Syrup [Paperback]

Lampooning corporate "ethics," sexual politics and the marketing and film industries, this clever debut satire by 25-year-old Australian writer Barry will have readers nodding in agreement and quoting it to their friends. Ingenuous new marketing graduate Scat (he feels that his full name, Michael George Holloway, just won't do for a career in marketing) moves to L.A. hoping to become rich and famous. After he gets a million-dollar idea for a new cola product, cheeky and arrogant Scat approaches a beautiful, ruthless marketing manager named 6 at Coca-Cola. The new product's name is, hilariously, a "dirty" word, spelled unconventionally and in stylish font on a black can. But before Scat's cash cow can be milked, his roommate Sneaky Pete steals the idea, is hired by Coke, and soon holds the purse-strings for Coca-Cola's biggest marketing undertaking ever, a $140 million movie. The infuriated Scat joins forces with 6 to create their own, better movie, with a measly $10,000 budget. With Scat's creative ideas, 6's business acumen and the help of 6's film-major roommate Tina, and Scat's actress ex-girlfriend Cindy, they set out to beat Sneaky Pete at his own game. Scat and 6 have an affectionate, wary bond (even though Scat's crazy for her and she claims she's a lesbian), and together they nimbly dodge the clever, ever-surprising political landmines that Sneaky Pete sets in their path. In the end, Scat's na?vet? and creative enthusiasm help him win his dream and the girl. By that point, readers will be rooting for him and will know much more about the politics of business, films, marketing and sex. Foreign rights sold in France, Italy, Germany and Australia. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Twenty-three-year-old marketing graduate Scat (n? Michael) is in search of the American dream of wealth, fame, friendship with movie stars, and true love. He thinks he just may have it all in sight when he comes up with a brilliant idea for a new soft drink, Fukk Cola, and the beautiful new-products manager at Coke, the improbably named 6, agrees that it has definite possibilities. Unfortunately, Sneaky Pete, Scat's roommate, lives up to his name and steals Fukk in order to get a head start up the corporate ladder. Many connivances and contrivances later, 6 and Scat take on Sneaky Pete and his assistant @ directly in a last-ditch struggle to assume ascendancy at Coke. Will 6 and Scat fall in love? Will they succeed in vanquishing Sneaky Pete? With Winona Ryder, Brad Pitt, and Tom Cruise making cameo appearances and Gwyneth Paltrow acting as deus ex machina, how could dreams not come true? Never as hilarious as the author intended, this first novel remains a moderately humorous riff on advertising and corporate life.ANancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Barry's delightful first novel delivers a charming and hilarious send-up of the wicked world of marketing. The action is set at the almost obscenely gigantic Coca-Cola Company in L.A., home to all things shallow and greedy. Young Scat, whose main goal in life is to become famous, has ruled out acting or being a rock star. The alternative, he concludes, is to be very young and very rich. To that end, he comes up with a brilliant idea for a new cola, which is promptly stolen by his roommate, Sneaky Pete, a character you truly love to hate. Sneaky Pete beats Scat at every turn and begins a meteoric rise to the top of the marketing empire at Coke, leaving Scat with only one hope for victory (and revenge): the beautiful 6, a cool operator who tortures Scat like a cat with a mouse. If this were a movie, Mike Myers would undoubtedly play both Scat and his Asian nemesis, Sneaky Pete. But don't wait for the movie. This terrific comic novel is certain to provoke as many belly laughs in print as it might one day on screen. Jenny McLarin --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

A rollicking debut about a cola marketing campaign that takes on Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and corporate America in one perfectly executed triple play. Although publicity and marketing are popularly associated with the advertising mavens of New York, those in the know understand them as peculiarly West Coast enterprisesand our narrator Scat is nothing if not in the know. Marketing is like LA, he explains. Its like a gorgeous, brainless, model in LA. A gorgeous, brainless model on cocaine having sex drinking Perrier in LA. In other words: Image beats reality every time. Scat (n Michael George Holloway) has a well-developed taste for sharkmeat, but even he finds himself continually brought up short by the venalities of the trade. Desperate to get a foot in some door or other, he asks his old classmate Sneaky Pete for an introduction to the New Products Manager at Coca-Colaan old friend of Sneaky Petes named 6. 6 [sic] can only spare 30 seconds of face time with Scat, but thats enough for him to pitch his idea: New cola product. Black can. Called Fukk [sic]. 6 falls madly in love with the conceptand Scat falls madly in love with 6 (despite her ice-cold exterior and her self-proclaimed lesbianism)and the two get right down to the business of throwing together a presentation. Fukk Cola becomes very hot, very quickly, so much so that the idea is stolen even before its pitched to the Coca-Cola brass, with the result that 6 loses her job and Scat loses his rights to the concept before it's a week old. But neither is the sort to say die, and they team up once more to create the most expensive commercial advertisement ever made: a $140-million feature film about Coca-Cola starring Tom Cruise and Gwyneth Paltrow. Can two twentysomething has-beens turn defeat into failure? Can they at least find true love? This is Hollywood, after all. A bit too slick, but funny and fast all the same: about as filling as cotton candy, but just as sweet going down. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Scat, a recent college graduate formerly known as Michael, is modest. He wants to have just one million-dollar idea. Once he dreams up the can't-fail Fukk Cola, everyone -- the girl of his dreams; Sneaky Pete, his inscrutable Asian roomate; and the blonder, bustier girl of his dreams -- tries to swipe his brilliantly nihilistic confection. A deft, satirical indictment of an industry that makes its living pushing satire, Syrup is understandably deep in hip meta references. What distinguishes the novel from, say, a Thomas Frank-style critique, is that it never gets mushy, even after Scat lands the girl. Instead of waking up one morning and wishing he was Michael again, Scat arises and checks his subconscious for marketable commodities. -- SPIN June 1999 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Scott Brick handily delivers Barry's zany story of marketing and corporate politics. At age 23 Scat comes up with a million-dollar marketing idea--a Coke for cynics, called Fukk. What is it? Who cares? "Perception is reality." Scat sells the idea to the new marketing director of Coke, a 21-year-old sexpot named Six. Scott Brick, the best narrator in the business, crawls inside this flawed but likable hero and his nutty cohort, giving them the credibility that makes the plot work. The duo battles Scat's evil roommate, Sneaky Pete, who has stolen the product idea, and carries out duels in the corporate boardroom. Brick has a ball bringing these unlikely combatants to a wacky climax. M.T.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.