The Deep Whatsis
A Novel
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3.2 • 13 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
The Deep Whatsis follows a brilliant antihero staggering into madness as he navigates among Brooklyn hipsters, advertising tyrants, corporate hypocrisy, and the ghosts of his past.
Meet Eric Nye: player, philosopher, drunk, sociopath. A ruthless young Chief Idea Officer at a New York City ad agency, Eric downsizes his department, guzzles only the finest Sancerre, pops pills, and chases women. Then one day he meets Intern, whose name he can’t remember. Will she be the cause of his downfall, or his unlikely awakening?
A gripping and hilarious satire of the inherent absurdity of advertising and the flippant cruelty of corporate behavior, The Deep Whatsis shows the devastating effects of a world where civility and respect have been fired.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Eric Nye, the conceited, perpetually titillated "chief idea officer" of a New York ad agency, fashions himself an artist but in reality earns his living firing people, in Mattei's morbidly satiric look at corporate culture at the crossroads of art and consumerism. An art snob and metrosexual, Nye relishes fine things his "Dalai Lama Edition Tibetan" rug, expensive Oma Blue Fin sushi, and now an intern with a face like "God smiling on sunshine." After a night with her becomes a prolonged crush, Nye finds himself unable to resist her stalkerlike infatuation and begins to push the limits of his power. When the intern shows up with a conspicuous shiner, "HR Lady," normally Nye's partner in crime, threatens to end the fun and go to the boss, "deranged pit bull" Barry Spinotti. It will take some ruthlessness and deft schmoozing for Nye to escape. When not cultivating his "Milgram-esque biosphere of doom" at work, Nye spends his time tormenting an old friend, lambasting Williamsburg's "fashionable white... little fishies," and indulging in prescription drugs. In this debut, Mattei serves up a rampant critique of haute New York society, but a frustratingly conventional finale makes you wonder if Nye has learned anything at all.
Customer Reviews
At least find out what the title means
In the American Psycho genre of narcissistic ramblings, the book has some interesting pages and characters. At its high points the narrator seems engaging and vulnerable but at times I stopped caring about the plot and just looked to see how many pages I had left.