Despite the unavoidable association with the United States Canadians suffer, most people would admit that they at least carry a reputation for being more sensitive and less insular than their southern counterparts. However with an artistic community whose more well known contributors include Bryan Adams, Celine Dion and William Shatner the casual observer may conclude that for all its great qualities Canada’s real strength seems to be in turning out an exceptional standard of middle of the road art. Add to that the unfortunate moniker Canadian writers must bear- “Can Lit”- and rising talent Rob Payne seems to have his work cut out to impress. Therefore a light comedy on the banalities of office life might not seem such a great foot to start off on then, would it? Working class zero is the second book about Payne’s character Jay Thompson, previously in “Live by request” a 26 year old bartender looking to make it in the music business. In “Working class zero” he’s now a 30 year old insurance company employee, his music dreams are over and he is in an unfulfilling relationship with Jan, his bass player/love interest from the first book. The chief dilemma of Working class zero is Jay’s promotion to the management of a call centre, which requires him to oversee a room full of temp staff, whilst still retaining a shred of his former rebelliousness. Along the way Jay’s father’s colon will get scoped, he will eat
Citing his time editing Quarry magazine and editing two collections of Canadian fiction as credentials, Payne managed to enrage the Can lit circles by stating they were only capable of churning middle of the road historical fiction. Offering his own “urban contemporary prose” as an alternative, Payne cites the work of Australian authors such as John Birmingham as an influence and has been enthusiastically compared with such luminaries as Roddy Doyle and Nick Hornby- however it is to be seen how well he fits these shoes after his second novel in as many years.
Style wise the comparisons are obvious- simple 1st person writing with a bit of a screenplay style and plenty of internal monologues and wry observations interspersed with tennis volley conversations. Not to mention a lead character suffering a crisis brought on by the absurdities of modern life. Other equally obvious comparisons can be made with Mike Judge’s 1999 film “Office Space” and David Fincher’s film of the same year “Fight Club”.
The most obvious homage of all is of course to “Fight Club”. Numerous quotes are lifting straight from the movie voice-over “This is your life and its ending one day at a time” compared with Payne’s “My life is ending one subway token at a time”. There are numerous references to the films cast including Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter, and Thompson’s sagely best friend is even called
The problem is, these things aside there just isn’t that much going on. Hornby’s “High Fidelity” had a couple breaking up, sleeping with other people, a death; the best “Working class Zero” can manage is an almost-drunken fumble with a junior temp, “Did we lock lips or did I have an alcohol fuelled lust dream?”; a colon cancer scare; ‘”I might have the cancer”, Dad says
“I might have the bruschetta”, Don says’; and a rather unceremonious firing.
While Doyle and Hornby manage to offer insights with his observations or at least provide a breeding ground for them, the best Jay Thompson can offer is "Our collars might be white, but our outlooks are grey and our paycheques are most definitely lacking in green."
While “Working Class Zero” is a great light read, the lack of real evolution by the characters and lack of insight can leave the reader wondering why they bothered in the first place. As Jay notes to himself near the end of the book "Life proceeds at its mundane pace. As usual, I've made no significant changes. But I'm thinking about it."
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