Joy
Jonathan Lee
Joy
'Did she jump? Did she fall? Will she wake?' On an ordinary Friday afternoon in the office, talented young lawyer Joy Stephens plummets forty feet onto a marble floor.
In the shadow of this baffling event, the lives of those closest to her begin to collide and change in unexpected ways. There is Dennis, her disgraced husband, who finds consolation in books; her colleague Peter, whose refuge is a mix of hedonism and hard work; Barbara, Joy's prickly PA, who'd be content if only she could get away to New York; and Samir, Joy's hygiene-obsessed personal trainer, who escapes into exercise routines and other, stranger rituals. In a sparkling glass office in London's Square Mile - a place bursting with flirtations, water cooler confrontations and dangerous amounts of abject boredom - each of them is forced to question what they've witnessed, and to face past moments that have defined Joy's life, as well as their own.
3.5 out of 5 based on 4 reviews
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Omniscore:
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| Classification |
Fiction |
| Genre |
General Fiction |
| Format |
Hardcover |
| Pages |
320 |
| RRP |
|
| Date of Publication |
July 2012 |
| ISBN |
978-0434020423 |
| Publisher |
William Heinemann |
| |
'Did she jump? Did she fall? Will she wake?'
On an ordinary Friday afternoon in the office, talented young lawyer Joy Stephens plummets forty feet onto a marble floor.
In the shadow of this baffling event, the lives of those closest to her begin to collide and change in unexpected ways. There is Dennis, her disgraced husband, who finds consolation in books; her colleague Peter, whose refuge is a mix of hedonism and hard work; Barbara, Joy's prickly PA, who'd be content if only she could get away to New York; and Samir, Joy's hygiene-obsessed personal trainer, who escapes into exercise routines and other, stranger rituals. In a sparkling glass office in London's Square Mile - a place bursting with flirtations, water cooler confrontations and dangerous amounts of abject boredom - each of them is forced to question what they've witnessed, and to face past moments that have defined Joy's life, as well as their own.
Who is Mr Satoshi? by Jonathan Lee.
Reviews
The Guardian
Alex Aldridge
“The old boys' club attitudes that permeate life at Hangar, Slyde & Stein, the fictional law firm in Joy – summed up by the refection of one of the senior partners about "the cult of the spirited female, the bland black man, the obligatory Asian" – also appear to be suspiciously rooted in fact. Again, though, Lee is reluctant to criticise Freshfields, suggesting that such lines are a reflection of broader financial services culture, and that his old firm "has good intentions about diversity" Still, as a whole, Joy – which is not only beautifully written, but a real page-turner – casts City law in a pretty awful light.”
07/06/2012
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The Daily Mail
Stephanie Cross
“Lee doesn’t get off to the best of starts, but the bleaker and darker his book becomes, the better it gets, building to a shocking and expertly-executed conclusion. Tipped for the top on the publication of his first novel, Lee here confirms his talent (the image of the wrinkled bigwig with ‘at least one rivet for every ski season in his life’ is among the highlights).”
07/06/2012
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The Observer
Alexander Larman
“The closest comparison that can be made is with Joshua Ferris's Then We Came to the End, which shares a similarly bravura command of narrative voice and a jaded look at the dehumanising world of contemporary office life. However, unlike Ferris, Lee exudes sympathy for all of his characters, no matter how superficially distasteful or selfish they are. ”
17/06/2012
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The Independent on Sunday
Kunal Duttal
“As someone who worked in a legal firm for six years himself, Lee constructs office scenes easily, weaving together numerous characters and dialogues with flair. Occasionally the writing crackles. But unlike his first novel, Who is Mr Satoshi? (2010), it suffers from a lack of direction. What is left, too often, are the frothy self-obsessed concerns of the cappuccino-clutching corporate classes ... One can't help hoping that this is one of the last in a wave of novels rooted in the New Labour boom years, in which someone's unhappiness inside the service economy makes for an entire novel.”
15/07/2012
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