Synopses & Reviews
In the pitch-perfect tradition of the very best of Nick Hornby, Martin Amis, and Christopher Buckley comes "Slab Rat, " a razor-sharp, highly comic novel of lethal ambition and office politics.
Zachary Arlen Post is an up-and-coming editor at "It" magazine, one of the glossiest jewels in the glittery publishing crown of Versailles Publishing. The son of a well-regarded architect and an eccentric Palm Beach socialite, Zack was educated at an exclusive boarding school and has studied at Colgate, Berkeley, and Liverpool University. He is an excellent golfer and has a talent for translating Plautus from the original Latin.
Or maybe not.
He is really Allen Zachary Post, the son of a garment-center bookkeeper from Queens and a pool-supply salesman from Long Island. But for Zack, his background is too prosaic for a slightly lazy but very ambitious magazine editor who wants to move up at "It." Even though Zack has concocted a background that is more in keeping with the privileged world he wants to be a part of than the truth, his ascent up the masthead has stalled: Try though he might -- and maybe he's too lazy to try that hard -- he just cannot seem to get promoted.
Enter Mark Larkin, a determined, Harvard-educated hire who understands how the corporate game is played. Mark says the right things, he lunches with the right people, and he pitches the right stories. A snob thriving in a world of snobs, he begins to get noticed, and, to Zack's dismay, is promoted quickly.
Zack realizes that something must be done. Mark Larkin must be destroyed.
To complicate his life further, Zack finds himself involved with two women. One is a cool (or is she just ice cold?) English beauty with a hyphenated last name and vague family connections to Winston Churchill. The other is an eager, sweet-natured intern whose father is the magazine's barracuda corporate counsel. Zack is torn between the style (and hyphen) of one and the good-natured substance of the other.
In "Slab Rat, " Ted Heller uses the magazine industry as a laboratory in which to dissect human nature. He has written a biting, outrageous story of how the rats that battle for dominance amid New York's skyscrapers -- or "slabs" -- survive and triumph, and the price they must pay to win. Full of dark comedy and a ruthless satire of office life (and death), "Slab Rat" is a novel rich with the wicked pleasures of the heart.
Review
Jonathan Yardley The Washington Post Book World Uncommonly smart, funny, and dead-on....
Review
Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A delightful, smart, twisted commentary on ambition, careerism, love, and modern life by the most likely newcomer since Nick Hornby to make you laugh out loud on a bus.
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Christopher Buckley author of Thank You for Smoking A wickedly nifty debut by a young writer of mature comic talent....It's one hell of a fun read, and genuinely sexy, or as the magazine people it killingly depicts would put it, hot.
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Bob Mack GQ Diabolically witty...Terrific writing...A wicked fantasia for the frustrated.
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Christopher Buckley author of Wry Martinis and Thank You for Smoking Slab Rat is a wickedly nifty debut by a young writer of mature comic talent, a story about a young magazine Machiavel-on-the-rise, reminiscent of Wilfred Sheed's Office Politics and Calvin Trillin's Floater, but with a zesty appeal and style very much its own. It's one hell of a fun read, and genuinely sexy, or as the magazine people it killingly depicts would put it, hot.
Synopsis
Zachary Arlen Post is an up-and-coming editor at
It magazine, one of the glossiest jewels in the crown of Versailles Publishing. The son of socialite parents, Zack was educated at the right schools, is an excellent golfer....
Or maybe not.
He is really Allen Zachary Post from Long Island, a guy with a background too downmarket for someone who wants to move up the ladder at It. Despite his pose, Zack's ascent up the masthead has stalled, and his love life is complicated by two women: a cool English beauty with a hyphenated name and an eager, sweet-natured intern Zack could bring home to Mom. With the arrival of Mark Larkin, a determined, Harvard-educated editor who knows all the right moves, Zack's prospects for promotion grow dimmer. Mark seems to be the source of all of Zack's woes. Zack wishes Mark were dead.
Ted Heller has written a biting, outrageous story of how the rats that battle for dominance amid New York's skyscrapers -- or "slabs" -- survive and triumph, and the price they must pay to win.
Synopsis
Zachary Arlen Post is a lazy but ambitious associate editor at IT magazine who finds himself in a rut: he can't seem to move up. When Mark Larkin comes to work for IT, Zack realizes immediately that he has met his nemesis. Mark plays the magazine power game very well: He works hard (Zack would prefer to trade emails with his unstable, paranoid pal Willie Lister); his story ideas have the right spin for IT (Zack disdains most of what IT publishes); and he knows how to network with his superiors (a skill Zack never mastered). Mark is clearly headed for big things. Soon enough, he becomes Zack and Willie's boss.Complicating Zack's life further is his involvement with two women at the magazine. One is Leslie Usher-Soames, a British ice queen whose family knew Winston Churchill (Winston Churchill ) The other is Ivy Kooper, a young, earnest intern who is the daughter of the magazine's corporate counsel. Zack is attracted to both women for different reasons: to Ivy because she is sweet and trusting; to Leslie because she has a hyphenated last name and her family is well-connected (Winston Churchill ) But when Zack is forced to choose between them, he opts for style-and the hyphen-over substance. Emboldened by his decision (and the fact that he got away with treating Ivy so shabbily), Zack turns his attention to destroying Mark Larkin. In a series of complex, hilarious maneuvers, Zach plays Iago to Willie's Othello, and soon Mark is discovered dead-an apparent suicide. The police aren't convinced, however, and as they get closer to the truth, Willie himself commits suicide. Zack is not implicated.By the end of the novel, two things are clear: Zack is exactly what he wants to be-a senior editor at IT, married to Leslie Usher-Soames, with Ivy as one of his assistant editors-and that what he wants will never make him happy.SLAB RAT is a hip, sophisticated morality tale that will appeal to any reader who enjoys sharp wit and clever storytelling.
About the Author
Ted Heller is the photo editor and senior writer at Nickelodeon magazine. He has worked at a variety of magazines, including Spy, Premiere, Details, and (very briefly) Vanity Fair. He lives in New York City.