The Book Pirate

Blurb for the back cover:
“Any book by Max(x) Barry is highly recommended.”

I love Maxx Barry and everything he has written. Given he has only penned three books thus far. But that is three more than I have. Of his three novels, Syrup is his first and the last one I read. All of Barry’s books tend to provide a satirical look on big business. In Syrup the focus is on Scat who invented Fukk Cola for the Coca-cola company only to have his idea stolen by his roommate Sneaky Pete. The feud continues to escalate as Scat tries to cash in on any one of his million dollar ideas. Eventually he teams up with the girl of his dreams, the oddly named 6 who balances her business knowhow with his creativity. Together they try to thwart Sneaky Pete by creating the biggest, boldest, most expensive commercial every made, a movie.

Barry, a former marketer, uses his knowhow to poke fun at the advertising industry with great success. Really this book is about identification and Scat’s journey to find himself. He envisions himself to be someone rich and famous but can’t seem to make it happen. He even went so far as to change his name to something more memorable (Scat is not his real name). Barry did the same thing by adding an extra X to his name on the cover. Barry says he “put an extra X in his name for Syrup because he thought it was a funny joke about marketing but failed to realize everyone would assume he was a pretentious asshole.”

There is also 6 who has to prove herself in a male run corporate world even if it means telling people she is a lesbian. I think one flaw that this book has is that it focuses mainly on Scat and 6 and leaves other characters like Sneaky Pete and @ (another odd name) with very little development. I have hopes that Barry will go the way of Christopher Moore and use smaller characters in his other novels but so far that is not the case. @ in particular is one I would like to see more of only because of her awesome name.

Have I mention this book is funny? Because it is. Any book by Max(x) Barry is highly recommended for anybody who has ever worked for a big corporation. Or anybody who likes funny books.