Taking the fight to corporate culture

Elliot Perlman's novel Maybe the Horse Will Talk is a lively, quick-paced narrative of underdogs fighting against their corporate overlords. Wrapped in the shroud of social commentary, the novel succeeds on the backs of its compelling characters and the urgency of the situation in which they find themselves.

We meet Stephen Maserov, the protagonist of the novel, at his most desperate point. He is recently separated from his wife, who has grown tired of the long hours he spends at the office. He is compelled to keep working to pay off his hefty mortgage, and he is "absolutely terrified of losing a job [he] absolutely hate[s]" (1). To add to his misery, Maserov, a second-year lawyer at a prestigious commercial law firm, learns from Mike Hamilton, a corporate sociopath and the head partner at the firm, that the company has instituted a new policy that will soon result in Maserov's termination. With nothing left to lose, Maserov approaches Torrent Industries, the firm's largest client, exploits a rift between Hamilton and the client, and promises that with one year of protection from Hamilton's downsizing, he will free the client from a spate of sexual-harassment lawsuits. The gambit, which Maserov characterizes as the equivalent of promising to make a horse talk, forestalls Maserov's economic doom and sets him on an urgent mission to deliver the aforementioned talking horse.

To aid Maserov in his quest, he enlists several allies to form a white-collar band of misfits. A. A. Betga once topped his class at law school, but he now enjoys craft beers in dingy bars while providing life coaching to low-level criminals. Betga also happens to be the attorney representing the women suing Torrent Industries. Given the obvious conflict of interest, the alliance between Maserov and Betga stretches the imagination, but within the context of a sprawling international corporation solely focused on protecting its reputation and share price, the conceit maintains its veneer of believability. Jessica Annand, an HR worker at Torrent Industries, possesses a master's degree but is often relegated to preparing finger foods for male executives. Annand rounds out Maserov's troupe and provides a much-needed female voice to an otherwise male-dominated narrative.

Working together, the trio navigates a corporate environment characterized by toxic masculinity in an attempt to find a just resolution for the victims of sexual assault. Through this process, Perlman marries his exploration of the crumbling middle class with the #MeToo movement. Confronted with the graphic accounts of workplace sexual assault, Maserov notes, "Although I've spent much of my life watching civil society going to hell in a handbasket I'm ashamed to say I've never given much thought to what women had to put up with till I saw what had been done to these women" (183). In advocating for the victims, Maserov elevates his quest for the talking horse from a selfcentered bid for economic survival into a journey to use the corporate system to bring justice to those whom it usually exploits.

The narrative retains its urgency as Maserov's legal and personal maneuvering meet repeated roadblocks. Each time he succeeds, he finds himself pushed deeper into the corporate haze, and the stakes are raised even higher. In the end, it is not clear if Maserov and his gang have won or if they have simply become part of the system they sought to struggle against, and that seems to be the point that Perlman is making in the novel. As A. A. Betga states, "If you kill yourself, they win. You can't let them win. Your job is to survive them, get beyond them. And then to screw them if you possibly can. You've got to outlast them" (229).

These asides that help contextualize Maserov's quest within a broader social context are some of the high points of the book. At a moment in history in which the world order seems to be shifting and promises...