Out of Wonderland: A Saga
David Cates, . . Steerforth, $19.95 (141pp) ISBN 978-1-58642-095-6
Set adrift by sudden unemployment, the Candide-like protagonist of this biting satire of modern capitalism encounters other denizens of a dystopian Wonderland, including a con woman who mails bogus consulting bills to random businesses, some of whom pay up; a boy obsessed with sex; and a woman in pink lamé with a "background in medieval history and retail sales." Sustained by faith in the "Global Free Market," they endure sweatshops, war and the incessant search for employment amid nonstop economic upheaval. Their calamities are soothed by a culture of inane uplift: workplace fatalities are papered over with grief counseling, management celebrates the diversity of its viciously exploited labor force and the Panglossian Dr. Fingerdoo urges mourners at a funeral to "visualize success." It's a funny caricature, but Cates (
Reviewed on: 06/06/2005
Genre: Fiction