Eight Minutes Idle Paperback – 15 April 1999

I actually purchased this book having watched the film first.It was much better.It concerns Dan. He works in a call centre and lives with his dad. His dad is in an accident and Dan is left to pay the rent alone whilst he recovers.He can’t and after a bad flat mate moves in Dan leaves and starts living at work.Dan was an unusual character not quiet bad but not good either. At times he seemed very reflectful. He was also kind such as the way he looked after a stray cat. On the other hand he was also very manipulative. He borrows a grand from a colleague and proceeds to waste the money. He moved out of his home prior to this because he could not afford to live alone. However it seems he could always have got the loan so rather than doing that and using the money to settle matters like his father share of the bills he just made things worse. He then enters a relationship with his boss where he is clearly only interested in a free ride.Many of Dan’s thoughts are him thinking about what to say to appear good.I enjoyed the book. Many funny and interesting things happened. His Colleagues were interesting as were the minutes from his father group like a novel within a novel.Many sub plots whilst inconsequential to the main story were interesting such as Dan relationship with the cat. His reading of his fathers novels.There was an interesting hint of true romantic connection between Dan and another colleague Teri. Sadly the novel did not satisfy either of these. Dan never did due to the tragic ending get to resolve matters with his dad. Teri disappears with Dan left in a relationship which seems hollow.On that whole I enjoyed the book. It successfully made a real seeming world but sadly failed to resolve enough of its plots.

This is the most illerate useless nonsense I have ever read. It makes one wonder who publishes this rather poor rubbish.

Like the previous reviewers, I found the subject mildly entertaining given as we are now all exposed to call centers. I did find it a little hard to relate to the main character as he did seem to do some very odd things (what's with taking the cat to work??) but it kept you engaged until the last chapter when suddenly the writer decided to end the novel without explaining what happened to Teri or resolving his relationship with his girlfriend and what happened to his Dad was just wrong. It was a real let down to what could have been an ok book. Given it was his first book, I guess we should forgive and hope he has chalked it up to experience. But it did make me hurl the book across the bedroom in frustration. Matt please don't do that to your readers again. I don't expect all lose ends to be tied up like a Agatha Christie novel but this ending was the worse of both types of endings.

By a good 100 pages. The story runs out of steam with a fair whack still left to drag yourself through. Try Cherry instead.

Eight Minutes Idle plunges you into a rather comic frantic world of call centres, constantly ringing phones, clipboard carrying team leaders with targets and irrate customers on the end of phones speaking to staff who couldn't care less. The novel succeeds in entertaining you with series of funny mishaps that befall our main character. The pace of the book is uneven given that the beginning and middle are full of detail and told almost in slow motion...whereas the ending appears rushed and detail is sparse. However given the setting this structure mirrors the very topic it devotes itself too namely call centres...all calls start slow and as the chat proceeds so does the pace until before too long you are hurridly rushed off the phone....eight minutes idle is what it is and makes no apologies.

This is an extremely well-written and cleverly perceptive book about a young bloke who is trying to eke out an existence in the worst of all office jobs: the call centre, whilst struggling to cope with the demands of real life, plus some rather surreal demands! This guy gets involved in cat smuggling, sleeping in the office, a relationship with his unpopular team leader, and his father's support group, a harem of women who threaten to take over his life. It's great to read a book set in contemporary times and about office life that's not set in London! I assumed it would be, and was pleasantly surprised to read all about Bristol. Definitely recommended for all those grown-up (ish) Adrian Mole fans with a bit of a penchant for grey/black humour!

With plot lines centred around a call centre and the tedium of the labour within, Thorne has in general manufactured an interesting story with enough detail to enable the uninitiated to believe him. However the abrupt change in the narrator's relationship with a colleague and his unrequited affection for two others are poorly qualified and the reader ends the book with innumerable questions.