Kirjahaku

Simon, a self-described "mild mannered banker", has founded himself banged up behind bars. A seemingly unassuming Client Investment Manager, Simon's day to day for the most part before his sentence revolved around helping the rich keep their wealth, even if that meant a little bit of fraudulent tax avoidance here and there. But trading the flash suits and phony smiles of the banking business in for the traumatically thin walls of an underfunded prison cell, Simon's new occupation has him completely out of his depth, but strangely enough he finds himself acclimatising to his new environment surprisingly well. Told through intimate flashbacks detailing how Simon managed to get himself in this situation in the first place, the banker's unlikely foray into the criminal underworld is a far cry from what he expected. Detailing the character's downfall in the run up to his stint in prison, the unlucky Simon is put through the ringer as he stumbles through encounters with everyone from high profile businessmen to low-level druggies. Full of dishonourable rogues, a good dose of backstabbing and some biting satirical social commentary for good measure, this unlikely criminal tale is brilliantly brought to life in the pages of Simon Carroll's new novel, Don Simon. Told from the perspective of the titular con, the stakes continue to grow as the situations the former banker finds himself in get more and more out of hand, with Simon's view of the world becoming just as twisted and warped as the people on both sides of the law that he has to deal with.

Simon has always felt like the odd man out. Never quite fitting any job requirement perfectly, the culture of 1980s Manchester doesn't seem to have anything to offer him, and he doesn't have anything to offer it. Still, needing to do his part Simon moves from job to job, attempting to find whatever joy he can in the monotony of the bottom of the barrel stuff he signs up to do in exchange for quick cash. With the pointlessness of Simon's existence starting to take its toll, just dragging himself out of bed in the morning to make enough money so he can crash back there at night has become a gargantuan task. Drifting from place to place with only his boozing and cynical worldview to keep him company, Simon tries his best to not let the realities of his consumerist existence get in the way of his one true love: doing as little as possible. Dealing with sadistic bosses and inept co-workers in often unintentionally hilarious situations, Simon's hopeless run-ins with new career paths are always doomed from the start, but he pulls through by finding the bleakest humour in even the most hellish situations. The monotony and unlikely charm of the 1980s economic climate is evocatively brought to life in Simon Carroll's The Temp, Is It? Searching for the mythical holy grail of "job satisfaction", Simon wanders aimlessly from temp job to temp job and bar to bar hoping to not really find anything of meaning, but just whatever he needs to get by.