What do you think?
Rate this book
HANDLE TiME
Just who ARE those phone support people you call every day -- you know -- the support reps who give you troubleshooting tips, sales slogans, prepaid phone refills, directory assistance, driving directions and bank balances?
Have you ever wondered where THEY go once you hang up the phone?
In her third novel, HANDLE TiME, contemporary novelist, LiNCOLN PARK, brings you a saucy, searing and HILARIOUS story; which explores the inner workings of an AMERICAN CALL CENTER. Take a guided tour -- if you dare -- through this weird, wild world of worker-bees; which exists in twisted parallel to your own! PARENTAL ADVISORY
Have you ever wondered where THEY go once you hang up the phone?
In her third novel, HANDLE TiME, contemporary novelist, LiNCOLN PARK, brings you a saucy, searing and HILARIOUS story; which explores the inner workings of an AMERICAN CALL CENTER. Take a guided tour -- if you dare -- through this weird, wild world of worker-bees; which exists in twisted parallel to your own! PARENTAL ADVISORY
196 pages, Paperback
First published May 19, 2008
14 people want to read
About the author
Lincoln Park
9Ìýbooks34ÌýfollowersCalled a 'gifted writer' by book reviewers; as well as a special combination of -- CRACK WIT, CRACK RESEARCH, CRACK DEFINITIONS and a generally, CRACKED MIND -- LiNCOLN PARK's extraordinary literary style is controversial, cult and cutting-edge. As she frequently administers a more severe and disquieting pen than her contemporary literary counterparts, 4465 PReSS has taken unique initiative and placed the standard seal of PARENTAL ADVISORY on the front and back covers of all LiNCOLN PARK-penned books.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 22, 2011
While fidgeting in a dentist's waiting room, I was handed this book and simply told to read it. I can't remember the last time a book made me laugh so uncontrollably! what a fresh, new style of writing! After reading HANDLE TiME; I can assure you that I would rather have my teeth pulled than work in a call center! This book is a simple and FANTASTIC read... especially in these troubled economic times. If you hate your job, you will love this book!
I hope LiNCOLN PARK will grace us another raucous, literary absurdity like HANDLE TiME. I have a feeling that it won't be long until someone in Hollywood will want to turn this book into a feature film. If I were a movie producer, I certainly would!
I hope LiNCOLN PARK will grace us another raucous, literary absurdity like HANDLE TiME. I have a feeling that it won't be long until someone in Hollywood will want to turn this book into a feature film. If I were a movie producer, I certainly would!
June 5, 2008
I think you will enjoy HANDLE TiME because it is FUNNY! If you've ever worked in a call center before, you will surely recognize the people in this book -- and the things that go on in the building.
If you have never worked for a call center, and have generally dismissed those 'annoying' telemarketers and 'idiotic' customer reps you have spoken to over the phone -- I think that by reading HANDLE TiME -- you will learn quite a bit about what these people have to go through on a daily basis.
Trust me, I did my research! LOLOL
Anyway, enjoy the book -- it was my pleasure to write it for you. PARENTAL ADVISORY
LP
If you have never worked for a call center, and have generally dismissed those 'annoying' telemarketers and 'idiotic' customer reps you have spoken to over the phone -- I think that by reading HANDLE TiME -- you will learn quite a bit about what these people have to go through on a daily basis.
Trust me, I did my research! LOLOL
Anyway, enjoy the book -- it was my pleasure to write it for you. PARENTAL ADVISORY
LP
October 7, 2008
This book is a freaked out gas! Basically, it's some girl in the midwest gets a job working for a bank as a Digital Banker and they drive her crazy. At first I was reluctant to read it because I automatically assumed it was some kind of chick-lit nightmare. I WAS WRONG. The author Lincoln Park has a satirical and twisted mind. The way she lays the story out is ridiculous! I've already read the book twice and may go for the trifecta. All I know is -- if you want to laugh your ass off and get some payback for all the times some stupid customer got in your face at work, you should read Handle Time ASAP
February 3, 2009
Lincoln Park gets down and dirty and tells what it's really like for those of us hooked to a headset and chained in front of a computer. You go girl!
