Portland, OR – PopMatters.com has posted a feature article regarding the cubical comedy, Memoirs of a Virus Programmer, as well as an interview of Pete Flies, the book’s author.

The review discusses the similarities and differences between Virus Programmer and Office Space. The main character, Johnny Pepper, is called “a brilliant character to spend time with” and “hideously funny and completely sweet.” The cubicle humor finds its dark side in Pepper’s criminal descent. The plot reflects current affairs and the internet era, with deftly created character archetypes, such as the faceless manager, and the cynical office-lifer, who, as Flies states, “never burned-out; he burned-in.”

Memoirs of a Virus Programmer is the first novel by author Pete Flies, who is applying a new maxim to comedy and tragedy: comedy ends in death; tragedy in marriage. The novel was published late in 2005 by StoneGarden.net, a publisher in San Francisco. His second novel, Immaculate is scheduled to be published in late 2006. Details about both novels can be found at http://www.peteflies.com.

Memoirs of a Virus Programmer follows a naïve programmer through a corporate gauntlet, starting with a good-hearted young man intent on fitting in. After many comical defeats, he becomes a bitter employee smoldering with unspent creativity. The pace is quick, with short chapters of biting satire that makes observational comedy on the New Economy. The setting moves every few pages, traveling the world quickly, from the suburbs to the slums to wide-eyed Internet dreamscapes.
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