- Hardcover: 416 pages
- Publisher: Crown Business (Mar 31 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0517703491
- ISBN-13: 978-0517703496
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 3.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 907 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,886,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Lloyd seems like a good guy. He's got an average wife, two kids, $200,000 a year with perks, plus a nice dog named Steve. But what happens to Lloyd when he starts to climb the corporate ladder? Lloyd--What Happened : A Novel of Business is the story of the modern corporate workplace--its greed, politics, affairs, drugs, groveling cohorts, graphs, and dietary habits. Fortune magazine columnist Stanley Bing follows Lloyd month-by-month in his pursuit to reengineer his company and pull off one of the biggest deals ever (we're never quite sure what the deal is exactly).
Bing is at his best when describing Lloyd's many idiosyncrasies: what he buys when grocery shopping, his love of his dog Steve, his appraisal of various beers. For example: "There was Foster's lager, which was average beer but came in an enormous can, which was not something to be sneezed at. When one's wife said, 'How many beers have you had?' on the cusp of driving off to someplace social of an early evening, the honest Foster's husband could say 'One!' and not be criticized, even though that one beer was the equivalent of two gigantic tankards of lusty ale."
Lloyd includes a portfolio of full-color presentations chock full of business clip art that graphs everything from the "Number of Laughs Enjoyed in Lloyd's Corporation As a Function of Profit Growth" and "Suit Size As a Function of Income/Vodka Consumption" to an examination of "What Lloyd Eats" and a summary of Lloyd's travels in Germany. If you enjoyed Stanley Bing in Esquire and Fortune, then you'll find that Lloyd is a must read. Bing's good humor captures many of the follies of business life that most readers will recognize and appreciate. --Harry C. Edwards
From Publishers Weekly
In his first novel, Bing, columnist for Fortune and author of Crazy Bosses and Biz Words, offers a light satire of business life packed with glimpses, both funny and appalling, into the mentality of six-figure executives among whom every word, smile, memo and drink has its valence in the game of status. Bing's protagonist is Lloyd, a kind of middle-aged everysuit who's assigned a key role in a deal that will transform his corporation into a transnational giant and render its managers, including Lloyd, very rich. It will also, via the wonders of downsizing, result in personal catastrophe for thousands. Of course, this makes Lloyd feel bad, but what's a guy to do? He's got two kids who like toys and a wife who likes vacations. In the midst of the turmoil, Lloyd falls into an adulterous affair with Mona, a fellow exec, at the same time that he learns his wife is getting it on with the handyman. But plot is not the point here. The book is really a series of digressions and skits in which Bing touches on various aspects of corporate culture in episodic, ironic fashion. There are visuals, too: a bar graph measures Lloyd's expenditures on toys for his kids against his disposable income; a diagram illustrates how not to work a party; a pie chart called "Things Eaten by Donna" breaks down his wife's diet into only three segments (salads, sweets, white wine). Many of the gags, visual and verbal, work, and much of the book is very funny. But by the time Lloyd at last engineers a revolution to kill the deal and save all the innocents from losing their jobs, one feels that 400 pages is an awful lot of space to fill with such a light lampoon. Major ad/promo. (Apr.) FYI: Bing is a pseudonym for Gil Schwartz, director of communications for CBS Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my favorite books,
By
This review is from: Lloyd: What Happened: A Novel of Business (Paperback)
I wish there were more books as funny as this one. I can still quote a few passages from it, and it has been a few years since i last read it. Especially if you've been involved in any large corporation, you will especially appreciate the absurdities, but it's just an incredibly funny book. I used to read Stanly Bing in Esquire and I just love his writing. I wish there were more like this!!
5.0 out of 5 stars
a darn good read...,
By nlc "crazy aunt bea" (stamford, CT United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lloyd: What Happened: A Novel of Business (Paperback)
Lloyd: What Happened is quirky, funny, and totally satisfying. only a guy like stanley bing would be so audacious as to use pie charts and graphs to illustrate the ups/downs/curious fluccuations of a middle manager-type corporate guy trying to hold on to a marriage, his job, and a red-head named mona (although anyone married to a corporate middle manager might bristle at the thoughts of his/her partner leaping into the sack (much less licking the toes) of a co-worker the first time they're left alone in to conference room!)still...Lloyd's strength lies in his inherent good character. he is flawed (aren't we all) and sometime weak, but overall, he's a good good guy just trying to do the best job he can, in spite of those who would have him fail/his job. i liked this novel so much...i read it TWICE!!!
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great start, then big fizzle,
By
This review is from: Lloyd: What Happened: A Novel of Business (Paperback)
Stanely Bing's "Lloyd, What Happened" starts with a great satirical send-up on corporate life, complete with accompanying PowerPoint slides. But once Lloyd and his wife start having affairs about half-way through, the book loses its energy and its heart, and careens towards a rather unbelievable, slightly unsatisfying ending.But this book is worth reading for the delicious parodies and witty comments on the state of American and International business as the reader follows the exploits of Lloyd, middle-manager extradonaire, has he attempts to complete the Big Deal, that would cost thousands their jobs and Lloyd his soul (he thinks). The book is presented as a journal, detailing one-year of Lloyd's life, and while Lloyd's business dealings with a variety of people and cultures are laugh-out loud funny, the interpersonal (business-speak) relationships Lloyd has with his family and his girlfriend, fall rather flat. However, if you are looking a highly comic read on all aspects of business then "Lloyd, What Happened" is for you. Its a quick 400 page read, since many pages are devoted to hilarious Powerpoint Graphs detailing Lloyd's life. Overall, this book is worth reading.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Leadership
- Books > Entertainment > Humour > Business
- Books > Literature & Fiction > United States
- Books > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Single Women
- Books > Professional & Technical > Business Management > Management & Leadership > Leadership
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
