The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise - by Georges Perec (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"One of the most singular literary personalities in the world, a writer who resembled absolutely no one else."
--Italo Calvino

"A satire for the author's day and oh yes our own on the subtly crushing effects of corporate life ... [a] delectable and philosophical office farce."
--Steven Poole, Guardian

The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise--neurotic and pessimistic, yet endearing, comic, and never less than entertaining--is a penetrating vision of the world of office work. As translator David Bellos writes, it shows us what 'computers, perhaps even those powered today by AI, simply cannot do: make us laugh and make us cry'.

This playful novel originated with a 1968 invitation from IBM, then searching for a writer to explore the use of computers in literature. Georges Perec took up the invite and programmed an early computer to follow the steps an employee of a large corporation would take to submit a successful request for a raise. (Perec himself was such a lowly employee at the time, his prospects of getting a raise as dim as those of the narrator of this tale.) From that algorithmic experiment grew this pioneering and enduring fiction.

Review Quotes

"Its wit and comedy encourage compulsive consumption."
--David O'Neill, Barnes and Noble Review

"A hilarious and inventive office-drone odyssey."
--Bookforum

"We readers will have to deal with the fortunate burden of clearing shelf-space for another novel by Perec this spring, with the first English translation of The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise. "
--Most Anticipated Books of 2011, The Millions

"As a witty indictment of corporate culture and an artifact from one of the 20th century's most bizarre literary movements, The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise--as with all the works of Georges Perec--is a puzzle too absurd not to explore ... [it] will interest any reader who has ever worked in a large bureaucracy and considered himself underpaid."
--James K. McAuley, Harvard Crimson

"Perec's novels are games, each different. They are played for real stakes and in some cases breathtakingly large ones. As games should be, and as literary games often are not, they are fun."
--Los Angeles Times

"We defy you to walk by this book and not pick it up. Perfectly packaged and immediately intriguing!"
--A Largehearted WORD Book of the Week

"A brilliant ... conceptual, comedic novella from the writer who wrote the postmodern masterpiece Life: A User's Manual."
--City Arts

"Perec's knack for absurdity and circumlocution ensures that each iteration is novel and urgent."
--Full Stop

"[A] fun read for someone who enjoys computer programming and corporate irony, and would make a perfect gift for the office mate with a good sense of humor."
--bestdamncreativewritingblog

"[A] terribly compelling work, one that does a great deal with very little. With his use of repetition, which also evokes a pre-set mechanism, Perec establishes a rhythm of sorts, while his subtle deviations from the pattern serve as moments of dark comedy."
--Slant Magazine

"Certainly something different, and quite enjoyable."
--Complete Review

"A satire for the author's day and oh yes our own on the subtly crushing effects of corporate life ... [a] delectable and philosophical office farce"
--Steven Poole, Guardian

"Admirers of Perec will love the razor-sharp whimsy of this clever little tract"
--Irish Times, Eileen Battersby

About the Author

Georges Perec was one of the most important experimental writers of the twentieth century. His many works include the novels Life: A User's Manual; W, Or, The Memory of Childhood; and The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise.

David Bellos is the author of a number of award-winning literary biographies and the winner of the inaugural Man Booker International Prize for translation in 2005. He lives in New Jersey and teaches French, Italian, and Comparative literature at Princeton University.