The Tiger bites
Those proud to live and work within the grasp of the Celtic Tiger; those who think their success is based on talent and innovation, and has nothing to do with dumb luck and happenstance prepare to see the ugly truth. Seán Harnett's debut novel, Aisling Ltd, shows us all how we really are.
Those proud to live and work within the grasp of the Celtic Tiger; those who think their success is based on talent and innovation, and has nothing to do with dumb luck and happenstance – prepare to see the ugly truth. Seán Harnett's debut novel, Aisling Ltd, shows us all how we really are.
The premise of the novel and its structure are deceptively simple: beginning with a shock violent encounter between our hero Eoin and his boss, the book then flashes back over the preceding months to explain how things got so bad. The story moves slowly, our author sketching the action through conversations and encounters between our protagonists, and Eoin's streaming narrative; descriptions of his fear, guilt and happiness, all of which seem to depend entirely on what is happening in work.
Having entered the company with the hope of finding "meaning", of finding a new religion and a guru in his boss Larry, he eventually sees it all crumble around him as the company and his co-workers reveal their true colours. Harnett paints strong and entirely familiar office characters – most big companies will have an attractive yet dangerous Dee, who will betray you for the good of the company while still pretending to be on your side; and a self-appointed revolutionary like Tom, whose safe, in-house rebellions and big talk belie his conservative roots.
And then there's Larry, the bullshit-wielding boss who is lauded in the industry for his holistic, honest approach to business. We're introduced to him on Eoin's first day, where we find him sitting in the boardroom. Behind him there's a "large abstract canvas" on the wall, and a whiteboard with vague terms like "client facing solutions", "data subjects", "key learnings" and "bed down" scrawled on it. He's spouting his typically long-winded answers to a willing listener over the phone.
"And then one day we woke up and realised, bloody hell, but the country is a success, and every gouger you meet has an e-commerce strategy, and foreigners are flocking to work here, and you can get decent Italian coffee and tinned artichoke hearts in the Spar around the corner."
Larry is renowned for his innovative approach to the business which, he claims, is based on openness, respect, flexibility and vision. Eoin, the seemingly willing student, feels himself buying into his teachings despite the mounting evidence that things are not as wholesome as they seem – in fact, the success of Aisling seems to be coincidental and elusive, little to do with any innovative business model. We – and Eoin – begin to resent Larry more and more; we delight when he cracks at a public meeting and when he is betrayed by others in the company, not only having developed a personal dislike for the man, but also because of our inevitable jealousy for anyone who thinks they have a unique idea.
The setting for Aisling Ltd is distinctly Dublin in the late-1990s – those of us that lived through it, bought into the rush for a while and got out the other side will recognise it with a wince. We had money and lots of it. We were suddenly aware of marketing, branding, communications – areas of business that had never previously existed but were now an industry staple. Buzzwords and jargon were flying, mindgames and stress that had never been felt before suddenly, and absolutely unnecessarily, became the norm for "the Celtic Cubs".
Eoin's job in Aisling seems ridiculous but frighteningly familiar. Hired after a spectacularly successful interview to "take ownership of the company's brand identity and ensure that we consistantly and emphatically articulate our core values and wide-ranging competencies to both existing and potential clients" (according to the photocopied job notice from the Irish Times that the author adds in to illustrate), the only real work we see him do during the course of the book is to write the blurb for the company's retreat centre catalogue – a retreat centre he has up to then never visited – and type up the notes to a seminar. Granted, he works late every evening, attends plenty of team-building exercises, induction forums and business lunches, and he certainly learns to talk the talk, but what he – and Aisling – actually does, is purposely elusive.
Harnett describes this "New Ireland" with his tongue placed firmly in cheek. Through Eoin – well-read, neurotic and inquisitive – he both accepts and refutes the bullshit, arguing against it on one hand but still falling for it to a certain degree. Just like all of us did, and do. His writing style is engaging: through simple language and smart dialogue, he presents us with a crazy world but never expects us to believe in it – we are encouraged to find it cheesy and self-indulgent. Things don't reach the crescendo that would justify the violence of the first chapter, and yet we feel Eoin's building frustration. Every sideways glance or pointed comment from a co-worker cuts him like a knife, and us along with him.
This book is obviously based, even loosely, on Seán Harnett's personal experiences of working in the IT industry in Dublin and Galway towards the end of the 1990s. Harnett hints in his acknowledgments at the end of the book that the retreat centre, Kilcoyle House, is based on a real location. A scary thought, indeed.
Whether based on reality or entirely imagined, Aisling Ltd is entirely convincing and engaging: an exciting tale written with flair and talent by a young Irish author who seems guaranteed to have a bright future ahead.