Black Sheep Books
Five and Ten Press
3814 Livingston Street N.W.
Washington, D.C.
20015-2803
(202) 244-9163
10. "My Commute." 98 pages. Published in December1998. $14 ($10 for subscribers).
By Alison Autobound Axel,
This novella is a fictionalized memoir dedicated to the disappeared of American corporate life. Its main motif, as the title suggests, is narrator Alison's commute to and from CHN Crumbles, Inc., a multinational corporation in which she works at a relatively low-level clerical job, in a cubicle. Alison has a vision, appropriate for the millennium, showing that for all of us to survive, workers must unite in a cooperative union, emulating the bees. Alison's daily commute becomes a metaphor for her life as she interacts with the menaces on the highway and the equally grim hazards of company politics. Chinese fortune-cookie aphorisms become her guiding philosophy. Among the other characters are: Freddie, a womanizing, vindictive manager; Stephanie, a young, fast-track executive who caters to Freddie and is mentored by him; Inez, another middle-management striver who tries to emulate him; Rose-Says-Not-to-Tell, a co-worker who relays company gossip; Celeste, a white-magic witch who tries to improve life in the department; and Janice, Alison's friend, who takes no nonsense from the corporate brass. Alison's observations of her company's de-jobbing practices, its managers' strategies and foibles, and her co-workers' concerns, complaints, and day-to-day struggles to survive should hit home with any reader who has recently worked for a major American corporation.
{ INTRODUCTION }
{ PUBLICATIONS OF THE FIVE AND TEN PRESS 1995-2005 }
{ ORDER FORM }
{ROBERT KEELEY'S BIOGRAPHICAL DATA}
{D.C. GOVERNANCE: IT'S ALWAYS BEEN A MATTER OF RACE AND MONEY}
{ANNALS OF INVESTING
STEVE FORBES VS. WARREN BUFFETT }
{ THE FILE: A PRINCETON MEMOIR }
{ESSAYS FAST AND LOOSE: A CHRISTMAS MISCELLANY }
{LETTERS MOSTLY UNPUBLISHED}
{ INNOCENTS OF THE LATTER DAY: MODERN AMERICANS ABROAD }
{ ESSAYS COLD AND HOT: A NEW YEAR"S POTPOURRI}
{ MSS REVISTED }
{ THREE SEA STORIES }
{CREATURES OF THE EARTH AND THE MIND}
{MY COMMUTE}
{SIC TRANSIT}
{THE GREAT PHELSUMA CAPER - A DIPLOMATIC MEMOIR}
{THE PORT OF MISSING MEN - A NOVEL}
{ POETRY MOSTLY OFF THE BEATEN TRACK }
{ PARTING THE CURTAIN }
{ ESSAYS NEAR AND FAR: AS A NEW CENTURY DAWNS }
{ RANDOM THOUGHTS, ANECDOTES, AND MEMORIES OF A BOYS' LATIN SCHOOL OF BALTIMORE THAT IS NO MORE }
{ FROM THE HEARTLAND }
{ ONE OF THE VERY BEST MEN }
{ A STORY GOES WITH IT }
{ LOW CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS IN HIGH PLACES: John Mitchell and Watergate. }
{ THE WORLD ACCORDING TO WHITBECK. }
{ AN AMERICAN SOLDIER IN WORLD WAR I. }
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