Bank

Bledin's debut, a survey of rookie investment bankers struggling to survive the Street, is a sometimes successful menagerie of toady, loathsome bosses, wry observations from the Starbucks queue and sophomoric pranks. Narrator Mumbles and his friends—Clyde (who "just doesn't give a damn"), Postal Boy (whose twitching eye and high-strung disposition has everyone "convinced he's going to lose it one day") and the Defeated One (who endures the 100-hour workweeks to support his girlfriend and his coke habit)—endeavor to master the art of the spreadsheet and maintain their ever-diminishing relationship with the outside world while keeping their shirts starched, their bloodstream caffeinated and their imaginations greased with fantasies of flight or revenge. A veteran of the finance sector, Bledin knows his turf, and though he brings little new to the office lit picnic, his tale of cubicle rancor and awkward romances is well-paced, humorous and endearing. (May 1)