House of Cards: Love, Faith, and Other Social Expressions

Dickerson was a struggling 20-something with a creative writing M.F.A. when he submitted a writing portfolio to Hallmark in part because he had an idea for a novel set at a greeting card company. He takes the job of writing those cards, but what seemed like a natural outlet for his highly verbal sense of humor quickly degenerates in a profoundly alienating environment, where his self-acknowledged “ridiculously intense and enthusiastic” personality rubs almost everybody the wrong way. The tone is set early—“Oh Jesus, I just sent out a cry for help,” Dickerson thinks at his first holiday party, “and everybody heard it, and no one is coming to save me.” His personal life isn't any better, as he struggles to maintain a long-distance relationship with the only woman he's ever dated while coping with the frustration of being a 28-year-old virgin. The behind-the-scenes material is diverting (you'll never be able to read the word “special” on a card again without smirking), but it's the broader drama of the profoundly un-corporate Dickerson's doomed efforts to fit into the corporate world that gives the memoir its staying power. (Oct.)