that they resort to communicating with each other via their PAs; Liam O’Keefe, whose debts are so large that he’ll filch anything he can from the office and sell it on eBay; the hopelessly naive Harvey Harvey, who doesn’t understand the concept of spam email, and is deeply concerned about all the lonely girls who keep emailing him; and Caroline Zitter, who’s forever out of the office at some outlandish seminar or other. I’m holding back a little in my descriptions, there; the absurdities of these (and other) characters are turned right up to the maximum.
The events of e Squared are also gloriously daft. The Creative Department of Meerkat360 employs various staff to enhance their creativity, including a hairdresser and clown (much to the consternation of David Crutton). Some of the agency’s commissions are rather dubious (e.g. cigarettes with added vitamins and minerals – “your 5 a day”). A former creative director of Miller Shanks (the forerunner to Meerkat360) has retired to France, from where he chronicles his life in blog posts that nobody reads. Transworld Publishers make a cameo appearance, and are shown to have some of the same emailing habits as Meerkat360 (though surely it’s not like that in real life…).
What really adds an extra dimension to e Squared for me is the way that Beaumont uses the epistolary form for effect. For example, the first chapter intercuts Janice Crutton’s annual Christmas email to her family and friends – which paints life in the Crutton household as a model of familial happiness and harmony – with other emails and exchanges which suggest a rather different reality. And there are times when the distancing effect of having events reported to us in emails, rather than “witnessing” them directly, gives the humour a deadpan quality.
But, you know, e Squared is a whole lot funnier to read than it is to describe like this. So I shall stop there and just suggest that you go and read it.
July 14, 2010
E2 is a loose sequel to E - we pick up with some of the characters about eight years after the events of E. These characters include David Crutton (MD Extraordinaire), Liam O'Keefe (Advertising Wide Boy) and Susi Judge-Davis (Moronic and Overly-sensitive PA - who is now triple barrelled and sort of related to JP Gaultier). In this book, as well as emails, Beaumont has added in blogs, ebay entries, and text messages to show the communication between each of the characters.
The basic story (beneath the goings-on that fill up the rest of the plot) is that David Crutton is going through marriage/kid problems; and Liam O'Keefe is struggling with mounting debts.
I had a blast reading E and, superficially, also enjoyed this sequel, but I feel I am unlikely to read it again because it was just so far-fetched. I mean, E was also pretty unrealistic, but this takes it even further.
We have a character who is constantly absent from the office on courses; Harvey Harvey who responds to spam email as though it is for real (and ends up travelling to Nigeria); a character so scared of flying that, through a series of bizarre incidents, ends up being arrested as a member of Al Quaeda (despite being Jewish); and so on.
Some parts of the novel are genuinely funny - I love Roisin the hard-nosed and foul-mouthed receptionist, and Dotty (David's PA) is so dense it becomes amusing. In fact, the bitchy PAs are the best part of this book.
However, Beaumont does not hit the right note with other parts of the book - Neil Godley (the twin brother of Nigel, from E) is boring, rather than a character you can instantly recognise from your own office; Liam's thefts become farcical rather than funny; and the Big Brother subplot is genuinely ridiculous.
It is diverting enough and a very quick read, but not on a par with E. Pretty disappointing.
The basic story (beneath the goings-on that fill up the rest of the plot) is that David Crutton is going through marriage/kid problems; and Liam O'Keefe is struggling with mounting debts.
I had a blast reading E and, superficially, also enjoyed this sequel, but I feel I am unlikely to read it again because it was just so far-fetched. I mean, E was also pretty unrealistic, but this takes it even further.
We have a character who is constantly absent from the office on courses; Harvey Harvey who responds to spam email as though it is for real (and ends up travelling to Nigeria); a character so scared of flying that, through a series of bizarre incidents, ends up being arrested as a member of Al Quaeda (despite being Jewish); and so on.
