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More About the Author
Product Description
Independent on Sunday
'Thorne is an extraordinary writer ... A courageous, testing novel'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
TLS
'a dextrous, assured, engrossing fiction, written with a good ear for speech and a keen eye for details'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Some days having a job seems the most decadent pursuit imaginable. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Some days having a job seems the most decadent pursuit imaginable. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Eight Minutes Idle plunges you into a rather comic frantic world of call centres, constantly ringing phones, clipboard carrying team leaders with targets and irrate customers on the end of phones speaking to staff who couldn't care less. The novel succeeds in entertaining you with series of funny mishaps that befall our main character. The pace of the book is uneven given that the beginning and middle are full of detail and told almost in slow motion...whereas the ending appears rushed and detail is sparse. However given the setting this structure mirrors the very topic it devotes itself too namely call centres...all calls start slow and as the chat proceeds so does the pace until before too long you are hurridly rushed off the phone....eight minutes idle is what it is and makes no apologies.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I haven't read anything else by Matt Thorne, and still don't know if I want to. I enjoyed '8 Minutes Idle', and found myself laughing aloud many times (the film with Nigel Havers and Andrew McCarthy does exist I discovered with research!). I now can't take it seriously if I have to phone help-lines because I am thinking about what the other person is doing whilst talking to me. I was disappointed with the end though, which was vague, and hurried. I felt like he had been given a word limit and was trying to cram the ending into as few words as possible. I recommend it if you want to laugh, but be prepared to be let down if you want a conclusion.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
v enjoyable book till near the end when it just fizzles out. the ending is really poor and the author obviously got bored and couldn't be bothered to finish it properly. worth a read if you're bored but stick to more mainstream authors who actually deliver.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Too long
By a good 100 pages. The story runs out of steam with a fair whack still left to drag yourself through. Try Cherry instead.
Published 1 month ago by Hoopler
Good but the ending is a cop out
Like the previous reviewers, I found the subject mildly entertaining given as we are now all exposed to call centers. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Rachel James
Very funny,intelligent prose: excruciating relationships
I heartily recommend this book- a searingly honest witty and intelligent inner dialogue about a few eventful weeks in the life of a young call centre employee who practises faking... Read more
Published on 25 Jan 2001
Living on the edge
This is Matt Thorne's second book, and like his first, Tourist, is about someone getting by, but only just. Read more
Published on 10 Dec 2000
Brilliant
Anyone who has been put off Matt Thorne by his dire third novel, 'Dreaming of Strangers', should not be disheartened. Read more
Published on 24 Sep 2000
a bit douglas coupland-y only english.
takes a little while getting into the mindset of the characters & even longer to care about them. Then the book is like a transatalntic flight. Read more
Published on 11 Jun 2000
Too Clever by Half
Told in the first person, this black comedy is ostensibly set in a Bristol call-centre. Dan is a twentysomething ne'er-do-well coping with an increasingly complex personal... Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2000
Interesting commentary but inconsistent
With plot lines centred around a call centre and the tedium of the labour within, Thorne has in general manufactured an interesting story with enough detail to enable the... Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2000 by domfay@hotmail.com
rather weak and oversold
I found the book to be a rather uninteresting addition to the current vogue for the overly ironic. Somebody said this was a cross between Adrian Mole and Martin Amis. Read more
Published on 26 Nov 1999
A funny and endearing book: Adrian Mole meets Martin Amis
This is an extremely well-written and cleverly perceptive book about a young bloke who is trying to eke out an existence in the worst of all office jobs: the call centre, whilst... Read more
Published on 16 Nov 1999 by jemma.selby@hefce.ac.uk
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