Matt Beaumont e: A Novel

I read E Squared before reading this novel, which strictly could be described as its predecessor; however I didn't find reading them in the "wrong" order to be detrimental. Some of the characters from E are in E Squared but there is sufficient background to be able to pick up the narrative as required without having to worry about any previous action.The book is all email based, as is explained in other reviews. The whole action of the story is based around the email correspondence of various characters, mainly the characters based in an advertising agency pitching for some prestigious accounts, and trying not to make a mess of the accounts they already have. The people, if you have ever worked in a professional services firm, are horribly familiar - bitchy, nasty, two-faced, precious, petty, bullying, autocratic, self-serving in the main. The emails range from vitriolic (though ever so politely written in the correct office etiquette generally) to utter sucking up to the boss. Sigh ... sadly all too familiar from some of the places I've been (un)lucky enough to have worked in in previous lives.E is hilarious - there were a lot of `laugh out loud' moments - for example, when one of the characters asked if it was all right if they came to a meeting in their Nirvana t-shirt, and the respondent said "Come as you are". If you get that, you'll find it as funny as I did.The characters are so reminiscent of people that actually exist that it's rather like the fascination of the horrible, reading this book - you know it's all going to end up badly, but you can't look away.Thoroughly enjoyable - light, undemanding reading, but the storyline is entertaining, the characters are all too clearly drawn, and the reader is keen to know what happens next.Totally recommended.

95 reviews already as I'm writing this, 74 of which gave 'E' a 5-star rating... is there still need for more praise? Perhaps not, but I just couldn't resist. Until a few years ago - until 2007 to be precise - I worked in advertising myself (as an account, I'm not sure if I qualified as 'the sad git in accounts' mentioned on the backcover), and back in 2000 when I first read this book I had to laugh out loud because it was so very very recognizable, the only thing missing seemed your typical financial director: always keen on blaming other people when clients protest invoices but never having met a client face-to-face themselves. I vividly remember sharing the book with colleagues, and not a single one of them wasn't struck by the similarity with people we actually knew and had to work with every day. On the other side, I just as vividly remember the often mind-boggling lack of intelligence on the client side (think 'Fawlty Towers' in a marketing context and you'll come close), so one could easily write a similar book from that perspective I guess.Anyway, that was almost a decade ago and recently (don't know exactly why) I took 'E' from my shelves again, opened it and was captivated once again from the very first page. In retrospect I found it perhaps more over the top than when I first read it, but just as funny, and what I failed to notice the first time struck me all the more now: this is really a very cleverly plotted novel! And as much as in epistolary novels dating back hundreds of years such as Dangerous Liaisons (Penguin Classics) the characters all come very much alive in their e-mails. If you want to know what life in advertising is like 'E' may not give you a trustworthy objective view (though it comes close), but it will definitely have you laughing out loud.

It is the first day back at work in January 2000 and, thankfully, the Millennium Bug turned out to be a false alarm. Email is still working, which is just as well for the London office of international advertising agency Miller Shanks where CEO David Crutton has a busy couple of weeks ahead of him. There is a crucial pitch to Coke coming up, a team is off to film sexy proms in Mauritius, various secretaries are at each others' throats, certain executives are not being as above board as they should be, oh, and David's emails keep going to his annoyingly upbeat and unhelpfully helpful opposite number in Helsinki.This 2000 novel tells its story exclusively in emails. It is fairly involved - there is a LOT going on - cleverly structured, often quite crude, and very very funny.Poor Gloria.

I'm on my second reading and second copy of E now. I lent my first copy to someone who laughed so much they forgot to return it. I laughed a lot both times. It's very hard not to. This is a VERY funny book and a delight to read it again. The characters are all simultaneously hideous and highly addictive. The book is made up solely of e-mails within, and out of, wannabe advertising stars Miller Shanks as they haplessly lurch towards a pitch to Coca Cola. They're still clinging to the old Eighties ideals of excess and ego, and the pattern of the e-mails is that you shamelessly crawl to those above you in the office hierarchy, and mercilessly bully everyone below you to stake-out your territory. Unrelenting self-promotion is the other prerequisite, as you'd expect from a bunch of Admen. The truth is that everyone is riven with hyper insecurity and insincerity and it's hilarious to witness them all imploding.