October 7, 2012
Handle Time is an alleged satire about working at a call center.
I only say "alleged" because at the time I read this novel, I was about 10 years into my career at various call centers. I hated working for call centers, and I think during that time period, my cynical attitude toward call-center life disagreed with the portrayal of the same environment in Handle Time.
Although author Park has had call-center experience, I felt that she did an awful job at replicating a true call-center environment.
At the beginning of Handle Time, there is a page that lists all types of "AUX" codes used in a call center. For those of you not familiar with "AUX" codes, they are usually buttons on your phone-pad at work labeled according to their function. For example, if you have to go to the bathroom, you push the AUX code button labeled "bathroom break." If it's time to take your lunch break, you push the AUX code button labeled "lunch," and so on. The purpose of these buttons is to alert your management team to your daily activities - to the very minute. (See, doesn't call-center life suck? Why should your manager have to know that the pumpkin muffin you grabbed in the break room during your first break prompted an extra bowel movement?) But, I digress.
Anyways, I thought Handle Time would be nothing but all fun and hilarity and rainbows and OMG-I-just-peed-my-pants after reading the first page that listed all the AUX codes, but I found nothing witty or humorous about this book. Maybe it's a regional or cultural thing too, but I couldn't relate at all to Park's descriptions of the different types of call center folk. Perhaps call-center life in Brooklyn (or wherever Park got her experience?) is far different from call-center life in the boring mid-west, and the west coast.
Perhaps if I gave Handle Time another try after all these years of being out of the call-center mix, I might genuinely enjoy this book.
Will victims of call-center employment enjoy Handle Time? Maybe. Although I didn't enjoy this book, I bet many other people will! Either way, you should definitely give it a try, and let me know what you think!
Books that Handle Time reminded me of are Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris, Company by Max Barry, Nothing Happens Until it Happens to You by T.M. Shine, and The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter.
For more book reviews, please visit .
I only say "alleged" because at the time I read this novel, I was about 10 years into my career at various call centers. I hated working for call centers, and I think during that time period, my cynical attitude toward call-center life disagreed with the portrayal of the same environment in Handle Time.
Although author Park has had call-center experience, I felt that she did an awful job at replicating a true call-center environment.
At the beginning of Handle Time, there is a page that lists all types of "AUX" codes used in a call center. For those of you not familiar with "AUX" codes, they are usually buttons on your phone-pad at work labeled according to their function. For example, if you have to go to the bathroom, you push the AUX code button labeled "bathroom break." If it's time to take your lunch break, you push the AUX code button labeled "lunch," and so on. The purpose of these buttons is to alert your management team to your daily activities - to the very minute. (See, doesn't call-center life suck? Why should your manager have to know that the pumpkin muffin you grabbed in the break room during your first break prompted an extra bowel movement?) But, I digress.
Anyways, I thought Handle Time would be nothing but all fun and hilarity and rainbows and OMG-I-just-peed-my-pants after reading the first page that listed all the AUX codes, but I found nothing witty or humorous about this book. Maybe it's a regional or cultural thing too, but I couldn't relate at all to Park's descriptions of the different types of call center folk. Perhaps call-center life in Brooklyn (or wherever Park got her experience?) is far different from call-center life in the boring mid-west, and the west coast.
Perhaps if I gave Handle Time another try after all these years of being out of the call-center mix, I might genuinely enjoy this book.
Will victims of call-center employment enjoy Handle Time? Maybe. Although I didn't enjoy this book, I bet many other people will! Either way, you should definitely give it a try, and let me know what you think!
Books that Handle Time reminded me of are Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris, Company by Max Barry, Nothing Happens Until it Happens to You by T.M. Shine, and The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter.
For more book reviews, please visit .
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.