PERSONAL DAYS, by Ed Park

(originally posted on May 26, 2008)

Another example of solidifying a book I feel like I have been talking about for ages. But why not? Park's voice is controlled and giddy, measured and wild, thoughtful and exuberant, but most of all he gets that sinister, slow-moving paranoia that infects an office in the midst of cruel change and inexplicable layoffs. My first thought after reading was to personally give copies to anyone currently or recently employed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.