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A review by zare_i
Inhuman Resources by Pierre Lemaitre
4.0
While lots of people consider this novel to be satire I have to say I do not see it as such. Reason is I have come across people with characters as those portrayed in this novel and trust me these types of personality are more common in real world than one would admit. As a matter of fact not a single character in this novel is exaggeration of any sort. For me this makes novel very real one (and very sad one).
Alain - mid-level manager (although he likes to say he is working man with no managerial ambitions) who gets let go due to "restructuring within company" feels cheated and considering that he is not anymore in what is considered prime years hits the rock bottom. He decides to achieve his goals no matter what and is ready to walk over the dead bodies if necessary. Did he finally achieve what he wanted? Realistically yes. For those more romantic and idealistic answer would be no. But I would go for realistic.
Charles - Alain's friend. Some would say he is simple, he is not. Where it not for the Charles' of the world, people trusting the system, people that get mauled ever so often by that very system but who keep pushing on there would be no system. When they finally understand they are defeated they are ready to repay any kindness they receive - usually whoever they help forgets them after few minutes. You may call them door-mats I call them reminders of what it is to be human in a world where people trust nobody and are ready to backstab on first possible opportunity.
Nicole (and daughters) - the high morale holders. They are willing to carry the burden but I wonder 'till when. People like Alain are very difficult when things are not going their way so ... lets say it is questionable if his wife would stay with him (since Alain is a storyteller and he is very much in love with his wife we are left assuming she would but then again... would she?). Also daughters tend to come to their parents very often but I do not see them helping a lot (birthday presents notwithstanding) although they are aware of the situation. Pretty opportunistic but again something you see in every day life.
Management of Exxyol and HR company - depictions of your everyday manager. Cool, ruthless and ready to cake themselves in opposition's blood to prove how mighty they are. Until secrets are revealed after which they break down and are rather ready to die then be publicly shamed. They are also very prone to using violence as long as they do not know the details and keep their hands celan. People's lives mean nothing to them.
As for Fontana and his team, these are standard cutthroat types. One of the reviewers said they are not sure how Fontana & co got outsmarted but there was nothing in the novel hinting they were outsmarted. Where it not for the final twist everything would end up very very differently.
I especially liked news like "CEO of X and Y embezzled & billions of Euros", "Exquisite profits for company A, record breaking year" followed by "Unemployment grows" and "Company A had to release thousands of employees due to financial situation" spread throughout the novel - usual dumb news fed to the people. Interestingly majority would just go over it because everybody hopes to be at the top and who cares about the bottom feeders and stragglers. We like to think we are above this as society but we are not. Many people I know who used to talk a lot about corporations' "evil" etc ended up working for the same - no regret at all (plus side being that they stopped with their speeches).
Translation to English is great, story flows so naturally and grabs you from start and you need to stop reading in order to savor the story.
Excellent novel that pushes all the buttons about our society and values in general. One of the defining elements of our society is conflict but one would suspect fellow men would be more sympathetic. Unfortunately in this date and time they are not (although we like to say and think that situation is opposite). Unfortunately man is still a wolf to fellow man.
Highly recommended to fans of thriller and drama genre.
Alain - mid-level manager (although he likes to say he is working man with no managerial ambitions) who gets let go due to "restructuring within company" feels cheated and considering that he is not anymore in what is considered prime years hits the rock bottom. He decides to achieve his goals no matter what and is ready to walk over the dead bodies if necessary. Did he finally achieve what he wanted? Realistically yes. For those more romantic and idealistic answer would be no. But I would go for realistic.
Charles - Alain's friend. Some would say he is simple, he is not. Where it not for the Charles' of the world, people trusting the system, people that get mauled ever so often by that very system but who keep pushing on there would be no system. When they finally understand they are defeated they are ready to repay any kindness they receive - usually whoever they help forgets them after few minutes. You may call them door-mats I call them reminders of what it is to be human in a world where people trust nobody and are ready to backstab on first possible opportunity.
Nicole (and daughters) - the high morale holders. They are willing to carry the burden but I wonder 'till when. People like Alain are very difficult when things are not going their way so ... lets say it is questionable if his wife would stay with him (since Alain is a storyteller and he is very much in love with his wife we are left assuming she would but then again... would she?). Also daughters tend to come to their parents very often but I do not see them helping a lot (birthday presents notwithstanding) although they are aware of the situation. Pretty opportunistic but again something you see in every day life.
Management of Exxyol and HR company - depictions of your everyday manager. Cool, ruthless and ready to cake themselves in opposition's blood to prove how mighty they are. Until secrets are revealed after which they break down and are rather ready to die then be publicly shamed. They are also very prone to using violence as long as they do not know the details and keep their hands celan. People's lives mean nothing to them.
As for Fontana and his team, these are standard cutthroat types. One of the reviewers said they are not sure how Fontana & co got outsmarted but there was nothing in the novel hinting they were outsmarted. Where it not for the final twist everything would end up very very differently.
I especially liked news like "CEO of X and Y embezzled & billions of Euros", "Exquisite profits for company A, record breaking year" followed by "Unemployment grows" and "Company A had to release thousands of employees due to financial situation" spread throughout the novel - usual dumb news fed to the people. Interestingly majority would just go over it because everybody hopes to be at the top and who cares about the bottom feeders and stragglers. We like to think we are above this as society but we are not. Many people I know who used to talk a lot about corporations' "evil" etc ended up working for the same - no regret at all (plus side being that they stopped with their speeches).
Translation to English is great, story flows so naturally and grabs you from start and you need to stop reading in order to savor the story.
Excellent novel that pushes all the buttons about our society and values in general. One of the defining elements of our society is conflict but one would suspect fellow men would be more sympathetic. Unfortunately in this date and time they are not (although we like to say and think that situation is opposite). Unfortunately man is still a wolf to fellow man.
Highly recommended to fans of thriller and drama genre.