What readers think of The Beautiful Bureaucrat, plus links to write your own review.

I just finished this and am still not sure of what I read. A fever dream, a hallucination, possibly a nightmare, maybe all of them? All I know is that I started reading this and was hooked, wanted to find out what was going on.

Josephine and Joseph move to the city from the hinterlands where they were unable to find jobs. At first in the city things do not seem much better, but than miracle of miracles they both find jobs. Josephine, hired by someone whose face she cannot clearly see, a face that seems like no face gets a job sitting at a desk inputting numbers into a Database. Boring pink walls, strict rules, and few if any co-workers that she can see, though she eventually makes the acquaintance of one. Stacks of files daily, ennui sets in, the only saving grace her husband Joseph and the few surprises he provides. But than she begins questioning what she is inputting and from there, well that is the rest of the story.

Wildly inventive, strange and inviting all at once, this is so different from what I usually read that I am still thinking about it. Novella length, more than a novel but it contains quite a bit in a small package. Am still shaking my head, though I have to admit this might not appeal to some like it did for me.

This book was chosen for a monthly book club. It's definitely not like anything else I have ever read. It was difficult to drudge through and I only finished it because of the club. I found the ending to be confusing and quite vague. The characters were more annoying than endearing. Even the main character had little to make me feel anything for her throughout.