Friday Book Review: Ex-Hallmark writer weaves humor with TMI

Graduating from college means leaving behind an unstructured, self-centered existence to jam yourself into the rigid American workforce. At best, we handle the transition with grace, poise and a little excitement. We take our licks but come out smarter, better-adjusted people. At worse, we handle it like David Dickerson, author of House of Cards: Love, Faith and Other Social Expressions (Riverhead Books, 369 pages, $24.95), who worked as a card writer at Hallmark for a few years during the late ’90s.

In Dickerson’s sociopathic yet readable memoir, self-perceived exceptionalism and a jones for jacking off at work come up against the culture at one of Kansas City’s most famous corporate benefactors. That means a good helping of Ben Stiller-movie-ready cringe moments, but with one crucial difference. Dickerson isn’t a good-intentioned character stumbling into awkward situations, someone to pity a little and laugh with.

Instead, his book is loaded with un-cute baggage of an unexamined life, which he sculpts into awkward moments. Then he places his family, friends and co-workers into the frame and yells, “Action!”

When Dickerson is hired by Hallmark, he goes out and buys a closet full of identical outfits so he’ll never have to think about what to wear. He rejects the cubicle he’s assigned in favor of long, chatty walks around the office, then acts surprised when his bosses want to transfer him.

Some of his descriptions of the world of Hallmark are wittily observant: “I hadn’t thought about it before, but writing involves a lot of staring into space very quietly,” he writes. He also does a fine job of describing his frustrations: “Do this enough and you’ll actually feel like you’re trapped in a mental hedge maze that someone is making you solve, even if you hate it.”