Eight Minutes Idle - Softcover

Thorne, Matt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340738839 ISBN 13: 9780340738832

Publisher: Sceptre, 1999

Synopsis

When his father gets knocked over in a car accident, Dan is forced to economise, give up the bedsit the two of them share and secretly move into the call centre where he works. He takes with him a Ginger Tom called John and the telephone numbers of seven women his dad wants him to contact. Soon, the boundaries between Dan's life and work dissolve completely, and, if weren't for the secrecy, his twenty-four hour residency at the call centre would mark him out as the perfect employee.

Eight Minutes Idle focuses on the flip side of office existence, examining the strange things that can happen to the human brain after one too many hours in front of a terminal. It also explains how to turn your workplace into a dating agency, why it's a bad idea to sleep with your boss and exactly what's going on at the other end of the phone while you're left waiting on hold.

Bold, sexy and constantly inventive, Eight Minutes Idle is an addictive, urbane treat.

About this title

Review:

"This young writer's first novel [ TOURIST ] is a seaside snap of rootless life, his 'Bit More Than Zero': amusing, poignant, frequently sexy and remarkably sussed" THE OBSERVER

a dextrous, assured, engrossing fiction, written with a good ear for speech and a keen eye for details (TLS)

"In an accomplished first novel...occupying an emotion no-man's land between RITA, SUE & BOB TOO and WISH YOU WERE HERE, Thorne describes sex, boredom and a lifetime of morning-afters in a British seaside town" THE INDEPENDENT

To sustain such a story over a book of this length signals a gravity-defying performance. Even so, Eight Minutes Idle never lets on quite how smart it is (Independent)

a wonderfully lucid novel. Thorne's breezy, poppy narrative style, careless cruel humour and refusal to take too seriously such serious matters as work, love and death are glorious to read (Daily Telegraph)

"Warped, sordid fun!" TIME OUT

"His book captures perfectly the bleak spirit of English seaside towns, and its troubled hedonistic heroine is a memorable creation"

ANDREW BISWELL'S 'BOOK OF THE YEAR', DAILY TELEGRAPH

Thorne is an extraordinary writer ... A courageous, testing novel (Independent on Sunday)

there's a touch of the early Amis about Thorne and this is a book that will single him out from the rest of the pack (Glasgow Herald)

"A tour de force of accurate and sharp writing about sex from a woman's viewpoint. Astonishing."

MAIL ON SUNDAY

From the Author:

Eight Minutes Idle
This is a semi-autobiographical novel about a man called Dan and his father (who is much like my father) who live together in a one-bedroom apartment. When Dan's Dad is knocked over in a road accident, Dan is forced to move into the call-centre where he works. His Dad also gives him the phone numbers of seven women he has been involved with, and this is the start of a thriller plot that grows steadily stranger. The book has been bought by Feelgood Fiction and FilmFour, and should soon be appearing as a film.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sceptre
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0340738839
• ISBN 13: 9780340738832
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480