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The Office
There’s a strong, distinctive voice here—the narrator’s restless, hyper-alert mind makes the office feel like a kind of civilian battlefield. I enjoyed the contrast between the fluorescent routines of reports, front desks and gossip, and the narrator’s memories of patrols, training and exits. The office workers seem almost unreal to him, while his own drinking, motorcycles and constant readiness are presented as another kind of ritual. The story is funniest when that intensity is applied to completely ordinary provocations, like the imagined attack with the monitor, but there’s also something sad underneath it: he needs the job to occupy himself, yet he can’t really belong to this world. The final “I can’t” adds weight to what might otherwise read as pure swagger, though I wanted a little more clarity about what happened. Still, the atmosphere and character voice carry the piece, and the ending leaves a thoughtful shadow behind the bravado.
Sophie Bennett
