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- Paperback: 252 pages ; Dimensions (in inches):
0.81 x 8.01 x 5.31
- Publisher: Broadway Books; ; Reprint edition (May
2, 2000)
- ISBN: 0767906039
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Perhaps more than anywhere
else, Silicon Valley in the latter part of the 20th century has come to represent
the essence of the American dream. Its economy has resembled the various rushes
and booms of the 1800s.
The Valley is a unique place
in a unique time, where just about anyone with a good idea, an aptitude for
hard work, and a boatload of luck has a chance to make it big--really big.
In The Nudist on the
Late Shift, Po Bronson intends to capture the spirit of the Valley, leading
us through a series of vignettes that takes us from a "near brush with sudden
wealth" to a $400 million buyout; from life on the edge with a group of Java
programmers to the plight of a futurist writer with the looming deadline for
a 9,000-word article. For Bronson, the appeal of the Valley is this:
Every generation that came before us had to make a choice in life between
pursuing a steady career and pursuing wild adventures. In Silicon Valley,
that trade-off has been recircuited. By injecting mind-boggling risk into
the once stodgy domain of gray-suited business, young people no longer
have to choose. It's a two-for-one deal: the career path has become an
adventure into the unknown.
Like Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New
Machine, what makes Bronson's book work is a talent for narrative. He presents
compelling stories about those who make it--for example, Ben Chiu (Killerapp.com,
C/NET) and Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail)--as well as those whom we'll never hear
of again: the database salesman working on the "hockey stick" at the close
of the quarter and the "kiss-ass entrepreneur" who's taken up COBOL programming
to make ends meet. The Nudist
on the Late Shift is for anyone who has wondered what life on the modern
frontier is like--and for those who are already there, the reflection might
be revealing. --Harry C. Edwards
Book Description
As a novelist and writer for Wired and other publications,
Po Bronson has earned a reputation as the most exciting and authentic literary
voice to emerge from Silicon Valley.
In
his national bestseller The Nudist on the Late Shift he tells the true story
of the mostly under-thirty entrepreneurs and tech wizards, immigrants and investors,
dreamers and visionaries, who see the Valley as their Mecca.
Taking
us inside the world of these newcomers, brainiacs, salespeople, headhunters,
utopians, plutocrats, and innovators as they transform our culture, The Nudist
on the Late Shift is a defining portrait of a new generation in the whirl of
an information revolution and an international gold rush.
Po Bronson is the author of two novels and one book of nonfiction. Bombardiers,
a dark satire of high finance, was an international bestseller that was translated
into twelve languages.
The
First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest, soon to be a feature film from 20th
Century Fox, is a comedy of Silicon Valley. His third bestseller, The Nudist
on the Late Shift and Other True Tales of Silicon Valley, demonstrates that
Bronson's wit and imagination apply as well to nonfiction as to fiction.
From the Back Cover
A Los Angeles Times and Seattle Times Best
Book of the Year
"Bronson has a rare ability to spin the worlds of business and technologies
into entertaining stories."
--The New York Times Book Review
"The most complete and empathetic portrait of the Valley so far."
--The Village Voice Literary Supplement
"Bronson has captured this remarkable place and time."
--The Wall Street Journal
"Bronson relates the stories of a generation of new and wannabe multi-millionaires
with conversational grace...an engaging, instructional and fascinating read."
--Denver Post
"Illuminates a shadowy world with a penetrating light."
--Philadelphia Inquirer
"Bronson is tuned in to the quirks of both personality and culture. His prose,
often funny, maintains impressive velocity and is well suited to the manic
life of the Valley and its colorful menagerie of characters."
--Publishers Weekly
"This clever storyteller keeps you laughing as you breeze from one episode
to the next...a juicy collection of true tales."
--Time
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