Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64826 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Customer Reviews

An Overnight Sensation!
Maxx Barry, author of "Syrup" has written a brilliant, satirical novel of marketing. Maxx or Max ( he added an extra "x" to make his name look more worldly) was a teacher of marketing back in Australia. He used to work for Hewlett Packard, and he has imagined life in the US-he has never visited us.

Scat, also know as Micahel George Holloway, wants to be famous. He could be an actor, but he can't act. He does have one option: he can be very young, very cool, and very, very rich. This line of fame is open to everyone. All he has to do is find something he is so good at that he can make a million dollars by the time he is twenty-five.

Scat has read somewhere "that the average adult has three million-dollar ideas per year. Ideas are cheap, what you need is the conviction to follow through!" Scat's life started at ten past two in the morning of January 7th. He got THE IDEA.

Scat developed the idea for a new cola drink with a name so smooth all the "x" generation would drink it up. Scat got the inside scoop and developed a meeting with a representative of a cola company. The rep who's name is 6, was quite interested and brought Scat into the company. Unfortunately, someone stole the idea and Scat and 6 are left to reclaim their careers. Scat and 6 have energy, imagination, ambition and just enough of a work ethic to follow through. The novel follows their paths as they heed the underhandedness of the Black Hats.

The brilliance of Maxx Barry is evident in his writing. His humour and intelligence bring us through LA, Hollywood, corporate America and Madison Avenue and into the marketing world. Marketing is the biggest industry in the world, and it is invisible. "Marketing is like Los Angeles. It is a gorgeous, brainless model on cocaine having relations, drinking Perrier."
The characters that Maxx Barry has developed, Scat, 6, @, Sneaky Pete more than live up to their names. They are cool, charming and hilarious. This novel is a must read- move on over Seinfeld- Maxx has arrived.
prisrob

Wants to be so hip that it hurts
Syrup is a book that wants to have its cake and eat it. On the one hand it wants to be a razor sharp satire on advertising, the media, consumerism and modern aspiration & celebrity obsessed society. On the other hand it wants so badly to be hip, down with the zeitgeist and ultra-modern (the very things it is seeking to satirise) that you can almost feel it.

Unfortunately what Syrup is is neither of these things. Its a soft satire that takes broad swipes at easy targets (Coca Cola, movies, consumerism, the vapidity of branding and advertising) that have been hit before and better. Nor is it as hip as it would like to be. Yes, the pace is relentless and the tone flippant and humourous, but this isn't a dangerous book preaching to the Gen-Y, anti-globalisation culture. Its a mildly diverting comedic tale of a young man trying to survive and make his fortune in the big wide world; a story that has been told in one form or another, and often better, a million times before.

So ignore the blurb about Syrup being an ultra-contemporary satire on our consumerist society. This is pure wish fulfilment. What it is in reality is a slight, entertaining but ultimately forgetable take on an age old story that will date very quickly.

An addictive, laugh out loud book from start to finish.
Not only did Syrup manage to make me laugh out loud in the first chapter, I read it with a permanent smirk and certainly didn't want to put it down.

Having been a victim of advertising many a time, I gained great satisfaction at this comical and satirical look at the lengths Scat, '6' and Sneaky Pete go to in order to create the ultimate consumer product. Especially amusing are their antics to try and stay a step ahead of their knife-you-in-the-back peers.

While fun was poked at the marketing industry by often showing the stereotypically shallow side of marketing execs, the eccentricities of each character added to the humour and entertainment value of the novel.

All in all, a fantastic read!