Howie, the protagonist of Nicholson Baker's first novel, The Mezzanine (1988), asks whether our 'disorganised do-it-yourself evening life' can 'really be the same as the clean, noble, Pendaflex life we lead in office buildings'. After all the 'wealth and pomp' of the office, 'we return home every evening and stand sweating in front of a chest of drawers,' pull out the loose coinage accumulated over the day, remove the 'sticky lump' of a wallet, store our pants away, and 'walk about in our underpants and T-shirt waiting for the Ronzoni shells to boil'.

LRB 24 July 2003 | PDF Download