Title: The Non Product Consolidation Operation
Author: John Ropa
Publisher: Xlibris
ISBN: 978-1-7960-9308-7
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 188
Reviewed by: Jason Lulos
Pacific Book Review
The Non Product Consolidation Operation by John Ropa is a great book; sardonic and extremely clever. In this novel, we meet a small ragtag group of employees who work in a shipping warehouse. Their mandate: carry out the company’s grossly inefficient shipping strategies while maintaining bogus numbers which create the illusion of a successful operation. This is an acute, comedic analysis of bureaucratic BS and the obstacles of working in middle management. Imagine Kafka and Scott Adams teaming up to write a novel about the absurdity of corporate jargon and ridiculous business models. Brilliantly written and hilarious at times, this is a novel with innate humor.
In the “non product” warehouse, we have Larry: the hapless, self-conscious, oblivious, but occasionally thoughtful boss. Myrtle is the sassy second in command, though she really tends to run things. Naomi is the devastatingly beautiful single mother, who emerges to be a born leader. Rachel is the efficient shy drone who prefers the background. And Ralph is the once prominent executive who now accepts his lowprofile job because it beats raging against a preposterous business world. Readers will probably be more enamored with Myrtle and Naomi, but I found Ralph to be really intriguing. He is initially portrayed as a wise old curmudgeon, but he is also a walking encyclopedia, answering all of Myrtle’s questions with patience and thoroughness: a deconstructor of business lexicon.
They all work for the Generic Equivalent Corporation which manufactures and ships generic pharmaceuticals. There are rumors of a merger with another company which could mean downsizing. So, when boss Larry is loaned out to the United Way, Naomi and Myrtle endeavor to save their jobs. They do their best to transform their warehouse from an absurd operation with the illusion of success into a streamlined model which is actually successful. This requires a delicate balance of improving things while hiding and showing those improvements, in order to maintain the illusion of inefficiency but somehow also reveal their increased efficiency. It also requires solving the mystery of the hideously smelling, juicy fruit flavored tongue depressor shipment. As I said, it is Kafka and Dilbert mixed into one novel.
The theme of absurdity stands out, but this novel is mostly driven by the characters. Myrtle, Ralph, Naomi, and Larry seem one-dimensional at the start, but as the novel progresses, they become more nuanced and relatable and readers will begin to root for them. The plot is interesting. The dialogue is both realistic and hilarious. This is the kind of writing that makes a story about the intricacies of a warehouse a real page-turner.