Some parts of the novel are genuinely funny - I love Roisin the hard-nosed and foul-mouthed receptionist, and Dotty (David's PA) is so dense it becomes amusing. In fact, the bitchy PAs are the best part of this book.
However, Beaumont does not hit the right note with other parts of the book - Neil Godley (the twin brother of Nigel, from E) is boring, rather than a character you can instantly recognise from your own office; Liam's thefts become farcical rather than funny; and the Big Brother subplot is genuinely ridiculous.
It is diverting enough and a very quick read, but not on a par with E. Pretty disappointing.
February 18, 2010
I bought this book incidentally on the Innsbruck airport because I liked the cover. Though the flight only took an hour I was on page 100 when I left the plane in Berlin. Took only some hours more until I finished it. Very entertaining and very hard to put down.
The book mostly consists of e-mails, sms’ and private messages so you have to reconstruct the stories behind all these messages. Confusing in the beginning but it doesn’t take too long to recognize the voices and their individuality. The best thing is: the funniest stories are not told directly but only in pieces you have to put together. And the further the stories go the more these pieces fit together. The best characters are those who don’t actually appear in person: Vince, Papin and the arab princess (and Barack Obama). The best jokes (as I said: not told): The office thief, the rock-concert in Helsinki, David’s tattoo, the not-gay Milton at „Big Brother“, the Serbian detective with his unorthodox technique to reanimate a Tobacco-tycoon with lung-cancer, the Nigerian Heiress (really alive!), le Blogue Franglais, and a British Jew arrested in the US as islamic terrorist for owning a picture of the North-Korean dictator. I could go on for a while but I think it’s enough to recommend the book for everyone who has to take a flight from Innsbruck to Berlin.
The book mostly consists of e-mails, sms’ and private messages so you have to reconstruct the stories behind all these messages. Confusing in the beginning but it doesn’t take too long to recognize the voices and their individuality. The best thing is: the funniest stories are not told directly but only in pieces you have to put together. And the further the stories go the more these pieces fit together. The best characters are those who don’t actually appear in person: Vince, Papin and the arab princess (and Barack Obama). The best jokes (as I said: not told): The office thief, the rock-concert in Helsinki, David’s tattoo, the not-gay Milton at „Big Brother“, the Serbian detective with his unorthodox technique to reanimate a Tobacco-tycoon with lung-cancer, the Nigerian Heiress (really alive!), le Blogue Franglais, and a British Jew arrested in the US as islamic terrorist for owning a picture of the North-Korean dictator. I could go on for a while but I think it’s enough to recommend the book for everyone who has to take a flight from Innsbruck to Berlin.
February 18, 2016
I doubt this book will appeal to everyone, I suspect many readers of "serious fiction" will be quick to dismiss its informal style of writing and vulgar humour.
However, and I'm not ashamed to admit it, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!
I can't remember the last time I laughed so much when reading a book. I'm glad I never read it whilst on a bus or train, I'm sure it would have generated some curious looks from the other passengers as almost every page made me laugh out loud!
The book is written in a variation of the epistolary format, in this case the whole story is revealed through a series of emails, sms messages, online chats, web pages, etc. Due to the informal nature of such communications, the story is easy to read and moves fast, in fact, I read the whole book in a single sitting. But more than anything, the book is incredible funny.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever worked in a modern office, especially if they enjoy contemporary British humour!
However, and I'm not ashamed to admit it, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!
I can't remember the last time I laughed so much when reading a book. I'm glad I never read it whilst on a bus or train, I'm sure it would have generated some curious looks from the other passengers as almost every page made me laugh out loud!
The book is written in a variation of the epistolary format, in this case the whole story is revealed through a series of emails, sms messages, online chats, web pages, etc. Due to the informal nature of such communications, the story is easy to read and moves fast, in fact, I read the whole book in a single sitting. But more than anything, the book is incredible funny.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever worked in a modern office, especially if they enjoy contemporary British humour!
