Richard Kaempfer

Richard Kaempfer’s $everance is a hilarious book that will make readers laugh, nod their heads in agreement and, especially in today’s climate, watch the news with even more skepticism. All Tom Zagorski wants is for his boss, Sherman Rose, to fire him so he can collect his severance check. He creates as much mayhem as he possibly can with the surprising result of landing him a job as COO for Sierra Megamedia Corporation, the company who owns his small Chicago radio station. With a brilliant mix of satire and truth, Kaempfer explores the world of media that most of us can only hypothesize about. Having worked in the business at a Chicago radio station, his account comes across as though he’s saying, “I couldn’t make this up if I tried.”

In his craziest scheme, Zagorski e-mails Rose and the CEO of Sierra Megamedia, Franklin Siegel, with a list of ludicrous ideas to make the company money and cut costs. Unfortunately for Zagorski, Siegel not only takes the ideas seriously, but also loves them. He implements Zagorski’s ideas and hires him as the new COO. Once in New York, Zagorski does not stop his Zagorski is taken so seriously and his power becomes so great in the industry that at his peak, he plans to run for President of the United States. What would a novel about American media conglomerates (or media in general) be without overzealous political radicals from both sides? The political storyline is interwoven with that of Zagorski’s as they fight over him to be their presidential candidate among other things. However, the book manages to stay bipartisan while making fun of both Democrats and Republicans. This novel explores the relationship between the public and the media and demonstrates that there are a million stories out there, but the only one not being reported is the Truth. Except by Richard Kaempfer, of course.… (més)

$everance: an indictment of spurious journalism? Check! $everance: a Laodicean account of the annoying nature of political zealots? Check! $everance: a hilarious satire about the trials and tribulations that accompany…trying to get fired? Check!
It’s a battle of attrition for Chicago radio DJ Tom Zagorski and long time on-air partner Richard Lawrence. In a vain corporate attempt to get the duo to quit, relieving the company of their fat severance checks, the once prominent talk radio show now features less talk and more commercials, as well as news read from day old papers. Zagorski’s atomic bomb of insubordination backfires and in no time he ironically becomes a Wall Street golden boy and big shot for the second largest media conglomerate in the world.
As Zagorski and Lawrence navigate their way through New York City’s maze of CEOs, conservative hotshots, bad journalists, liberal loudmouths, and vomit inducing cab drivers, trying to piss them all off and play them against one another isn’t as easy as it seems. Every absurd scheme the two come up with—from redecorating an office to resemble an epic Hollywood movie, or completely destroying what was left of objective reporting (and a lot in between)—their plans only result in more praise and more unwanted attention. Author Richard Kaempfer mixes humor with sadism to great result: each success, when Zagorski only wants failure, brings with it bigger laughs, more outrageous characters, and ‘nothing-good-can-come-of-this’ situations.
$everance is a carefully balanced satire about the post-deregulation liberal and conservative on-air personalities, as well as the behind the scenes puppet masters, that saturate the media with their opinions, but don’t be surprised when you see animal rights activists, film producers, and Celine Dion dressed as nun. You name it, $everance has got it, and Kaempfer, through the admirably indifferent Zagorski, exposes the weakness, hypocrisy and foolishness in each and every one of them.
By staying objective, $everance does not crumble under the weight of its observations on the degradation of journalism into a ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ profession. It does not, like so many of its characters, become hypocritical or biased; on the other hand, it remains satisfyingly ambivalent, and genuine all the way to its final sentence. As good satire can, $everance will make you laugh, but just as quickly it can scare the pants off of you. Though some of the characters are absurd, the novel is not. $everance is an accurate appraisal of the ongoing mutations happening to a very crucial industry, and a highly recommended read.… (més)

Absolutely hysterical.

Seriously, I was reading it on the subway and I kept laughing out loud. The people around me no doubt thought I was insane. The author, Richard Kaempfer, really nailed the whole black humor he was going for in his novel, about a radio air jockey who just wants to be fired already, but of course the office manager won't fire him because then the company would have to pay him eighteen months' pay as severance. Zagorski, the disk jockey, actually goes so far as to send the most ridiculous e-mail ever to everyone in the company, including the CEO, thinking that of course the guy will fire him for all of these stupid suggestions...but instead the CEO thinks Zagorski is brilliant; the CEO implements one of the off-the-cuff idea and it makes the company millions! Instead of getting fired, Zagorski ends up getting promoted and eventually realizes that nothing he does is going to get him fired...unless he comes up with something that loses the company money. And that's when the fun really starts.

It's totally poking fun at Wall Street, the five media companies that run the media, and politics, while also pointing out that (hello!) there are only five companies (men) who control almost everything we read, watch, and listen too and maybe someone should pay attention to that? I honestly think that this book is going to be given out as a gift this year; I can't think of anyone who wouldn't get a kick out of reading it.… (més)