Resume with Monsters

Word processor Philip Kenan is not just stuck in a series of dead-end jobs in this satirical novel, but trapped in delusional fantasies about undead co-workers and monsters from the horror stories of H.P. Lovecraft as well. An unsuccessful novelist himself, Philip possesses an imagination that creeps out of the shadows and sucks up quotidian reality like a B-movie alien, a quality appreciated by neither his ex-girlfriend nor his semiretired therapist, much less by conventional employers. As Philip struggles with temping, therapy and a new love affair, his sanity gradually crumbles to reveal a far more bizarre universe than that in his unpublishable manuscript. Spencer's goofy conceit of an office-life horror novel spoof is kept afloat by a cast of eccentric co-workers at Ralph's One-Day Resumes and the Pelidyne Corporation, easy cracks about data entry and some ingenious narrative tricks (a flashback related as an out-of-body experience, for example). Although this oddball work is often appealing, Spencer (The Return of Count Electric) ultimately fails to unite satisfactorily the workplace comedy and Philip's deranged imagination. (Feb.)