The Deep Whatsis by Peter Mattei

Published by Other Press on July 23, 2013

The Deep Whatsis is a familiar but funny sendup of the corporate environment. It's like Dilbert with sex, or Office Space merged with Fatal Attraction.

Eric Nye is 33, works in advertising ("advertising is how corporations outsource their lies") and is on page two of the screenplay he's been writing for three years. As the ad agency's Executive Creative Director, his primary job is to fire older workers, a task he handles with pleasure (for awhile, at least) despite his realization that he is the person most deserving of being fired. Like other writers who have lampooned the highly compensated denizens of corporate culture, Peter Mattei emphasizes Eric's shallow self-indulgence, his obsession with trendy consumerism, his emotional emptiness, and his dependence on mood-stabilizing drugs, none of which ward off his panic attacks.

Eric's one-night-stand with a client's young intern becomes problematic after she accepts an internship with Eric's employer and begins to stalk him. Naturally enough, Eric is obsessed with the one person who is devious enough to cause him professional harm. Yet Eric's mind seems to take occasional breaks from reality, leaving the reader to wonder whether the problems in his life are caused by the intern or are of his own design.

Mattei's characters are hilariously stereotyped, from the politically correct HR lady to the antisocial IT guy. Eric is a jerk but he's a self-aware jerk, so over the top in his jerkiness that he's almost likable. Eric experiences a transformation of sorts that gives the reader a reason to care about him, but how much he's actually changed is an open question by the time the novel reaches its abrupt ending. Eric's relationship with the intern is central to the story and to the development of Eric's character, but Eric's strong feelings about her are not entirely convincing.

Mattei's insights into advertising (the art of persuading consumers to buy junk they don't need) aren't new but his description of consumers buying shiny new things to increase their "game status" in the game of acquisition is amusing. His notion that technology is "taking away the fundamental truths about our humanity and making us pay to get them back" is, sadly enough, at least partially true. It is, in fact, Mattei's take on modern urban life -- more funny than profound -- that furnishes the novel's best moments.

Although The Deep Whatsis is built upon ideas that are recycled from other novels, Mattei has infused enough fresh humor to make it a breezy, entertaining read. The novel has an unfinished feel that might disturb some readers -- it's a slice of an unsatisfying life, with much remaining to be resolved -- but readers who don't mind writing their own endings are given ample opportunity to imagine where Eric's life will take him.

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