The current issue of The Economist has a review of Squirrel Inc in a prominent box at the start of the book section. Comments welcome!

Leadership
Nutty Tales
The Economist, June 19-15, 2004, page 81.

Squirrel Inc: A Fable of Leadership Through Storytelling. 
By Stephen Denning. Jossey-Bass. 208 pages. $22.95 and £14.50

ONCE upon a time there was a lemming called Stephen. He was a very clever lemming: top rodents would ask for his advice before setting off to lead their fellows on long and difficult journeys. One day, however, Stephen woke up with a start to find that the left-hand side of his brain, the part he used to analyse his fellow rodents' problems, had gone completely dead. He was reduced to using something that he hardly knew existed: the right-hand side, the part that allows lemmings to do wildly dotty things without rhyme or reason.

And it was then that it came to him in a flash: he would help to save the whole lemming race by writing a book. It would be a short book, but it would look like a long one because it would have lots of blank pages and many quotations in big type. It would be an allegory about animals, because Spencer had done one about mice that had been a huge hit, and George, of course, had transformed the genre into literature with his tales of life down on the farm.

After much thought, Stephen decided to a write a cliff-hanger, because that's what lemmings do best. And the character he decided, would all be human animals. The plot would involve a particular group of these humans who should be making pots of money, but they're not.

One obvious answer to their problems seems to be that they're spending too much time talking to each other about their problem. But, no. If only life were that simple. As Stephen's complex story evolves we see that these humans are condemned to failure by one thing, and one thing only: their inability to tell a rollicking good tale.

The main characters in the book then get together in a tavern where they spend all their days telling each other stories, while all their nights they spend, well, telling each other stories. In such a fantasy-filled environment, of course, it is not long before love blossoms.

The author, however, cannot resist the temptation to rodentomorphise his characters. In one point, the book's heroine and the innkeeper are forced to leave for some faraway windy place. On the way the heroine suddenly looks up and sees water flooding towards her. But is it real, or is it just the backcloth to yet another fantasy? "Is this really a dumb story?" she asks dozily. And the innkeeper turns to her and replies, "It certainly doesn't keep you on the edge of your cliff."

Comments on The Economist review

- "You are hitting British academic/review language. Basically it's a bad review which is unfair as its a very good book." Dave Snowden  

- "A bit of tongue in cheek -- but something must have hit a nerve. The Economist never wastes words -- marginal cost and all that..." Madelyn Blair.  

- "Let's hit this increasingly troublesome storytelling lark hard, and give our readers the chance to share a superior snigger with our clever and witty journalist." Jan Wyllie.  

- "I don't think it is a very nice piece. I think the author is mocking the book. I think it is mean spirited, petty and a waste of your time or energy to try and figure it out. There are mean little untalented people out there. You can count this author as one of them." Ashraf Ramzy 

-  "The reviewer's writing isn't that clear  so besides not sounding overly positive,  somehow in my intuition, it sounds like this person wishes he/she could integrate right and left brain as you have.  Sounds like jealousy to me." Lynne Feingold.  

For more examples of Storytelling in The News, go to the Archive