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Book Description
From the author of the award-winning The Great Fire, an extraordinary collection of stories about life in the Organisation - a polyglot crucible in which talent rots and mediocrity thrives and the 'rights of man' are unthinkingly sacrificed on the altar of inter-departmental strife.
Product Description
The 'People in Glass Houses' work for an American-based concern devoted to 'inflicting improvement' the world over. Amongst them are sloppy but erudite Algie Wyatt, Swoboda, a Slav DP, who finally rebels against a daily inflow of documentation; modest Ashmole-Brown, whose surprise best-seller unseats Sadie Graine, the all-time corridor fixer; Jaspersen, who falls in and out of love with the Organization; and Clelia Kinslake, who meets the most critical non-crisis of her career in Crete. Shirley Hazzard's eight dazzling stories are linked by a scorching contempt for the Organization.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A wicked analysis of life and the corruption of the spirit to be found in a large self-perpetuating organisation which I'm sure says a great deal about why the UN is so useless. Funny and disquieting at the same time and a perfect illustration of how unelected organsations tend toward mediocrity at all levels. I'm sure these same characteristics are writ small in all the quangos that now supply so many of our services in this country.
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1 review
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
A Terrific Marriage of Kafka and Waugh
9 Feb 2006
Format:Paperback
Anyone who has worked with the United Nations will recognize "the Organization" immediately. Ms. Hazzard worked there for ten years back in the 50s and it doesn't seem to have changed at all. But this book is more than a satire of the UN, it is a commentary on bureaucracy in general and great fun to read. Some of the humor is broad (a meeting attended by someone from the Section on Forceful Implementation of Peace Treaties and someone from the Section on Peaceful Uses for Atomic Weapons) but most of it is in that subtle area of humor which is almost indistinguishable from tragedy. This should be mandatory reading for anyone involved in any form of government or humanitarian work.
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