Friday, January 20, 2012

Review of Dork: The Incredible Adventures Of Robin 'Einstein' Varghese

Author : Sidin Vadakut,  a former management consulting guy from IIMA,turned writer.The author has an interesting humorous blog called  Domain Maximuswhich you might like to check out.
Genre: satire
Themes: office culture,IIM,management consulting,mallu networking,dorks
Formats available: Paperback
My Rating: 3.5/5

I picked up Dork for some light holiday reading during my trip to YelagiriIt turned out to be a good random pick,and I spent  an enjoyable evening with this book,sitting on my park swing in Zeenat Taj Resorts in Yelagiri.



Robin 'Einstein' Varghese is a naive graduate from IIM A,who joins this mid-market  management consulting firm called Dufresne. The book follows his  comic misadventures at the firm,while he tries to learn management consulting  and make Senior Associate within the same year. 

Einstein is an obvious caricature,a naive and blundering mallu guy  who believes that companies completely follow the rules in their manifestos. But he's endearing,and I think some of the author's sympathies lie with the character,despite the many jokes made at his expense.The full force of the author's  rage and sarcasm actually falls on the myriad smaller smaller characters -the ego-centric boss,the ass kissing colleague,the supercilious colleague and on the generally incompetent and un-ethical ways that management consulting business is run at some companies.

There is also an amusing one-sided romance with Gowri,a former classmate from IIM,who surprisingly doesn't screw over 'Einstein' like I expected her to do.

This book is a marriage of sorts with Dilbert,satire and Indian corporate office culture.I enjoyed  the many jokes in this book(especially Einstein's  adventures which end up as viral videos),and also felt the full force of Sidin' s  harsh critism of his former colleagues and they way they managed their client's interests.

Recommendation: 
Intrigued enough to want to read the sequel 'God Save the Dork' and the next.Apparently this is a trilogy!

1 comment: