The Portable Door by Tom Holt

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The Portable Door by Tom Holt
Pub: Orbit/Times Warner. 404 page hardback. Price: Ł16.99 (UK), $34.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-84149-158-6.

check out website: www.OrbitBooks.co.uk

Paul's life is mundane. Sitting in a waiting room for a job he doesn't want or think he will get. He talks to an ok(ish)-looking woman who is also waiting to be interviewed.

Paul knows that he stands little or no chance of any sort of a relationship with this or any other woman for that matter.

The interview is very strange. The board of people he sits opposite ask him lots of very strange questions. Paul knows for certain he hasn't got the job. On leaving the office building, he sidles into a nearby pub where he bumps into the girl he was talking to, whom he later finds out is called Sophie.

They have a drink together and compare notes on their interviews. Sophie tells Paul that she too had a series of strange questions and that her interview was equally as weird. Both feel that there were better candidates present in the waiting room and that neither of them had gotten the job.

They both go their separate ways. Paul returns to his mediocre flat and scrimps together a meal from the food remnants he has left. He has little money and reflects on his life, not that there is much of it. A few days later, he checks the post to find a letter from J.W. Wells & Co, he had got the job.

Monday, he starts work. Arriving at the office building reception, he is given a long series of directions to Mr. Tanner's office. 20 minutes later he is still lost and one of the other partners stops him and takes him to Mr. Tanner.

Things get stranger when after signing a contract he is sent to what would become his office (or broom cupboard). Sophie is sitting there equally baffled. Paul feels that luck is suddenly on his side. Not only is he in a room with a woman (he thinks) he likes but also he shall be working with her.

Neither of them has any idea what the company actually does. They are given a stack of spreadsheet printouts to sort out, which also don't give any hint of the company’s business. They are told that they must leave the building at 5.30pm each day as the front doors will be locked at that time. Things start getting stranger and stranger.

Claw marks appear in their office and then disappear. They find strange objects and documents stored in the safe room they are asked to sort out. There is a lot more going on at J.W. Wells & Co than normal office work.

Tom Holt’s last book ‘Little People’ features a down-trodden main character just like this book but that's pretty much where the similarities end. The character Paul is a wonderful study of human psyche. It is both comic and tragic. The layers of Paul's introspection and view on the world makes this book what it is.

This is probably one of the most straightforward books I've read by Tom Holt. The pace of the main story is beautiful along with the multi-layered character of Paul. The supporting characters are equally well created. This makes for a very enjoyable easy read (on the whole).

The humour trickles through at a steady pace. This is emphasised by the mundane side of Paul's life and character, juxtaposed with the sheer oddness of the events unfolding. Anybody who is remotely shy or had a bad run in life will easily relate to Paul's character.

There is the healthy inclusion of references to everything from Star Trek to Gilbert & Sullivan. Saying that, this book relies very little on other source material such as myths, folktales and well-known stories like some of Holt's pervious books. This is straight from his imagination (or watching too much Star Trek - you'll understand when you come across all the time travel and mucking about with the space-time continuum etc.)

I think many people will overlook this book because of the subject matter and the fact that it's a comedic. Along with ‘A Song For Nero’, this is some of Tom Holt's finest writing. There are some truly wonderful twists and clues are strewn throughout the book as to what is really going on.

You will be hard pressed though to piece it all together before the end of the book. If you are totally new to Tom Holt's work then this is a good place to start and fans can just jump straight in.

Phil Jones

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