Irish thriller set in dotcom-frenzy years: ThePost.ie


TCH Archives > Sunday Business Post > 2006/01/22 > Irish thriller set in dotcom-frenzy years

Irish thriller set in dotcom-frenzy years
Sunday, January 22, 2006 - Reviewed by Alex Meehan
Aisling Ltd, by Sean Hartnett, Hag’s Head Press, €13.

It’s July 2000, and Eoin Cullen has been hired to ‘‘take ownership of Aisling’s corporate story’’. It’s a heady time for Irish business, as dotcom startups and tech consultancies attempt to carve their own niche in the 21st century’s first goldrush.

In Sean Hartnett’s first novel, the eponymous company bears a striking resemblance to more than a few Irish tech start-ups. ‘‘Businessmen are the new revolutionaries,” believes the company’s chief executive Larry Cooley.

Aisling sells technology services to corporates that aren’t sure they need them, but are nervous of being left behind. A charismatic businessman and technology guru, Cooley meditates daily, speaks in cliches and believes strongly in building team morale. Business is not just about making a profit, but changing the world.

Cullen is the odd one out, the voice of reason in a company that places as much store in its feel-good group-hug culture as it does in its leader’s messianic tendencies.

Less than a year after he joins, Aisling is losing its staff, its clients and is haemorrhaging cash.

While Cullen struggles to maintain faith in the company he badly wants to believe in, events conspire to test his loyalty. Employees leave to start rival consultancies, clients sue over shoddy business practices and the company’s initial extravagance soon dissipates in the face of angry investors wondering where their returns are.

As a reward for a newly-clinched deal, Cooley takes his executives shark-fishing off the coast of west Cork, and the scene is set for a murder mystery.

Hartnett’s debut novel recreates quite well the naive optimism of a time when fictional share options made everyone rich, and no premise was too flimsy to found a company on.

While the publishers describe it as a ‘‘must-read’’ novel for anyone who has ever been tempted to murder their boss, it’s far more successful as an account of corporate culture gone mad.

Dubbed ‘‘the Buddha of Irish business’’ by the press, 33-year-old Cooley is an entertaining composite of many of the dotcom entrepreneurs who found their way into the papers at the time. Survivors of the era will enjoy trying to figure out upon whom the author has based his characters.

Hartnett himself spent several years as a technical writer before taking a job with a Galway-based telecoms start-up. He has clearly drawn on his experiences to give his novel its evocative feel. The structure of the book is modelled along the lines of a corporate manual, with internal company memos, case studies and HR guides interspersed with the story and giving context to the changing priorities of the company.

The book’s design is also worth a mention - it’s modelled on the copybooks many readers will remember from their primary school days.

Overall, this isn’t a bad first effort, but the story definitely takes second place to the setting. If you survived a dotcom crash - and there are plenty who did - then you’ll enjoy revisiting the milieu in this light and easily digestible thriller.