Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch
    Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch
    Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch
    Audiobook8 hours

    Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch

    Written by Richard Hine

    Narrated by Aaron Abano

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Russell Wiley is in deep trouble. A media executive for the failing Daily Business Chronicle, his career is teetering on the brink of collapse, and his sexless marriage is fast approaching its expiration date. With his professional and personal lives floundering, it’s no wonder Russell is distracted, unhappy, and losing faith in himself. Making matters worse are his scheming boss, a hot-shot new consultant determined to see Russell ousted, and the beguiling colleague whose mere presence has a disconcerting effect on Russell’s starved libido. Disaster seems imminent…and that’s before he makes a careless mistake that could cost the paper millions. Russell realizes he must take drastic action if he is going to salvage his career, his love life, and what little remains of his self-respect. Sardonic, edgy, and true to life, this gripping novel offers an insider’s view into a newspaper’s inner sanctum and the people who oil the wheels of the “old media” machine.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateDec 25, 2012
    ISBN9781469200897
    Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch
    Author

    Richard Hine

    London-born Richard Hine began his career as an advertising copywriter. After moving to New York at the age of 24, he held creative and marketing positions at Adweek, Time, where he became publisher of Time’s Latin America edition, and The Wall Street Journal, where he was the marketing vice president responsible for the launch of the Journal’s Weekend Edition. Since 2006, Hine has worked as a marketing and media consultant, ghostwriter, and novelist.  His fiction has appeared in numerous literary publications, including London Magazine and Brooklyn Review. He lives in New York City with the novelist Amanda Filipacchi.

    Related to Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch

    Related audiobooks

    Humor & Satire For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Longer on Moon

      Sep 22, 2022

      Longer on Moon
      19 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Oct 23, 2020

      I recently took a four-day break from the real world to clear my head. I’d turned 40 and needed some time to figure out my next move. Tired, overworked and overweight after lockdown, I dragged myself to the local hydro to sip on juice, sleep and thin

      4 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Nov 1, 2021

      I have an endless appetite for starfruit,for biting my teeth into the universe and spitting outthe space junk, for licking the rings of my favorite planetsand never slicing my tongue. There’s a story I shareabout my birth where angels circle my dead

      2 min read

    • Article

      Bone Memories

      Dec 1, 2018

      I BROKE MY ankle on a Friday evening in January, exactly three months after moving to America. Eight weeks after that, in a related but different kind of fracture, I would see my father for the first time in fifteen years. I should have seen the firs

      12 min read

    • Article

      Self-preservation

      Jun 2, 2021

      Self-preservation
      5 min read

    • Article

      My Mid-life Crisis

      Nov 30, 2023

      I’D SEEN THE WORD ON SOCIAL MEDIA. MID. THE SHOW WAS MID. THE song was mid. The rapper was mid. So many shows, songs, rappers, and more are unknown to me, trees in the now-bewildering wilderness of pop culture that the young navigate effortlessly. Bu

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Leather Coat

      Apr 4, 2024

      The Leather Coat
      6 min read

    • Article

      Six Poems

      Nov 1, 2023

      loved best. Words I have neversaid. New sentence, at 80. Of coursenot more than his children, and their children. That goeswithout saying—but I want to lay down eachelement of love’s house. First,the hole, under—apple cellar, potato cellar,cellar to

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Straw Hat

      Aug 2, 2018

      The Straw Hat
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Edan Lepucki

      Dec 5, 2020

      We had a time, didn’t we? The post A Year in Reading: Edan Lepucki appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Wild Goose Chase

      Apr 23, 2020

      A Wild Goose Chase
      3 min read

    • Article

      From A Stranger, The Encouragement To Keep Trying

      Nov 7, 2022

      I am standing in line at the used bookstore. I am leaving town the next morning and have crammed an afternoon of errands into the next hour. In my mind I am already checking off this errand, striding out the door on the way to the bank, dry cleaner,

      3 min read

    • Article

      Dear Frankie

      Aug 1, 2021

      Dear Frankie
      19 min read

    • Article

      What’s Your Problem?

