Not Working
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
"Pin-sharp, utterly addictive" Vogue
"A deadpan comic debut for the procrastination generation" The Guardian
Claire Flannery has quit her job in order to discover her true vocation - only to realize she has no idea how to go about finding it. Whilst everyone around her seems to have their lives entirely under control, Claire finds herself sinking under pressure and wondering where her own fell apart. 'It's fine,' her grandmother says. 'I remember what being your age was like - of course, I had four children under eight then, but modern life is different, you've got an awful lot on.'
Sharp, tender and funny, Lisa Owen's brilliantly observed debut Not Working is the story of a life unravelling and a novel that asks the questions we've never dared to say out loud.
PRAISE FOR NOT WORKING
"As insightful about the contemporary dilemmas facing young professionals as it is sharp, incisive and laugh-out-loud funny" Observer
"If you're not trapped in the 9-5 office routine this is the book for you. If you're trapped in the 9-5 office routine and fantasising about quitting, this is the book for you. Lisa Owens' heroine, Claire Flannery, has been described as a very modern Bridget Jones. It's not a man that she's after, it's a job! Claire is funny, endearing and self-deprecating and her job-hunting sagas will strike a chord. If you're looking for a new job Not Working won't help you, but it will make you laugh out loud along the way." Reader's Digest
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Owens's stellar debut novel, composed of vignettes, concerns recently unemployed 20-something Londoner Claire Flannery, who has quit her communications job in an attempt to find her purpose. Claire has the luxury to do this thanks to some savings and her patient boyfriend, Luke, a brain surgeon in training with whom Claire owns a home. As her unemployment begins to stretch over several months, Claire finds herself plagued with doubts, such as her jealousy at Luke's flirtatious colleague Fiona and her wilting at people's disapproving attitudes toward her hiatus. Finding herself in stasis after a few half-attempts at job searching, Claire drinks too much at times and plunges into petulant states in which she starts arguments fueled by her insecurities. Owens's protagonist may not always be likable, but this makes her all the more relatable. The author summons an ugly truth in the way Claire's self-doubts test loved ones and turn otherwise fine situations unpleasant. Though the novel resolves in an inevitable way, this doesn't detract from Owens's ability to take the potentially trite problem-of-the-privileged trope and deftly craft it into readable fun.
