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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It Is What It Is, 1 Aug 2006
This particular iteration of a blog-turned-novel takes the form of a blog, interspersed with emails to and from the blogger. Born from an apparently popular satirical blog of the same name, the book is pretty much a one-joke affair, and that one joke is hammered home over and over and over and over, losing a good deal of its impact along the way. Basically, the premise is that the partner in charge of hiring at a prestigious law firm decides to start an anonymous blog where he rants about his day to day work. The punchline is that the titular author is a nasty arrogant expletive who uses the candid anonymity of the blog to breezily dump all over his coworkers, firm, and entire profession. If you liked Alec Baldwin's scene in the film "Glengarry Glen Ross", this is somewhat along the same lines, although the writing isn't as sharp and it goes on for far too long and thus can't help but get repetitive.
The thin plot concerns the blogger's machinations to position himself to become the firm's next chairman, which also means constant jockeying with his rival "The Jerk" -- all of which plays out rather predictably. The main source of tension is the question of whether or not someone at his firm will recognize the blog and blow the whistle. Meanwhile, the blogger also maintains a running email dialogue with his niece, who's graduating Stanford and heading to Yale Law School. Although this occupies the position of a subplot, it never really goes anywhere meaningful and doesn't seem to serve much purpose other than softening the blogger character. Other running topics include the need to maximize billable hours, the ineptitude of pretty much everyone, and why hierarchy is so important at corporate law firms. The cast of characters include: The Suck-Up, The Musician, Tax Guy, The One Who Dresses Like A Slut, The One Who's Never Getting Married, The One Who Missed Her Kid's Funeral, The Bombshell, Foreign Guy, Black Guy, Harvard Guy, Real Estate Guy, Lives With His Mom, and more.
As a story it's paper-thin. As a book, it's total fluff and takes only a few hours to read. As satire of corporate law it's a fairly sophomoric compilation of exaggerations, but as the author graduated from Harvard Law School, it has enough of a veneer of reality to it to make it entertaining enough. Will probably go on to be a classic for the law school crowd.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not so devilish, 13 Jun 2007
The cover gives you some idea about the character of the Anonymous Lawyer He has horns, a devil tail and what could be a good suit. Though to be fair lawyers aren't known for buying halo polish. AL is a hiring partner at one of the world's largest law firms and he starts a blog. Everyone has a blog: I'm expecting The Queen to start one, anonymously of course. Well she couldn't be that anonymous; there aren't that many people who do her job.
We're presented with a series of blog posts and email exchanges as AL butts horns with `The Jerk'. And they do feel like blog posts. Everyone has a nickname matching their character. My favourite being `The Woman That Hugs Everybody'. He changes the places, dates, and outcomes of events to remain anonymous. But he worries for how long it will be before he found out.
If it was an actual blog printed out I could see this being less exciting. But it's not just a blog. It is a novel with a plotline and character development. And that's what makes it very readable.
Each of the posts give you a glimpse of behind the scenes of a law firm, at least it sounds convincing like a real law firm from the descriptions of the counting of Post-Its to the billing clients for researching in the bathroom.
But most convincing is the character of AL. He does start off as a bit of Devil, but through the posts and more usually the e-mails he seems to be as human as the rest of us, if a little cynical, and a bit too rich.
It's not all successful. Making it blog-like with a compelling character and a plot that doesn't seem too extreme for the world it inhabits doesn't need to be promoted for having "up-to-the-minute references", which are going to date it more than it needs to. It gets a little too soft in the middle when AL seems to run out of nasty things to torment the `summers'.
Anonymous Lawyer is also a live a blog (anonymouslawyer.blogspot.com). I've not read it yet as not to effect my impression of this debut. I'm hoping there'll be a sequel. For writers of anonymous blogs there could even be few writing tips to be had.
Overall, an enjoyable and non-taxing read that had me laughing out loud more than once. Highly recommended.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic catty read, 30 Mar 2007
Loved this book so much, I was looking for the website after I was done ready.
It's got depth, it's bitchy,it's hilarious.
Keeper!
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