      Nov 3, 2021

      Q I am 40 years old, live in a rural area and recently inherited a substantial sum. I have given up work and spend my time pottering about the house, reading, listening to the radio and taking naps. Life would be perfect were it not for my housekeepe

      4 min read

    • Article

      Where the HEART IS

      Dec 20, 2022

      Where the HEART IS
      4 min read

    • Article

      ‘The Divines’: Featured Fiction from Ellie Eaton

      Jan 19, 2021

      An excerpt from a debut novel Booklist calls "sharp and haunting." The post ‘The Divines’: Featured Fiction from Ellie Eaton appeared first on The Millions.

      13 min read

    • Article

      Springtime for Introverts

      Mar 26, 2020

      Springtime for Introverts
      4 min read

    • Article

      It Takes Blood And Guts

      Nov 21, 2020

      I’m sitting on Skin’s terrace in Ibiza, soaking up the late summer sunshine via the magic of the internet. It’s the closest I’ve come to travel since the start of the panny danny and looking out my window at the dark Edinburgh sky, I’ll take all the

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Happiness Course

      Apr 14, 2021

      JUST as Family and Friends Divided had become Friends Reunited and the wretched Trump era laid to rest, Harry and Meghan gave their Oprah interview and a whole new Grand Canyon opened up again. This chasm really surprised me because my team was aston

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Year That Changed My Life

      Mar 10, 2019

      The Year That Changed My Life
      6 min read

    • Article

      Starbucks and Shipwrecks

      Jan 18, 2019

      Starbucks and Shipwrecks
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch

    3.5/5

    20 ratings6 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Russell Wiley spends his work life selling ad space in the Daily Business Chronicle, which is a print-only daily business newspaper with declining circulation. There are clear disadvantages to this, but it's not made easier by his boss, Henry, who is determined to make no useful changes, the hotshot new consultant who is trying to turn this short-term gig into a permanent job, the poor hiring choice Russell made a few month ago who is dead weight for his department but whom his boss thinks is Da Bomb...

      Oh, and his marriage is falling apart, too.

      Clearly, Russell has to make some major changes.

      Making a mistake in a spreadsheet, a mistake that is going to cost the company millions of dollars, wasn't the major change he would have chosen.

      This is light, funny, a great distraction from paying attention to today's news!

      Really, it's just a lot of fun. Recommended.

      I bought this audiobook.
    • 4/5
      While you might think a comparison to "Office Space" or "The Office" (either version) or "Dilbert" would be apt since this is a workplace book, it's not really comedy. Not even a dramedy. I guess you'd all it a light drama that reminds of the workplace books of Ethan Cooper, especially "Smooth in Meetings."

      The eponymous Russell Wiley is a middle manager at a newspaper called the Daily Business Chronicle. It's 2006 and even back then the newspaper business is floundering. Russell faces obstacles both professional and personal: a new management consultant, annoying coworkers, and a failing marriage. Most of the book then is Russell navigating these hazards, which is like in the old Pitfall video game where Pitfall Harry would jump from one alligator to another--one wrong step and gulp! you're gone.

      Since you probably have not read "Smooth in Meetings," you might think of this as similar to a political drama like "Primary Colors" or "House of Cards" where we follow the main character through the various challenges he faces while he tries to consolidate his power. Only Russell is not as sleazy as the main character in any of those items I've mentioned. He's pretty much a good guy whose only real sin is a crush on a co-worker.


      The book is written well enough and manages at least in my view to capture the real essence of working in any office environment. Where the book fell down for me was in about the last three chapters, which could have been combined into an epilogue, since it certainly had that feel. In that epilogue, things come together much too neatly and much too happily with some events bordering on the surreal. A little more modest silver lining would have upped this to a 5-star read. But I would still recommend it.