October 16, 2009
Oh oh oh, I have just finished reading this book and i want to read it again. The book has some great characters from the last book. must warn you though that you shouldn't read this while drinking in an public area because you are bound to spill your drink on someone because you were laughing so much.
I love this book so much, I love the way people email each other about everything - and the receptionist is so funny. and Harvey Harvey and the Nigerian Heiress, hahaha. Please read this book, I promise you will love it.
I love this book so much, I love the way people email each other about everything - and the receptionist is so funny. and Harvey Harvey and the Nigerian Heiress, hahaha. Please read this book, I promise you will love it.
February 21, 2015
A decade ago, Matt Beaumont wrote what was one of the earliest, if not the first, book using only E-Mails. "E" was a hilarious look behind the walls of an advertising agency and was by turn ridiculous and hilarious. The follow up, "The E Before Christmas" was a shameless cash in, but after several years and several other books, some written in a slightly more regular format, Beaumont has returned to his original format, if not exactly to the scene of the crime.
This time around, we follow the staff of an advertising agency (now known as a "Thought Collective") called Meerkat360. As with the earlier book, we are introduced to the main characters and how the business works (or, frequently, doesn't) very early on. This time around this is achieved thanks to an annual family circular from Janice Crutton and from a catch up E-Mail from Liam O'Keefe to his mate Brett Topolski.
We swiftly get to meet the remaining cast of characters who will take us through this first month of 2009 at Meerkat360. There are some familiar faces, added to by the foul-mouthed Roisin O'Hooligan on reception and the P. A. Staff; Dotty, who lives up to her name completely and Milton Keane, who is so far in the closet that the next thing he sees is going to be Narnia. Add to this an Art Director who can kill a pit bull with his bare hands and restart a man's heart with a laptop as well as the slightly mentally challenged Harvey Harvey and you can tell it's going to be an interesting, if rather silly, ride once again.
We get to follow the month at Meerkat 360 as they attempt to present a rather strange list of celebrity perfume scents to one client, whilst try to find ways of selling cigarettes in a market that doesn't allow overt cigarette promotion. This whilst trying to battle with office thefts and one member of staff ending up in Guantanamo Bay whilst another is constantly off on self awareness away days. There are long lunches between some of the staff who get on well and catfights and insults between some of the ones who don't get on so well - often the same people!
There's a widening of scope of the story here compared to the last time, following the personal lives of the characters even more so than their professional ones. This results in some interesting side trips into Liam and Lorraine's break up, Milton's attempts at suicide and to get onto "Big Brother" and the slowly imploding family situation at the Crutton home. Perhaps most amusing, however, are the accounts of how Ted Berry spends his time out of the office. Personally and professionally, the cast of characters here are lurching from disaster to disaster and whilst it's entirely unbelievable, it's also almost entirely funny.
This time around, Beaumont takes advantage of the advances in communication since the original book and it's not just E-Mails, but SMS messages, MSN conversations, some blog posts and even a couple of voicemail messages. E-Mails are to the fore, but it's great to see that Beaumont has kept up with advances and the additional types of post allows for some amusing longer posts and to get some thoughts from people who aren't on the Meerkat360 E-Mail list and so may have been missed out otherwise. Especially as one of those people in Simon Horne, an inclusion which will delight fans of the earlier book, especially given what happens to him and the family Van Helden, who previous Beaumont readers will also be very familiar with.
There are some aspects to the story where it helps to have read Beaumont's earlier work, "E", but this is not essential. Indeed, as a fan of the previous books, I frequently found myself wondering what had happened during the intervening years. Frequent references to an event that must have happened before the opening to this book about "the thing with the thing" bemused me as much as it would do new readers to the series. There are parts that will seem to have been clearly missed to readers new to Beaumont, but the previous fan is in not much of a stronger position regarding events, merely with some of the characters.
