THE ASSOCIATES
by John Jay Osborn Jr.
Houghton Mifflin; 270pages; $8.95
Working as an associate at the Wall Street law firm of Bass and Marshall is a curious sort of servitude. The associates are liveried in Brooks Brothers suits, their glass-box sweatshop has Oriental rugs, and the minimum wage is $27,000 a year. If they slave night and day for eight years, they may ascend to partnership and gain the privilege of exploiting other associates. Along the way, their brains turn into stuffed briefcases, and their souls are lost to mean ambition.
A job with...