      That is all.
    • 3/5
      I'll classify this as a dark comedy -- the decline of the newspaper world as seen through the eyes of a yes-man executive with an incompetent boss and a mean (and ultimately unfaithful) wife.

      At times darkly amusing or just plain depressing, it reads a little like a print version of The Office. Despite its flaws, it's still an engaging read -- right up until the finish, where in one fell swoop, formerly helpless management fixes everything and the central character's employees are given free reign, going "viral" and saving the newspaper and the sun sets slowly in the west...

      In other words, the book is an interesting character study, but the the finish feels abrupt and tacked on.

      I give it three stars for the quality of the writing, and would take a hard look at another novel by this author.
    • 5/5
      Our Hero Russell Wiley-who incidently makes a thing about going out to lunch, is in trouble. Online Business is threatening the Business Chronicle and advertising is on the decline. On top of all that the poor sod has to work with an Harvard MBA upstart who speaks jargonese and to his peril recycles ideas put forward two years ago. As if that wasn't enough, Russells Boss thinks the sun shines out of Rudd Walkers Consultant's Proverbial Arse, and so now only him but also the rest of the Company have to pay deference to him when behind his back they are taking the piss.
      And to crown it all he is in a sexless marriage to Sam and the days are counting up since they had [tension relieving, connecting] sex.
      The lack of sex is putting a strain on the marriage, unbeknowns to him his wife has a lover on the other side of town and is making him fancy the gorgeous Erika Fallon at work.
      So how is he to deal with all this?
      The book is well written, a key aspect of all enjoyable reads, is fast paced, and takes the place of First Person Singular so from work to sex is taken from the man's point of view (always useful as a woman to know and experience this in a book. He speaks as a man, this is important to note and so we have all the action taking place in his head, in his life, in his marriage, at the numerous lunch venues where he has lunch, or snuck away in his secret places to avoid the distractions that ironically come from having an Office.
      The Office problem is never dealt with head on or considered a problem in the book even though it adds another layer to the problemmatic to the plot.
      The fast pacing and use of First Person singular then are used to unfold the plot and see how the ingenious Russell Wiley actually deals with the problems on hand to get the happy ending which shall be a mystery till you read the book.
      So all in all, a very good Book, worthy of 5 star rating, a lot of fun and a worthy inclusion on my Reading List.
      A Goodreads Giveway.
    • 4/5
      A humorous window into the world of newspaper advertising, this novel is a mocking view of the not so simple life of a media executive. In part analogous to the humour of Tom Holt in books such as, ‘You Don't Have to be Evil to Work Here, But it Helps’ and part the agonising absurdities of Helen Fielding’s ‘Bridgett Jones’s Diary’. ‘Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch’ is an enjoyable read for anyone who has ever worked in an office and is weary of corporate clichés and maxims. Russell Wiley’s world is rapidly falling apart as the new owner of the Daily Business Chronicle seeks to spend less and achieve more. To supplement this, his nearly sexless marriage is on the rocks and his self confidence is at an all time low. Russell attempts to suck up to his scheming boss and stay away from the generic, yet highly dangerous, ‘hot-shot’ consultant with his business school project plans and templates. Simultaneously trying to keep his team on target, manage out the less able of them and not think too much about the lovely Erika Fallon. At which point Russell makes the worst mistake of his career and needs to work fast to mitigate this disaster and save his paper millions.This book is a great and very funny read and the pace definitely keeps the pages turning. I look forward to the Richard Hine’s next offering.
    • 4/5
      Horrible cover art aside, I really liked this book. Hine's behind-the-scenes knowledge of the journalism industry and office politics is evident but he keeps the details and the tone light. Russell Wiley is a wholly realistic character, a middle manager with a better understanding of the company and what it needs than his supervisors, but also obsessed with how long it's been since he and his wife had sex. Very readable and funny.