Whether you've read Beaumont before or not, you need to be able to put credulity to one side, as there's next to none of it here. Everything is exaggerated to the point where it becomes unbelievable, particularly with such a small cast of characters. However, this doesn't mean what goes on isn't ridiculously funny at times. The "Winter Sun" fiasco and the stories around that, as well as the BizzyJet incidents are unlikely, but superbly done and some of the titles of the away days Caroline Zitter ends up on are highly amusing. Amusingly, it's what Liam O'Keefe gets up to that stretches the imagination the most and this has an extra hilarity to it, as he seems one of the more mature characters in his E-Mails, yet not by his actions.
For anyone who hated "Who Moved My Blackberry?", this is proof that a book written in E-Mails can be done well in the right hands. For anyone who enjoys a book that will make them laugh, but doesn't mind a little juvenile humour, this will entertain greatly. For those who have read Beaumont's previous work, particularly "E", this is one not to be missed.
This review may also appear, in whole or in part, under my name at any or all of www.ciao.co.uk, www.thebookbag.co.uk, www.goodreads.com, www.amazon.co.uk and www.dooyoo.co.uk
This time around, we follow the staff of an advertising agency (now known as a "Thought Collective") called Meerkat360. As with the earlier book, we are introduced to the main characters and how the business works (or, frequently, doesn't) very early on. This time around this is achieved thanks to an annual family circular from Janice Crutton and from a catch up E-Mail from Liam O'Keefe to his mate Brett Topolski.
We swiftly get to meet the remaining cast of characters who will take us through this first month of 2009 at Meerkat360. There are some familiar faces, added to by the foul-mouthed Roisin O'Hooligan on reception and the P. A. Staff; Dotty, who lives up to her name completely and Milton Keane, who is so far in the closet that the next thing he sees is going to be Narnia. Add to this an Art Director who can kill a pit bull with his bare hands and restart a man's heart with a laptop as well as the slightly mentally challenged Harvey Harvey and you can tell it's going to be an interesting, if rather silly, ride once again.
We get to follow the month at Meerkat 360 as they attempt to present a rather strange list of celebrity perfume scents to one client, whilst try to find ways of selling cigarettes in a market that doesn't allow overt cigarette promotion. This whilst trying to battle with office thefts and one member of staff ending up in Guantanamo Bay whilst another is constantly off on self awareness away days. There are long lunches between some of the staff who get on well and catfights and insults between some of the ones who don't get on so well - often the same people!
There's a widening of scope of the story here compared to the last time, following the personal lives of the characters even more so than their professional ones. This results in some interesting side trips into Liam and Lorraine's break up, Milton's attempts at suicide and to get onto "Big Brother" and the slowly imploding family situation at the Crutton home. Perhaps most amusing, however, are the accounts of how Ted Berry spends his time out of the office. Personally and professionally, the cast of characters here are lurching from disaster to disaster and whilst it's entirely unbelievable, it's also almost entirely funny.
This time around, Beaumont takes advantage of the advances in communication since the original book and it's not just E-Mails, but SMS messages, MSN conversations, some blog posts and even a couple of voicemail messages. E-Mails are to the fore, but it's great to see that Beaumont has kept up with advances and the additional types of post allows for some amusing longer posts and to get some thoughts from people who aren't on the Meerkat360 E-Mail list and so may have been missed out otherwise. Especially as one of those people in Simon Horne, an inclusion which will delight fans of the earlier book, especially given what happens to him and the family Van Helden, who previous Beaumont readers will also be very familiar with.
There are some aspects to the story where it helps to have read Beaumont's earlier work, "E", but this is not essential. Indeed, as a fan of the previous books, I frequently found myself wondering what had happened during the intervening years. Frequent references to an event that must have happened before the opening to this book about "the thing with the thing" bemused me as much as it would do new readers to the series. There are parts that will seem to have been clearly missed to readers new to Beaumont, but the previous fan is in not much of a stronger position regarding events, merely with some of the characters.
