“Crackling with mordant energy, bursting with trenchant wit, The Whopper Strategies is a technical, metaphorical, and ontological knockout. Pirooz M. Kalayeh is a writer to watch.”
—Laird Hunt, author of The Impossibly
“With the innocence of an infant and the sharp knife of the satirist, Mr. Kalayeh has constructed a world that trips lightly across one’s retina and at the same time burrows deep into one’s heart. He holds a feather in one hand and a burning torch in the other, to tickle and tease with the former and burn away all illusion with the latter. The Whopper Strategies, like the best of tales, delights, thrills, bludgeons, cajoles and enlightens.”
—Marlowe Fawcett, director of The Other Half
THE WHOPPER STRATEGIES
In the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan, comes The Whopper Strategies, a faux manual on corporations, politics, love, and Enlightenment. Pirooz M. Kalayeh, author and narrator of the novel joins the ranks of the fictional super power, Phipps Inc., where his mandate is to concentrate on the future: because that’s what matters and all that will ever matter. Sent to the Future Division of the Phipps Inc. Super Building, the narrator makes quick progress in coming up with several big ideas, or Whoppers. He helps with the company’s new campaigns, including Appreciation and The Crying Policy, while still adhering to the guidelines set in the Optimum Diet Plan for Whopper Cultivation. It is not long before he is introduced to the greatest Whopper of all – Enlightenment In A Box™. The only problem is how to package it for consumers. He decides the only way to find out is to get there himself.
“Composed in simple sentences that belie its complex intentions and enhance their revolutionary effects, The Whopper Strategies is a book that demystifies and devours our corporate culture. Kalayeh has written the anti-manual for the twenty-first century.”
—Jim Goar, author of The Louisiana Purchase
“At first you are wondering if he is going to be able to keep this up.
‘I wonder if he is going to be able to keep this up,’ you say.
“And then you realize Kalayeh has made a world out of tiny words and big ideas.
‘Kalayeh has made a world out of tiny words and big ideas,’ you say.
“Inventive, surprising and sweet. Feels like many things you have read before (in a good way) and like nothing you have read before (in a good way).”
—Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Scientific Universe
“I like The Whopper Strategies. It’s a good book. It is easy to read. The sentences are short. They are also clear. There are many funny parts in this book. I laughed many times. It is about how spiritual things are marketed as products. It asks us, “Is this the right way to deal with spiritual matters?” I also think this is a problem. So I am glad that Pirooz Kalayeh wrote about this problem in a book that is easy to read. There are also pictures and they are funny too. I think this book is good for those reasons.”
—Brad Warner, author of Hardcore Zen
