Generica is clever, witty, and a fresh satirical look at the self-help
industry that keeps a fictional publisher afloat. Edwin de Valu, the central
character, is a junior editor at Panderic Press, who mines the slush pile
for whatever possibilities it may hold. Mostly, he writes rejections.
To wiggle out of a tight spot with his boss, he promotes a manuscript he
has in hand, What I Learned on the Mountain by Tupac Soiree. Although it is
an almost unintelligible mixture of cliches and platitudes that claims to
solve every sort of personal problem, it is published and instantly becomes
the most popular book of its type ever and the most lucrative to its
publisher.
Ferguson satirizes the consequences of its success in escalating
fantasies of excess until the book has upset the entire American economy as
well as the personal lives of anyone connected to it. Eventually, only Edwin
de Valu seems free of the cult, which the book inspires. He watches society,
as we know it grind to a halt. He is then sent to find the mysterious
author, tracking him down in Arizona.
