Synopses & Reviews
In 1995, America was in the throes of downsizing fever. Many thousands then, as now, were losing their jobs to the corporate demand of more money for the top, by tightening the belt below. Unable to sell his latest novel, Ben Cheever started to think about what employment opportunities were out there.
Selling Ben Cheever is the frank, self-effacing, and enlightening chronicle of his five years in the service industry. As we watch Ben confront his own demons about what a particular job means to him, we are compelled to consider how our egos are affected by not only what we do, but how we do it. Through his experiences, we begin to think about our approach to our own jobs and to confront our fears about what we would do if we didn't have them.
Benjamin Cheever has been a reporter for daily newspapers and an editor at Reader's Digest. He is the author of the acclaimed novels The Plagiarist, The Partisan, and Famous After Death, and the editor of The Letters of John Cheever. He has taught at Bennington College and The New School.
In 1995, America was in the throes of downsizing fever. Thousands were losing their jobs, as corporations learned to boost their stocks by slashing their payrolls. Cheever's editor was fired, and his publisher was closed down. As an established writer who couldn't sell his novel, he felt very much alone. But as a man who'd spent decades in a profession the economy no longer had room for, he was in good company. There were, in fact, millions like him. Forty-three million just since 1979, according to The New York Times.
So he did what he had to do: he read the classifieds, made phone calls, sent out resumes, and filled out applications. He told his prospective employers that he had published novels and had been a senior editor at the Reader's Digest. Overqualification didn't seem to present a problem. Instead, they asked if he could work nights and weekends, and to provide a urine sample.
Selling Ben Cheever is the funny, candid chronicle of those five years in the service industry. We see Cheever tumbled by dispiriting rivalries at Nobody Beats the Wiz, and we witness his glory days as a Cadillac salesman. Cheever wore the all-polyester blue of the Burns security guard; he wore a Santa suit and beard; he put on the Wiz vest, three sizes too large and missing two of four buttons; and he donned the baseball cap and apron required to work the line at the Cosi Sandwich Bar.
As we travel with Cheever from stint to stint, he compels us to consider just how much we rely on our jobs to define our place in the world, and what we would do if those jobs were to vanish without warning.
"Affecting and exceptional . . . A smart, brave, and unusual book that should be read by anyone interested in the shape of the modern workplacethat is, of modern life.Los Angeles Times
"Funny, vivid, and honest."The New York Times Book Review
"A touching and insightful workplace memoir."The Washington Post Book World
"[Cheever's] funny-sad dispatches from the $7-an-hour nightmare are part of a story that desperately need telling."Wired
"Sensitive and honest."The Boston Phoenix
"What happens when a gifted writer fails in the publishing world? He goes out and gets a jobin fact, about a dozen jobs. Maybe Ben Cheever wasn't the greatest security guard, sandwich maker, or salesman, but he succeeds brilliantly at chronicling the absurdities and indignities of the entry-level workplace. I love this book and firmly believe everyone else will too."Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed
"This is a very funny and informative look at downward mobility just prior to the dot-com prosperity that's already nostalgia fodder. Highly recommended." Library Journal
"Cheever recounts his entry-level service jobs with rueful humor . . . [He] manages to combine empathy and edginess in his episodic chapters."Publishers Weekly
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"[T]his is a very funny and informative look at downward mobility just prior to the dot-com prosperity that's already nostalgia fodder." Library Journal
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"Funny, vivid and honest." The New York Times Book Review
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"The funniest memoir of the downsized economy." Talk Magazine
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"By turns earnest and comic, analytical and self-obsessed." New York Magazine
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"Entertaining...Cheever's voice is utterly genuine, humble, and likable." The Chicago Tribune
Synopsis
In 1995, America was in the throes of downsizing fever. Many thousands then, as now, were losing their jobs to the corporate demand of more money for the top, by tightening the belt below. Unable to sell his latest novel, Ben Cheever started to think about what employment opportunities were out there. Selling Ben Cheever is the frank, self-effacing, and enlightening chronicle of his five years in the service industry. As we watch Ben confront his own demons about what a particular job means to him, we are compelled to consider how our egos are affected by not only what we do, but how we do it. Through his experiences, we begin to think about our approach to our own jobs and to confront our fears about what we would do if we didn't have them.
About the Author
Benjamin Hale Cheever has been a reporter for daily newspapers and an editor at Reader's Digest. He is the author of the acclaimed novels The Plagiarist, The Partisan, and Famous After Death, and the editor of The Letters of John Cheever. He has taught at Bennington College and The New School for Social Research
Table of Contents
Preface
Section One: The Framework
Santa and the Underemployed
Burns Security: Bad Cop
Brooks Brothers: My Mother Tells Me I Went to the Wrong College
Section Two: Birth of a Salesman
CompUSA: 'Drugs are okay?'
CompUSA: 'People who have money are always assholes.'
Modeling: A Very Handsome Man
Nobody Beats the Wiz: 'What people fear more than death?'
Nobody Beats the Wiz: Easter Sunday
Dean Witter: The Happy Ending
Halloween Town and Telemarketing: A Large Family
Section Three: Shelf Life
Cosi Sandwich Bar: Slow G
Borders Books and Music: 'The way the other writer did.'
Acme - The Fastest-growing Company in the Country: 'We eliminate the middle man.'
Section Four: Big Game
The Auto Mall: Wanting to Sell Toyotas
The Auto Mall: 'Benny, here, done phenomenal!'
Epilogue
Acknowledgments