Synopses & Reviews
The Nudist on the Late Shift is the true story of a new generation at the proving point of their lives, written by the most exciting and authentic literary voice to emerge from Silicon Valley, Po Bronson.
This is a defining portrait of young people in the whirl of an information revolution and an international gold rush. Masses of entrepreneurs and tech wizards, immigrants and investors, dreamers and visionaries, are heading west to seek their fortune and a new destiny. In Bronson, they have found their troubadour.
Already hailed by The Village Voice Literary Supplement as "the most complete and empathetic portrait of the Valley so far," The Nudist on the Late Shift establishes Bronson as the first author to capture the spirit of this new mecca. Recently chosen by the VLS as one of 1999's "Writers on the Verge," Bronson has spent the past decade searching Silicon Valley for the best stories, several of which have been published in Wired. Now he has woven those stories together, taking us inside the world of the newcomers, brainiacs, salespeople, headhunters, utopians, plutocrats, and innovators who are transforming our culture.
Writes the VLS: "Bronson evocatively portrays the overwhelming unpredictability of life in the Valley: getting fired can be part of daily life. But with a zero unemployment rate, the wounded don't stay that way for long. Bronson is at his best describing this radically shifting environment, where everyday folk with the right idea and the stamina stand to make millions in a couple of years, skipping rungs on the career ladder at a mind-boggling pace. Bronson recognizes that Silicon Valley's boom is made up of small explosions, and The Nudist puts us at ground zero."
Review
"Bronson relates the stories of a generation of new and wannabe multi-millionaires with conversational grace...an engaging, instructional and fascinating read." Denver Post
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"Bronson has captured this remarkable place and time." The Wall Street Journal
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"Bronson is tuned in to the quirks of both personality and culture. His prose, often funny, maintains impressive velocity and is well suited to the manic life of the Valley and its colorful menagerie of characters." Publishers Weekly
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"This clever storyteller keeps you laughing as you breeze from one episode to the next...a juicy collection of true tales." Time
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"Bronson has a rare ability to spin the worlds of business and technologies into entertaining stories." The New York Times Book Review
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"Po Bronson is a genuine voice of a new generation, the bard of Silicon Valley." Lewis Lapham
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"Nobody is better at writing about digital technology than Po Bronson. His stories get at the truth and reality of this new world." Clay Felker
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"As Michael Lewis's Liar's Poker (1989) captured Wall Street and the spirit of the greedy 1980s, so Bronson's new book reflects the Valley and the digital revolution it spawned in the 1990s." Library Journal
Synopsis
Now in paperback comes the up-close-and-personal expos of the zany new generation driving the high-tech boom--"a great chance to meet the brainiacs, the geeks, the venture capitalists, the driven, and the edgy" ("USA Today") who are changing the world.
Synopsis
As a novelist and writer for
Wired and other publications, Po Bronson has earned a reputation as the most exciting and authentic literary voice to emerge from Silicon Valley. In his national bestseller
The Nudist on the Late Shift he tells the true story of the mostly under-thirty entrepreneurs and tech wizards, immigrants and investors, dreamers and visionaries, who see the Valley as their Mecca. Taking us inside the world of these newcomers, brainiacs, salespeople, headhunters, utopians, plutocrats, and innovators as they transform our culture,
The Nudist on the Late Shift is a defining portrait of a new generation in the whirl of an information revolution and an international gold rush.
Po Bronson is the author of two novels and one book of nonfiction. Bombardiers, a dark satire of high finance, was an international bestseller that was translated into twelve languages. The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest, soon to be a feature film from 20th Century Fox, is a comedy of Silicon Valley. His third bestseller, The Nudist on the Late Shift and Other True Tales of Silicon Valley, demonstrates that Bronson's wit and imagination apply as well to nonfiction as to fiction.
About the Author
Bronson writes feature articles for
The New York Times Magazine and
Wired and op-ed pieces for
The Wall Street Journal and
The New York Times. Bronson has created a one-hour dramatic television series called "South of Market," derived from his Silicon Valley experiences.
He is also a founder of The Grotto, a writer's cooperative in San Francisco; Chairman of the Board of Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, the exclusive national representative of sixty independent publishers; and a board member of Mercury House, a literary nonprofit press in San Francisco.
Bronson has a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.
Table of Contents
1. Newcomers
2. IPO
3. Entrepreneur
4. Programmers
5. Salespeople
6. Futurist
7. Dropout
8. Is the "revolution!" over?