The Job (ISBN 0786889543)

Amazon.com Review:
At first, it's hard to like Ned Allen, the ambitious, yuppie salesman who is the protagonist of Douglas Kennedy's new thriller. The moral dilemmas and frustrations that trouble Ned on his rise to the sophisticated heights of Manhattan seem an afterthought, perhaps tacked on in response to their total absence in his first, highly trumpeted but ultimately unsuccessful novel, The Big Picture. But Ned begins to grow on the reader. Brutally fired, then blacklisted in his own industry, he watches his Faustian bargain with a ruthless real estate tycoon unravel, and it gets easier to root for him. This entry in the recent genre of thrillers set in the world of downsized corporate America isn't quite up to the high standards established by Donald Westlake in The Ax, but it'll make the time go by a little faster on the red-eye back to the home office. --Jane Adams

Top writing, great story:
It is always a pleasure to read a novel that is crafted so well, where the author's skill at story telling is so blatantly evident, that it literally immerses the reader into its world and will not let go until the last page is turned. The Job is an excellent tale about a Ned Allen, a magazine advertising salesman who loves the thrill of the deal, closing the sale is his ultimate adrenalin rush, and he's good at it. He's living the Manhattan dream: high fliers, exclusive restaurants, a downtown apartment and a beautiful wife. Ned is also a nice guy, generally an ethical man, which is a dangerous thing to be in a world of the "cut throat" deal. One could say that life is a series of choices, and the choice we make determine who we are in the end. Ned wants to do the right thing, he cares about his employees, but sometimes the pressures of the deal, and the stress of the moment can push one to make decisions that can turn one's life upside down. Ned is confronted with an ethical dilemma - he makes a decision, moving into that ethical `grey' area, that sets off a chain of circumstances which changes his ideal Manhattan life into a nightmare. Kennedy ensures we have great sympathy for Ned Allen. The mistakes he makes, his dubious ethical choices, most would agree are minor compared to some of the stories we hear about in the world of big business and high finance. But for some people it doesn't take much to topple our house of cards on simply a whim or seemingly insignificant choice. While some get away with murder or move through life stepping on people on a daily basis without a second thought of consequences, some of us can make one little mistake, and the world changes forever. Ned is that type of person that must follow his own values or pay the price. And, unfortunately, he pays the price. The job is a convincing piece of story telling, compelling in its content, a compulsive experience that wouldn't let go until it was finally finished in the dark early morning hours. A perfect weekend read that has prompted me to seek out further novels by Douglas Kennedy. A great performance.

It's a yuppie world:
To sell advertising space is the hardest job in the trade. How you do it, how to survive and how to have success and what happens , when you are unable to meet targets. - Douglas Kennedy tells it all. And he knows what he is talking about. Forget about the weekend, forget about eating and forget about your dates, this novel will steal your time. At first, it's hard to get used to the language Douglas Kennedy chose for this book. But it's a yuppie world and so is the writing. ... Well earned four stars.

Chilling Yuppie Tale:
Ned Allen is a salesman barely living within his means in New York City. From a small town in Maine, he strives to shed his background and be a big player in the big city. He is the northeast sales manager for a computer magazine. His wife Lizzie is in public relations, and the two of them are busy living a life of crushing work schedules and dinner and drinks in all the right places. Always on the edge, Ned's life takes a precarious turn when the magazine he works for is sold to a German company. Almost simultaneously, Ned's job is on the line when Ivan, one of the salesmen working under him, loses a 6-page spread only a couple of days before the print deadline. The only way Ned can save the day is by making a veiled threat to Ted Peterson, the client who tried to pull his ad. Immediately following this success, Ned meets with his new German boss, who tells him that he wants to fire Ned's boss and put Ned in his place. Ned is sworn to secrecy, and though he feels bad for the fate of his boss, he is looking forward to his new salary and position. With all of this in place, Ned takes off for a week's vacation in the Bahamas with Lizzie, and starts spending more than ever. When Ned returns to work on January 2, the office is full of security guards who are ushering out all the magazine's employees. Unbeknownst to Ned, while he was on vacation, the Germans sold the magazine to its fiercest competitor, which in turn decided to close the magazine down and fire everyone. Ned's boss, Chuck Zanussi, whose place he was slated to take, heard about the deal Ned had struck with the Germans, and takes a confrontational stance. Chuck is placed in charge of the new magazine, and tells Ned he will never have a job again if there's anything he can do about it. Ned goes on a downward spiral. In addition to his troubles with Chuck Zanussi, Ted Peterson is also out to destroy his career, and every time it seems as if he may have a job possibility, one of his enemies puts a stop to it. Ned becomes depressed about being supported by his wife and drives a wedge between the two of them. She accepts a temporary job on the west coast in order to get some space from Ned. Then, when Ivan commits suicide over losing his new job (compliments of Ted Peterson), Ned really screws up and Lizzie throws him out of their apartment. Left with no money and nowhere to go, Ned calls Jerry, an old school friend he bumped into who now works for a major bigshot. Jerry gladly takes Ned in, setting him up in the spare room of his loft. Jerry is the right-hand man of Mr. Ballantine, an ex-football player turned real estate mogul turned self-help author. One of Ballantine's new ventures is private equity funds, and he hires Ned to use his connections to line up potential new companies for investment. Ned has suspicions about the authenticity of his new job, but since it's the only thing he's got going, he keeps quiet. Things get suddenly sticky for Ned when he finds out that Jerry and Ted Peterson have apparently been doing business together, and the fund he is working for is definitely not what it's supposed to be. Ned is in way over his head, and suddenly looking at prison time or death. Desperate, he finally levels with Lizzie and tells her everything that has happened, and she helps him find a way out. At the conclusion, Ned manages to disentangle himself from the mess he got into, but several other matters are unresolved, like his relationship with Lizzie and his career potential. Douglas Kennedy has a definite talent for taking everyday lives and giving them an ominous spin. From the very first page, we are drawn into the drama of Ned Allen's life, and feel the foreboding hanging over him when it starts to unwind. It makes for a compelling, page-turning read. The villains in this book may be business moguls versus terrorists or island-dwelling megalomaniacs, but perhaps because of their ordinariness, they're even scarier. We see people like them every day at the office. This was my second foray into the world of Douglas Kennedy, and though this book was very different from his first (The Big Picture), they were equally good, and I'll be searching for more.

Quick read:
I gave this book to my husband and he finished it in 3 days. It must be good.

It's a yuppie worls:
To sell advertising space is the hardest job in the trade. How you do it, how to survive and how to have success and what happens , when you are unable to meet targets. - Douglas Kennedy tells it all. And he knows what he is talking about. Forget about the weekend, forget about eating and forget about your dates, this novel will steal your time. At first, it's hard to get used to the language Douglas Kennedy chose for this book. But it's a yuppie world and so is the writing. ... Well earned four stars.