Lightning Rods (novel)

Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt was published in October 2011. It was DeWitt's second novel, following The Last Samurai. This novel tells the story of a salesman named Joe who tries and fails to sell vacuums and Britannica Encyclopedias. As he continues to struggle, he realizes that the main issue is not with him, it is with other people. He needs to sell things people already know they need. With this in mind, he begins a business in which he contracts female workers to have anonymous sex with male employees in an office through a hole in the bathroom wall. He convinces the entire office that this is a good form of sex and that it prevents sexual harassment in the work environment. This novelty becomes extremely popular and catches on nationwide. The novel ends with a quote from George Washington, "In America anything is possible.

To quote The New York Times review, "DeWitt points to problems that are recognizable and real — how men’s desires can differ from women’s, how harassment can upend a workplace — and offers up a modest proposal using the familiar rhetoric of our time." This article praises DeWitt's blunt but good work, "To find fault in DeWitt’s broad strokes, in the novel’s brusque disregard for any depth of feeling, would be like denouncing Mel Brooks for having made 'The Producers' instead of 'The Pawnbroker.'"

Lightning Rods was published by New Directions. It was edited by Jeffrey Yang and the cover art was by Rodrigo Corral.