Whether you've read Beaumont before or not, you need to be able to put credulity to one side, as there's next to none of it here. Everything is exaggerated to the point where it becomes unbelievable, particularly with such a small cast of characters. However, this doesn't mean what goes on isn't ridiculously funny at times. The "Winter Sun" fiasco and the stories around that, as well as the BizzyJet incidents are unlikely, but superbly done and some of the titles of the away days Caroline Zitter ends up on are highly amusing. Amusingly, it's what Liam O'Keefe gets up to that stretches the imagination the most and this has an extra hilarity to it, as he seems one of the more mature characters in his E-Mails, yet not by his actions.
For anyone who hated "Who Moved My Blackberry?", this is proof that a book written in E-Mails can be done well in the right hands. For anyone who enjoys a book that will make them laugh, but doesn't mind a little juvenile humour, this will entertain greatly. For those who have read Beaumont's previous work, particularly "E", this is one not to be missed.
This review may also appear, in whole or in part, under my name at any or all of www.ciao.co.uk, www.thebookbag.co.uk, www.goodreads.com, www.amazon.co.uk and www.dooyoo.co.uk
September 2, 2021
Mild chuckles. Not as good as his first. But still fun.
January 5, 2010
Going in to "E Squared," I had no idea it was a sequel to an earlier novel.
Thankfully, the novel is accessible enough that you don't have to have read the first book to enjoy this one, but I have a feeling a few of the jokes might have been funnier if I'd read the first one.
Told through the use of blogs, e-mails and other on-line communications, "E Squared" tells the story of Meerkat360, an advertising agency that is full of fascinating people and interesting personalities. Matt Beaumont is able to give each person his or her own voice in the novel, making it easy to follow who is speaking or telling part of their story. The novel has some laugh out loud moments in it, including the running joke about items from the company disappearing and then an E-Bay listing suddenly appearing.
Of course, there are some plotlines that will generate more interest than others. I found the story of the harried company executive and his wife who are expecting a new child in their 40s to be well done, as are the the moments and problems they have in raising their two teenage children. Also interesting is trying to piece together exactly what is happening around the company based on the conflicting information given by the various e-mailers in the story.
Thankfully, the novel is accessible enough that you don't have to have read the first book to enjoy this one, but I have a feeling a few of the jokes might have been funnier if I'd read the first one.
Told through the use of blogs, e-mails and other on-line communications, "E Squared" tells the story of Meerkat360, an advertising agency that is full of fascinating people and interesting personalities. Matt Beaumont is able to give each person his or her own voice in the novel, making it easy to follow who is speaking or telling part of their story. The novel has some laugh out loud moments in it, including the running joke about items from the company disappearing and then an E-Bay listing suddenly appearing.
Of course, there are some plotlines that will generate more interest than others. I found the story of the harried company executive and his wife who are expecting a new child in their 40s to be well done, as are the the moments and problems they have in raising their two teenage children. Also interesting is trying to piece together exactly what is happening around the company based on the conflicting information given by the various e-mailers in the story.
August 7, 2010
Really enjoed this book. Talk about an environment that has no concept of the politically correct!!! Hilarious!
Would have given it 5-stars except for one thing- a couple of the characters were based in Dubai and the Author showed a typically Western lack of respect and understanding for Islam and Arab culture, which kind of detracted from my enjoyment of the book.
Then again, the book is all about a TOTAL lack of P.C., what could have I expected!
Did I mention that I read it in a day? It's THAT good!
Definitely recommend.
Would have given it 5-stars except for one thing- a couple of the characters were based in Dubai and the Author showed a typically Western lack of respect and understanding for Islam and Arab culture, which kind of detracted from my enjoyment of the book.
Then again, the book is all about a TOTAL lack of P.C., what could have I expected!
Did I mention that I read it in a day? It's THAT good!
Definitely recommend.
December 6, 2020
I love this series by Matt Beaumont, which follows hilarious misadventures in advertising narrated entirely in emails. Absolutely brilliant!
December 22, 2025
The Miller Shanks gang are back and this time a few of them are working for Meerkat360, an ad agency with its own in-house hairstylist, and comfort room that includes a ball pit. Follow the trials and tribulations of a workplace, that creates a cigarette campaign targeted at children, and has someone stealing anything that isn't nailed down.
