SUBTEXT

Fast (What Should We Do About Davey?, 1988; Body Language, 1970, etc.) has little new to offer here, and the repackaged old ideas are padded out with anecdotes that often seem too exactly pertinent to be believable as real happenings. The term ``subtext'' means unspoken communication and includes such factors as body language, voice tone, use of space, touching, eye contact, and what might be called image, e.g., the clothes one wears, the briefcase one carries, or the car one drives. To get ahead, two lessons must be learned: how to read other people's subtexts and how to make sure your own is up to par. Simplistic self-tests help the reader answer such questions as: Am I a risk taker? How flexible am I? What's my power profile? What's my dominance quotient? How aggressive am I? One chapter takes a superficial look at some of the hazards of doing business in other parts of the world, where the messages sent by the subtext are easily misread. This should have been called Sub-par Text.