XYZ
Updating Jack Cooper
by William Knight
Jack Cooper needs a job. He’s recovering from an expensive separation, his single daughter will soon deliver a grandchild, and his embarrassing son prefers life dressed up as a bear.
But Jack’s a workplace dinosaur. Grumpy and sarcastic, he would rather seal his eyes with sticky notes than work in an office full of snowflakes harping on about dancing-baby gifs.
So when Jack’s daughter finds him a new job at an ultra-cool tech firm, he imagines a painful drowning beneath company values and a rapid descent to the bottom of a gin bottle.
The last thing he expects is a new love interest half his age. But when the shimmering Freya greets him at the company door Jack is suddenly motivated to update himself.
But can Jack move on from his 1980s nostalgia? Will Freya look up from her smartphone? And will he remain sane while bombarded by Instant Messages, smiley-faced poos, and the constant celebration of mediocrity.
XYZ:Updating Jack Cooper is a funny, well-observed and wry novel, from Former BBC and Guardian writer, William Knight. Like the “good Nick Hornby books”, it’s essential reading for anyone in the workplace over 40, and a handbook for those cocky bastards who are not.
REVIEW
4 out of 5
This takes satire and dials it up to 11. I have to say, it’s almost impossible to like Jack Cooper. I half expected to find him shaking his fist and yelling at kids to get off his lawn by the end. He’s a caricature of someone who isn’t able to keep up with changing times, or new generations creating their own culture and influencing pop culture. He comes dangerously close to acting like a boomer quite a few times, but he is an older gen X’er so that’s not too surprising. At times, I was rolling my eyes at his self-pity and anger so hard I thought they were going to get stuck there. If this wasn’t satire, it wouldn’t be readable, honestly.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I’m a British born journalist and technologist currently living and working in Wellington, New Zealand. I’ve chased a varying career. I began in acting, progressed to music, enjoyed a brief flirtation with handbag manufacturing and was eventually wired into technology in 1989.
I had my first feature published in 2003 in Computing magazine and have since written about the many successes and failings of high-tech for the Guardian, Fianancial Times and the BBC among many others publications. I also work as a computer consultant in Wellington.
The Donated (Generation), my debut novel first conceived from a New Scientist article in 2001 and has been ten years in development. I love concepts at the edge of reality. Not so fantastic they are impossible, only improbable; better still, shocking.
