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Karlmarx.com: A Love Story

Review

Karlmarx.com: A Love Story

After surviving college, strained friendships, a healthy crush
on a political science professor, failed attempts to complete her
Ph.D. thesis, and the ego-crushing you-really-can't-have-it-all
declaration by best friend Lisa, Ella takes Lisa's place as the
low-man-on-the-totem-pole academic at the fledgling Institute of
Thought and begins her work in the nation's capital. She has no
clue what kind of ride she is about to get on. KARLMARX.COM is a
hysterically funny and timely book about the creation of a website
dedicated to Marx paraphernalia. Ella takes her knowledge of Marx
and his daughter, Eleanor, into this brave new world, expecting a
great deal and getting nothing of what she thought she
would.
Ella
and the Colonel, the Institute's answer to Marx himself, set out at
their ridiculous task with great gusto and ensuing comedy. Ella's
voice, so clearly given life by author Coll's remarkably supple
writing, is wonderfully transporting --- she takes us inside the
every moment of the life she explains to us with the indefatigable
spirit of a smart and interesting young woman. Even the mere
appearance of John Updike in a later chapter will have you a)
feeling like you know the man and b) wondering how you will start
breathing again after laughing so hard.
KARLMARX.COM makes fish food out of the myth of today's
Internet savvy businesspeople and entrepreneurs. It cuts the entire
enterprise down-to-size and shows the fragility and funniness of
badly timed business ventures that combine intellectualism with
commercialism. Ella is a memorable character with whom you will
enjoy passing the short amount of time it will take you to whiz
through Susan Coll's entertaining KARLMARX.COM.

Reviewed by Jana Siciliano on January 22, 2011

Karlmarx.com: A Love Story
by Susan Coll

  • Publication Date: April 10, 2001
  • Genres: Fiction
  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster
  • ISBN-10: 0743200039
  • ISBN-13: 9780743200035