Book Review: The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips

The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: August 11, 2015
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

In a windowless building in a remote part of town, the newly employed Josephine inputs an endless string of numbers into something known only as The Database. After a long period of joblessness, she’s not inclined to question her fortune, but as the days inch by and the files stack up, Josephine feels increasingly anxious in her surroundings-the office’s scarred pinkish walls take on a living quality, the drone of keyboards echoes eerily down the long halls. When one evening her husband Joseph disappears and then returns, offering no explanation as to his whereabouts, her creeping unease shifts decidedly to dread.

As other strange events build to a crescendo, the haunting truth about Josephine’s work begins to take shape in her mind, even as something powerful is gathering its own form within her. She realizes that in order to save those she holds most dear, she must penetrate an institution whose tentacles seem to extend to every corner of the city and beyond. Both chilling and poignant, The Beautiful Bureaucrat is a novel of rare restraint and imagination. With it, Helen Phillips enters the company of Murakami, Bender, and Atwood as she twists the world we know and shows it back to us full of meaning and wonder-luminous and new.

This was an unusual book. It’s been compared to Kafka’s books in many reviews. Unfortunately, I haven’t read Kafka so I can’t attest to whether that’s true or not. It actually reminded me of a David Lynch movie, which is to say it had a dark, eerie atmosphere and an absurdist plot. (I don’t mean absurd in a bad way.)

Josephine is an office worker who inputs data day after day. She has no idea what the data is or what purpose it serves. Her boss is a faceless person, distinguished only by having extremely bad breath. Her immediate supervisor is cheery, but yet creepy Trishifanny. (Her parents couldn’t decide between Trish and Tiffany.) The author does a great job of immersing the reader in the heavy atmosphere that Josephine lives in. Her life both in her office and outside with her husband are bleak and depressing. The middle of the book seemed repetitive to me but I think that repetition was necessary in order for the reader to understand what Josephine’s life is like. Her life is very repetitive. Data, day after day, after day.

I listened to the audio version of this book. I think listening to the book made the experience even more dark and creepy. The author was great at varying her voice for the different characters. I especially loved her voice for Trishifanny. She captured her false cheerfulness perfectly.

Often when I read books like these, I sense that there is deeper symbolism that is going over my head. That was the case in this book. However, I think many readers would be able to appreciate this book on all levels. Fans of science fiction along the lines of George Orwell’s books would like this book. Fans of Kafka probably would as well. If you read it, let me know. I’d love to discuss this book with someone.

(I received a complementary review copy of this book.)