The Winnipeg Free Press reviews Human Resources

Toronto writer Rachel Zolf's third book, Human Resources (Coach House, 96 pages, $17), is an avant-garde satire on the way she makes a living. Zolf writes so-called plain language corporate communications in the nine-to-five world, a job she's obviously not comfortable with.

Much of the text is straightforward satire: "Don't you know the origin of beachwear is in the capitalist manipulation of vacations?"

Part of the fun is combining mismatched discourses: "Heart, hope, faith, Andy Card, Josef Goebbels and Banana Republic make today's bureaucracies into tomorrow's communities of meaning."

Zolf's text morphs gradually, becoming less coherent and even turning into numbers derived from online search engines.

This book speaks with a raw emotional voice, conveying Zolf's ethical and linguistic discomfort with the apparently normal.