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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Feb 2015, 192 pages
Paperback:
Feb 2015, 192 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Elena Spagnolie
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Funny, clever, surreal, and thought-provoking, this Kafkaesque masterpiece introduces the unforgettable Bjorn, an exceptionally meticulous office worker striving to live life on his own terms.
Bjorn is a compulsive, meticulous bureaucrat who discovers a secret room at the government office where he works - a secret room that no one else in his office will acknowledge. When Bjorn is in his room, what his co-workers see is him standing by the wall and staring off into space looking dazed, relaxed, and decidedly creepy. Bjorn's bizarre behavior eventually leads his co-workers to try and have him fired, but Bjorn will turn the tables on them with help from his secret room.
Debut author Jonas Karlsson doesn't leave a word out of place in this brilliant, bizarre, delightful take on how far we will go--in a world ruled by conformity - to live an individual and examined life.
1.
The first time I walked into the room I turned back almost at once. I was actually trying to find the toilet but got the wrong door. A musty smell hit me when I opened the door, but I don't remember thinking much about it. I hadn't actually noticed there was anything at all along this corridor leading to the lifts, apart from the toilets. Oh, I thought. A room.
I opened the door, then shut it. No more than that.
2.
I had started work at the Authority two weeks before, and in many respects I was still a newcomer. Even so, I tried to ask as few questions as I could. I wanted to become a person to be reckoned with as quickly as possible.
I had gotten used to being one of the leaders in my last job. Not a boss, or even a team manager, but someone who could sometimes show other people what to do. Not always liked, not a sycophant or a yes-man, but well regarded and treated with a certain respect, possibly even admiration. Ever so slightly ingratiating, perhaps? I was ...
A distinct sense of humor and playfulness underlies the plot but doesn’t sacrifice the novel’s depth. Swedish playwright (and now novelist) Jonas Karlsson has delivered a delightfully eerie debut that will keep a smile on your face as you burn through the pages...continued
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(Reviewed by Elena Spagnolie).
Neel Mukherjee, author of The Lives of Others
A gripping, tense, demonic fable in which the unease is precision-tooled and the turns of the screw wholly unexpected. Nick Offerman, author of Paddle Your Own Canoe
The Room is the most effective chapbook on workplace comportment since Glengarry Glen Ross. Hats off!
People today seem to spend more time at work than ever before. So why is it that once we've gotten home, kicked off our uncomfortable shoes and loosened our ties, we relax by watching The Office, Mad Men, or cult classic Office Space, read books like Jonas Karlsson's The Room or even comics such as Dilbert?
Perhaps it's because we can relate to the inane antics of the average office, and because the use of satire is therapeutic. Maybe it makes us feel better to watch fictional characters say or do things that could get us fired. Or possibly - as this article in The Guardian suggests - it's because "anywhere is more interesting than your office, even if it's just someone else's office." Whatever the reason, fiction set in the workplace ...
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