I loved the original e and the e before christmas, reading them in a few hours and this was no different, this time the unbelievable situations have been ramped up. Staring off gently, it soon ramps up to the point where there is, security that would make the Stasi think twice, is implemented, a staff member ends up suspected of terrorist activities, another turns up at their own wake, and a former Miller Shanks creative director become an unexpected hit author.
One of the things that struck me was, this feels a little like a time capsule, where the first was all emails, this uses blogs and myspace, which aren't as widely used as they were, compared to email which is still widely used, ironically, this later published book has dated itself, where the original still feels
contemporary, and the website for Meerkat360 mentioned in the back of the book, was built in flash and no longer exists.
Overall well worth a read, though some of the language used by characters, is casually racist.
I loved the original e and the e before christmas, reading them in a few hours and this was no different, this time the unbelievable situations have been ramped up. Staring off gently, it soon ramps up to the point where there is, security that would make the Stasi think twice, is implemented, a staff member ends up suspected of terrorist activities, another turns up at their own wake, and a former Miller Shanks creative director become an unexpected hit author.
Christmas bestsellersBy the end I was laughing really hard at the more surprising things that were happening.
1 Dordogne Twilight - Simon Horne
2 Harry Potter and the hallucinogenic gap year - some bigot
3 Ramsay's Soup Kitchen - Gordon Ramsey
4 Can I really get away with more of this reactionary drivel - jeremy clarkson
5 Blimey, Looks like I can - jeremy clarkson
One of the things that struck me was, this feels a little like a time capsule, where the first was all emails, this uses blogs and myspace, which aren't as widely used as they were, compared to email which is still widely used, ironically, this later published book has dated itself, where the original still feels
contemporary, and the website for Meerkat360 mentioned in the back of the book, was built in flash and no longer exists.
Overall well worth a read, though some of the language used by characters, is casually racist.
January 12, 2021
Kurzer Auszug aus HansBlog.de:
Möglicherweise ist dieses Buch etwas vulgärer als die anderen E-Mail-Romane von Beaumont – vierbuchstabige Unflätigkeiten kursieren auf Englisch und auf Französisch (da lernt man was), eine Romanfigur beschwert sich sogar darüber. Viel zu platt auch Agenturmensch Harvey Harvey, der auf einen Nigeria-Scam hereinfällt, sein Geld verliert und nach Lagos fliegt.
Mehr noch: Die französischen Ungehörigkeiten und der Nigeria-Scam werden mit einigen Dutzend Seiten Abstand noch erklärt, als ob der Leser ein Doofi sei.
Gegen Ende zeigt das Buch verblüffend rührende Momente, und vermeintlich tragische Entwicklungen lösen sich in Wohlgefallen auf – so softie schrieb Beaumont zuvor nicht.
Möglicherweise ist dieses Buch etwas vulgärer als die anderen E-Mail-Romane von Beaumont – vierbuchstabige Unflätigkeiten kursieren auf Englisch und auf Französisch (da lernt man was), eine Romanfigur beschwert sich sogar darüber. Viel zu platt auch Agenturmensch Harvey Harvey, der auf einen Nigeria-Scam hereinfällt, sein Geld verliert und nach Lagos fliegt.
Mehr noch: Die französischen Ungehörigkeiten und der Nigeria-Scam werden mit einigen Dutzend Seiten Abstand noch erklärt, als ob der Leser ein Doofi sei.
Gegen Ende zeigt das Buch verblüffend rührende Momente, und vermeintlich tragische Entwicklungen lösen sich in Wohlgefallen auf – so softie schrieb Beaumont zuvor nicht.
