FISH! Book Review

Thanks @iampresidentjaysen

Lets start with the lazies:

TLDR:

- Genre: Self Help

- Writing Style : Basic, Straightforward

- Content / Message : Take with a fistful of salt

- Length : Very Short

Alright, the real content begins here. Okay you got me, this isn't going to be a review. Put it simply, I am not nearly qualified enough for a review but these are just some pressing thoughts on the book. 

So a little bit about the book; Fish! is a relatively unknown self help book that I so happen to get from my senior colleague for Christmas. Thumbs up to Jaysen Low, appreciate it. It follows a parable-styled story mode, or at least attempts to and unsubtle-y inserts the Fish! philosophy in each page; think product placement in Transformers 3.

So the story follows A Mary Jane Ramirez, a name seemingly made to appeal to both the Johns and the Jose's out there. Nice to start out the story knowing that we, South East Asians, are not the target market for this book, but I guess we gotten used to that. 

Moving on.

So Mary Jane Ramirez and her husband, WhatsHisName moved away from their comfort zone and WhatsHisName died from an unexpected disease leaving her with her 2 kids. Now, you would notice I did not mention their names and its because, seriously, they DO NOT matter. They exist to bring you, the reader into a sad sombre mood, so you may relate with Miss Mary Jane Ramirez which brings me to flaw number 1, poor characters. 

Now, there are going to be this ONE guy out there, let's call him Mr. Wise, Sam Wise. Sam Wise is going to raise his hand and say, "but but EeewJeannn (it's Eugene by the way), it's a self help booook, there isn't support to be character developmennnttt."

Fine. Sam is a dick, but he is right. It's a self help book, but if you are going to write a book to skin your message, at least create memorable characters to engage your audience. It enables us to relate to the story and hence to your message. Which begins part two; the message. 

I will summarise it here:

"Life can suck sometimes. We know that. You can either wallow in it, wither and writhe in eternal agony of self pity OR apply FISH!!!"

Boy. What a choice. I think I will take option 2. 

Now, I am not going to go in depth into what is FISH, if you are interested, google it or buy the book and support traditional print or something, but I can tell you that FISH isn't an acronym, it is a 'way of life' of sorts. I may actually call it 'Corporate Buddhism' with the mantra and I quote from the book "There is always a choice about the way you do your work, even if there is not a choice about the work itself"

Incorporating it to our heroine of the day, Miss Now Single Mother Mary Jane Ramirez who is, again, due to her suddenly dead husband with insufficient insurance coverage (so make sure you are sufficiently covered, shameless ad; I can sort you out), is forced to take a 'promotion' into a department with a notorious history of 'toxicity' and turnovers, supervising 30+ veterans who are 'soul-dead' in their jobs. 

Gee, wonder what happens here. Mary Jane applies FISH! and everyone benefits of course! Everyone gets candy. One for Lonny, Stacy, Brad, Bill, Steve, and even you Sam Wise! And I kid you not, those are actually the names of her colleagues. Please re-read part 1 on character development. 

Okay, I know Sam Wise is itching to raise his hand and I know, I know... again, its a self help book. Alright, so let's get back to the message.

I find the message conditionally great. Now, it is a great coping mechanism and I can totally see it as a great tool from a HR or company perspective but I can argue otherwise from the perspective of the person who are actually encouraged to adopt this, the employees themselves. From a shallow viewpoint, it is a win-win situation; employees engaging the below,

"There is always a choice about the way you do your work, even if there is not a choice about the work itself"

would be happier no doubt, and employers enjoy lower turnovers, higher productivity and a greater overall working environment. But, is this ultimately a solution for employees? My short thoughts; only if you have to. 

I will leave it at that, and I am done typing away for the day so I am going to summarise my summary into a single paragraph: 

FISH! is a great book for corporate zombies (all of us in the corporate line at some point) looking for fast-food empowerment; ready to be served in a straight shooting dose of poorly laced messages in just under 150 pages.