MixedThe Complete ReviewThe Beautiful Bureaucrat nicely evokes corporate culture and mind-numbing drudge-(paper-)work, with a nicely sinister edge to things to keep readers intrigued. Josephine\'s domestic situation is less satisfactorily realized: for much of the novel Joseph remains largely remote and even absent, even as The Beautiful Bureaucrat ultimately reveals itself to also be a (modern ?) family romance ... Phillips engages in a great deal of wordplay, with Josephine not so much mishearing as warping what she hears ... Some of this is fun, but a little also goes a long way ... The wordplay does play into the story -- and ambiguity, and the search for order and meaning, are among the novel\'s main themes -- but it\'s a tough trick to pull off at this length and can become trying. The Beautiful Bureaucrat is a breezy, quick read with some nice touches to it, but the idea(s) behind it -- the construct -- shows too much, and it\'s not entirely a success.
