I also have the previous novel on this theme by Matt Beaumont "e - a novel" and as my review shows it was one of the funniest novels that I had ever read. It was incredibly well conceived, and put together, reflecting, admittedly exaggeratedly, situations found in many offices, but painted with a comedic brush, which could be related to by virtually everyone who has worked in an office and seen the machinations, romances, naked ambition, skulduggery, office politics, and downright stupidity that is a feature in just about every office in the land. So accurate and real were the characterisations, that you felt that you had met many if not all of the characters already in your working career.
However, "E Squared" didn't quite give me the same level of enjoyment, and whilst it was not a bad read, it lacked a little something. "E - a novel", was very much orientated towards the activities of the Advertising Agency, whereas this book tends to concentrate more on matters outside of the Agency and on quirky personal issues. I found the electronic chatter going on beyond the E mail flow, eg MSN, not to be relevant to the strength or humour of the story, and frankly somewhat superfluous, and without which would have not affected the story and would have compacted the book into a more readable and interest sustaining length.
There are some really funny running gags, such as the automatic and seemingly uncorrectable e-mail signature, and the EBay 'For Sale' notices following thefts of a multitude of expensive items ie. Champagne, Top of the range colour photocopier etc. that were being nicked to try and settle one executives gambling debts.
Perhaps life in an Advertising Agency has now run it's course from the point of view of humorous email analysis is concerned, but I feel the author has got a potentially saleable format here, if applied across other types of concerns, for example such as PR firms, Model Agencies, Football Clubs, Theatrical Production Companies, Publishers and so on.
