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A review by jasonfurman
Fear and Trembling by Amélie Nothomb
5.0
Brilliant, mesmerizing, laugh-out-loud funny, insightful, I recommend reading Fear and Trembling-like other Amélie Nothomb books--in a single sitting. This one begins with the narrator describing her position as a Westerner in the hierarchy of a Japanese corporation (she's at the bottom) and ends with her going through the different people in the hierarchy to resign her position at the end of the year. In between it chronicles her relationships to her superiors in hilarious black comic manner, often spinning out extensive monologues of what she would say to them if she didn't have any self restraint. In the course of it, you get an interesting window into Japanese corporate culture, hierarchy, attitudes towards women, and the concepts around "saving face".
Much of the book centers around the narrator being held back by her immediate boss, a 29 year-old woman who is jealous that this new entrant might be promoted much more quickly than she had been. As a result the narrator's brief attempt to escape into more interesting work is squelched with her denunciation by her immediate boss and leads to a set of cruel consequences for the people around her. Although some of the figures are stereotypes (including the obligatory for a Nothomb novella grossly obese, warped character), they vary and present a rich variety of how people cope with the stresses of operating in hierarchies with life tenure.
Much of the book centers around the narrator being held back by her immediate boss, a 29 year-old woman who is jealous that this new entrant might be promoted much more quickly than she had been. As a result the narrator's brief attempt to escape into more interesting work is squelched with her denunciation by her immediate boss and leads to a set of cruel consequences for the people around her. Although some of the figures are stereotypes (including the obligatory for a Nothomb novella grossly obese, warped character), they vary and present a rich variety of how people cope with the stresses of operating in hierarchies with life tenure.