Man out of time

For the nameless hero of Michael Hogan’s riveting, savagely comical novel, everything feels a little off-kilter. On his first day of work at a prestigious Manhattan firm, the bright, young would-be lawyer can’t help feeling that he’s living in the wrong time, at the wrong speed, in the wrong place. With the best of intentions, he’s put on his finest clothes, fought his way through a hangover, and entered a bewildering world of billable hours, office flirtations, and pedigreed posturing. Even on day one he can’t quite show up on time. And the woman who catches his eye couldn’t be more inappropriate. Now for the wide-eyed young lawyer matched with a button-down firm a contest has begun. Because in one horrible moment, for all the right reasons, our hero makes a wrong move—an ill-timed chuckle that makes a fast enemy of one powerful partner-in-training. And the retribution that follows is quite possibly the most devastating, darkly comic portrayal of the punishment exceeding the crime in modern fiction...