Discount

Gray's debut novel is an acerbic spoof of corporate retail giants. Superstore has 5,281 stores across the U.S., thousands of minimum-wage employees, and low, low prices. Gray focuses on the Superstore in Las Cruces, N.M., and its vividly colorful employees, who get into a variety of goofy situations. In this slice of Superstore life, Gray skewers everyone from the corporate big shots to the shelf stockers and cart boys; no one escapes his coarse, profane, and stinging narrative. Lester Brim, the store manager, is worried about a visit from the home office, while Betty, a "Servant/Leader," trains a motley group of new hires, teaching them the Superstore cheer, how to become an associate, all the ways you can be fired, and why the Superstore doesn't have or need a union. Ron, another Servant/Leader, sends an inappropriate selfie to clerk Claudia, while Kurt, a pot-smoking slacker, only applied for a job so he can sue Superstore for discrimination. Larry panics trying to remove pornography from his computer and electrocutes himself. Efren and Bobby deliberately make disgustingly gross sandwiches in the deli department, and an old lady lives in an RV in the parking lot, keeping her dead husband literally on ice. Under all the fun, the novel displays Gray's considerable storytelling gifts, and the result is an eye-opening romp of narrative. (Apr.)