The Learners

It's okay. Tend to give the guy a break because he's not by trade “an author.” But kind of tortuous story paralleling the advertising world with the Stanley Milgram punishment-experiments of the mid-20th c.

This is a sequel to the author's first novel, The Cheese Monkeys, where graphic designer Happy (a nickname), finds a job and then gets involved in Stanley Milgrim's notorious Obedience to Authority experiment. The story is set in 1961 and is mostly about Happy's reaction to participating in the expirement and about graphic design. The author is a well-known graphic designer himself, especially of books. It's a thin story though and I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as The Cheese Monkeys. It has its moments but it's not a book I'd recommend. There isn't much in the way of characterization and the secondary characters are flat. Mostly, this is an excuse to yammer on about graphic design in a cute way. Skip it.