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A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember [Paperback]

Iain Levison
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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Book Description

April 8 2003
All Iain Levison really wants is a steady paycheck, cable television, and the possibility of a date on Saturday night. But after blowing $40,000 on an English degree, he can’t find the first, can’t afford the second, and can’t even imagine what woman would consent to the third. So he embarks on a time-honored American tradition: scoring a few dead-end jobs until something better comes along. The problem is, it never does.

A Working Stiff's Manifesto is a laugh-out-loud memoir of one man’s quest to stay afloat. From the North Carolina piedmont to the Alaskan waters, Levison’s odyssey takes him on a cross-country tour of wage labor: gofer, oil deliveryman, mover, fish cutter, restaurant manager, cable thief, each job more mind-numbing than the last. A Working Stiff's Manifesto will resonate with anyone who has ever suffered a demeaning job, worn a name badge, or felt the tyranny of the time clock.

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Review

"Bracing, hilarious and dead on." —The New York Times Book Review

“[Levison’s] slacker ethos and deadpan delivery make reading Manifesto a job well worth taking.”—Entertainment Weekly

“There is a naked, pitiless power in [Levison’s] work that makes [Manifesto] more valuable than the usual journal of the down-and-out in America.”—USA Today

“Levison writes tight, punchy prose, with deadpan humor and a mixture of savvy about and sympathy for his fellow working stiffs.”—The Wall Street Journal

From the Back Cover

"Bracing, hilarious and dead on." —The New York Times Book Review

“[Levison’s] slacker ethos and deadpan delivery make reading Manifesto a job well worth taking.”—Entertainment Weekly

“There is a naked, pitiless power in [Levison’s] work that makes [Manifesto] more valuable than the usual journal of the down-and-out in America.”—USA Today

“Levison writes tight, punchy prose, with deadpan humor and a mixture of savvy about and sympathy for his fellow working stiffs.”—The Wall Street Journal

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Customer Reviews

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4.6 out of 5 stars
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Down and out (with a degree) May 16 2004
By gene
Format:Paperback
The lamest joke I know summarizes the repetitious problems faced by this intelligent but despondent worker and author: What is the number one question asked by liberal arts majors after graduation? Would you like fries with that? Much of the material in this short book is an honest appraisal of the travails faced by the American worker, and has been discussed in similar volumes such as the recently popular "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America." But this material is also balanced by the personal motivational and ethical problems faced by a guy who (among other things) steals from his employers, job hops with no other focus than simply paying the rent, and who is almost cripplingly cynical. Lain's English degree clearly was not wasted however, because this book is laugh out loud funny in parts, and contains compelling descriptions and appraisals of people and environs throughout.
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5.0 out of 5 stars A hilarious book Nov 11 2003
Format:Paperback
In this hilarious book, Levinson points out the aburdities of the general workplace with great wit - it may not be Nietzsche, and he may exaggerate his experiences, but the writing would be pretty dry otherwise. To those who decry Levinson for having a poor attitude, I have to say that it's hard to have a good attitude when your bosses treat you like a slave and you're nothing more than a cog in the proverbial machine; it's a nice guilty pleasure to read about his vindictive actions against abusive employers. He has simply not bought into the protestant work ethic that one profits when he or she works hard - in most cases, it's only the bosses that do the profitting. The fact that he has this book published as well as a novel just proves that he has managed to rise above his past situations of brain-dead employment and has found an occupation that he enjoys. I hope to read more of Levinson's works in the future.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Pungent Slacker Take on Job Market Sep 22 2003
Format:Paperback
Levison's book belongs to the classic "work sucks" canon, including the film Office Space, Bentley Little's horror novel The Ignored, and Magnus Mills' mysterious novel The Restraint of Beasts. As Levison recounts his hellish jobs, we see a man too smart and too proud to subject himself to Groupthink, "team player" sycophantism, sadistic, arbitrary employers, and jobs that are clearly designed to humiliate, dehumanize, and impoversih the employee. His stories and anecdotes make for compelling, page-turning reading and forces you in the end to question what you're willing to put up just so you can tell yourself you're "gainfully employed."
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