The Bob Watson, Greg Bardsley
The Bob Watson, Greg Bardsley
List: $25.99 | Sale: $18.20
Club: $12.99

The Bob Watson
A Novel

Author: Greg Bardsley

Narrator: Roger Wayne

Unabridged: 8 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/08/2016


Synopsis

From the author of Cash Out, a hilarious novel about one working stiff’s day of hooky—reminiscent of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Office Space—and the insanity that ensues.Rick Blanco walks out of meetings. He’s a serial meeting ditcher. A walk-out artist. He’s so good that no one seems to notice when he just gets up and walks out. A corporate illusionist of the covert kind, he learned his trade studying a former colleague, the master of meeting ditches, Bob Watson. Rick continues Bob’s legacy, going for more frequent and longer ditches, building on the art with every boring corporate meeting.

Now, Rick wants to pull off his most important Bob Watson yet—skipping out of work to see his young nephew before he moves with his parents to Argentina. But things soon get complicated. As Rick leaves the office, he’s mistaken for the company’s human resources executive Dick Rayborne, a man made famous in HR circles for creating the hot new labor practice of “consourcing”—like “outsourcing” but with convicted felons. Convinced that he is the scummy Dick Rayborne, two cons, and a granny they call Mama, force Rick into six hours of mayhem, complete with home break ins and emergency board of directors meetings. Along the way, Rick realizes he has the opportunity to pull off the most meaningful Bob Watson imaginable, and still give his nephew a hug goodbye.

Refreshing, witty, and clever, The Bob Watson is a madcap tale of danger, adventure, and personal discovery.

About Greg Bardsley

Greg Bardsley has worked as a Silicon Valley speechwriter, a news-paper reporter, and a weekly columnist. His ghostwriting for high-profile business executives has appeared in Newsweek, USA Today, and the Financial Times. His short fiction has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including 3:AM magazine, Plots with Guns, Uncage Me, and Sex, Thugs, and Rock & Roll. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Julie

Bizarre, hysterical and very moving in the end. (Neanderthals, Conployees, Mandarin speakers, the "Bob Watson".) Read it.......more

Goodreads review by Lynn

If you've ever been trapped in a boring meeting, you will find the opening to The Bob Watson hilarious. Bob Watson is an expert at ducking out of meetings. That alone is enough to make this a fun read. But as the plot develops and the characters are piled on, the story starts to feel like a crazy cl......more

Goodreads review by Paul

Clearly I wasn't paying attention when I bought this book or didn't remember the book Cash Out, but one chapter in and it all came back to me. Like Cash out The Bob Watson sounded like a promising story. Sadly with both books the writing just isn't that funny, and wandering off on side stories and t......more

Goodreads review by Doctor

At first, I was a little worried that The Bob Watson did not have a booklength idea. The idea is fun — Bob Watson is a kind of superhero, with the power to slip out of a meeting unnoticed, and even slip back in (the “reverse Bob Watson”). But that idea only goes so far. Fortunately, the Bob Watson s......more