August 11, 2022
(3,5 stars) started off really great but there were a lot of side stories and themes or characters that i got very tired of. makes me want to give it away and buy the first one. was nice reading about all of my old buddies from last summer and some parts were brilliant. would read the third book if there was one. but there isnt. so im just gonna dump this guy and buy the first. still quite glad i read it. although now i wonder if the first will come off just as vulgar and off putting on my second read bc of changes in my sense of humour. perhaps last summer i would have appreciated this book more.
June 13, 2020
Just as funny as the first volume, but now feeling a little dated...
Having read both E and E2 at the time of release, I was in the mood for a funny read. The jokes are still, on the whole funny, but under current attitudes, many could be seen as racist, sexist and homophobic. But - and it’s a big but - when taken in context of the thoroughly unpleasant characters uttering these comments, they work in the same manner as satire does.
Having read both E and E2 at the time of release, I was in the mood for a funny read. The jokes are still, on the whole funny, but under current attitudes, many could be seen as racist, sexist and homophobic. But - and it’s a big but - when taken in context of the thoroughly unpleasant characters uttering these comments, they work in the same manner as satire does.
October 8, 2017
Very poor 2nd/ follow up. I think all the gags had been done in the first book and so many of them were simply recycled here... and it all got rather silly, stupid and unbelievable... whereas the first book, although it was wacky was, IMHO, plausible!
Won't make it to my book shelves - will go straight to the charity shop!
Won't make it to my book shelves - will go straight to the charity shop!
August 28, 2019
If you are a sum collection of all the experiences you've ever had, then the Miller Shanks crew is a veritable compendium of bad choices spread far and wide. They're all back, and this time with an even bigger mess to fix. E Squared is the same bag of laughs as the first book, plus little bit extra.
September 6, 2017
Not as hilarious as the first book, but funny enough in some parts. Still a must read for any ad man or woman - or a client interested in behind-the-scenes of a digital agency. I recommend leaving at least a couple of months between this and the first book. Profoundly enjoyed I found my hometown Brno mentioned in the book :)
March 27, 2019
Just hilarious...and pretty much what some offices are like
E Squared is perhaps even funnier then the original "E" novel. I hope Beaumont continues to keep readers laughing for a long time to come.
E Squared is perhaps even funnier then the original "E" novel. I hope Beaumont continues to keep readers laughing for a long time to come.
March 3, 2020
I really enjoyed this book. I didn't love it like I did the first one, but I did enjoy it quite a bit. I could have done without the blog posts; I found those a bit tedious to get through, especially the French. The many subplots made it a bit harder for me to get into the book compared to the first one, though I liked that we saw many of our old friends. It definitely felt busier, and I felt it could have been streamlined a bit. I still definitely want to read The E Before Christmas, and e is still one of my favorite books that I reread when I need something wacky and fun. I don't know that I'll reread this one, but I'm glad that I read it, and I had a good time.
November 21, 2024
I was a little worried that I would like this installment less because of the gap between books, but it was still highly enjoyable. I liked the additions of SMSs and the new characters added perfectly to the mayhem.
January 11, 2025
I have read this book probably 5x. It’s on my top 10 list of books. I don’t know if it’s because I worked at ad agencies for a decade or if it’s just that damn good. But I belly laugh every time I read this. Belly laugh. Thoroughly enjoyed this book!
June 16, 2017
Clever, funny and definitely a book of the 21st century! I really enjoyed it!
July 21, 2018
I love Matt's books. Utterly hilarious and does capture human interactions in a way that mirrors corporate life
August 31, 2018
I don’t know how Matt’s books aren’t more popular. They are simply brilliant and hilarious.
June 30, 2019
Similar to the first book, it was a quick, light read. Took a bit more time to get going and get invested in the story/characters, but it did pick up. Still a fan of the epistolary form.
March 30, 2020
Laughing out loud
Just like the original e. this follow up had me laughing all the way through. Should come with a disclaimer!
Just like the original e. this follow up had me laughing all the way through. Should come with a disclaimer!
November 13, 2021
Kind of like The Office…funny satire (especially for those familiar with agency life…) but some of the humor hasn’t stood the test of time and is not exactly politically correct these days
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