My Favorite Warehouse Novels
When I started working in a warehouse during summer breaks, I became introduced to a lesser known genre of literature called warehouse literature, a subgenre of survival literature. Warehouse literature typically takes place in a warehouse and involves characters who both ram forklifts into bathrooms and strive toward attaining less hazardous occupations. Some common themes in warehouse literature include the desire to escape, disillusionment and dreams, loneliness, working class struggles, and the downfall of capitalism. Here are some of my favorite novels that take place in a warehouse with brief summaries of each one.
- As I Lay Dying Under a Forklift
Adeline Bunsen gets asked by her foreman to put a bunch of spare O-rings back on the shelf. Instead of requesting a forklift, Adeline chooses to shelve it herself. Driving full-speed around a corner, Andy accidentally runs over Adeline, horribly disfiguring her body. Adeline’s co-workers elect to walk toward the foreman’s office a quarter of a mile away to notify their foreman about the workplace accident. As they endure this terrible journey, their willingness to report a workplace accident on their foreman’s watch to OSHA becomes something much more sinister.
2. The Forklift Always Beeps Twice
Francis Charters arrives in a noisy warehouse where he falls for the absolutely gorgeous Caroline, the wife of foreman Rick Smith. Francis and Caroline begin a sizzling love affair with hopes of starting a new life together. The two conspire to kill Foreman Rick by accidentally crashing a forklift into the foreman’s office.
3. A Day No Forklifts Would Beep
Twelve-year-old Robert joins his dad Harold in the warehouse on take-your-kid-to-work day. Robert finds himself helping his dad stock shelves and drive around corners carefully. At the end of the work day, Robert manages to stack multiple pallets on top of each other, while learning lessons about hard work, loneliness, and the importance of education. Ultimately, Robert learns that a ten-hour work shift is much longer than a school day with Mrs. Needemeier.
4. We Have Always Lived in the Warehouse
Mary Cat and Constantine work together with Julio on the assembly line near the SE gate. Reclusive and enigmatic, the three are the only ones at their lunch table who haven’t become violently ill after Claire’s 40th year work party. New hire Chuck gets assigned to build parts with them one day and discovers that Mary Cat is randomly storing finished parts around her work station. Mary Cat and Constantine work together to slowly move Chuck’s workstation farther and farther away from theirs.
5. Flow My Tears, the Foreman Said
Jason Barman, an assembly line worker, wakes up and discovers his badge is missing. He learns that no one knows who he is, including his co-workers of thirty years. In a workplace where not properly displaying his badge is a demerit, Barman has no choice but to hide in a gaylord when his foreman walks by. But does his foreman know more than he’s letting on? And just how will Barman continue to get paid?
6. All the Pretty Forklifts
Jon and Lindsey, both sixteen years old, decide to leave home and head to Mexico where they can work in a warehouse. It’s the only life they’ve imagined for themselves. Jon quickly proves himself to be a capable forklift driver, but his reputation is ruined when his co-workers learn he has a crush on Alessandra, the daughter of Jon’s foreman. When Jon’s foreman finds out about it, he calls upon his vatos to sort out these gueros.
7. For Whom the Forklift Beeps
Ryan Gordon, a seasonal manufacturing laborer, is assigned to inspect half of the returned goods on eight pallets before 12:30 AM. He hopes he’ll be able to rely on Paolo to help him carry out the mission. Paolo, however, has had enough of staring at dinky, little scratches on stainless steel faucets and has designated the entire first four pallets as customer damages to lessen the workload. It seems that Paolo has had enough of the warehouse. He has amassed a collection of dinged-up escutcheons and wants only to take naps in a gaylord filled with packing peanuts. Ryan Gordon’s arrival is cause for much of Paolo’s distress.
Honorable Mentions: Their Eyes Were Watching the Punch Clock, The Shelves They Stocked, A Good Foreman is Hard to Find, What We Talk About When We Talk About Forklifts, and Forklift Drivers in the Hands of an Angry God.
