Temporary
Ratings12
Average rating4
15
Ratings12
Average rating4
A young woman's workplace is the size of the world. She fills increasingly bizarre placements in search of steadiness, connection, and something, at last, to call her own. Whether it's shining an endless closet of shoes, swabbing the deck of a pirate ship, assisting an assassin, or filling in for the Chairman of the Board, for the mythical Temporary, “there is nothing more personal than doing your job.”
Reviews with the most likes.
A curious magical realism novel about the anxiety of temp work that gets too caught up in its fiction to construct a coherent theme. There’s definitely something here about how living under capitalism puts you in a constant state of precariousness you are then left to try and outrun, but it’s muddied with this strange romantic notion of being middle class and eventually a girlboss at the end of the world. I like the whimsical prose but there’s only so many homophone jokes I can take before I’m dying for real character development.
3.75 ⭐️
A fantastical and poetic millennial fairy tale (think dystopian Hans Christian Andersen) that is wholly unserious in the best kind of way.
On a more critical note, many sections felt frenzied in a way that detracted from any emotions evoked. I only wish there was a bit more space in the sentences to give the reader a chance to linger on some of the heavier bits.
Books that are comically dark, whimsically surreal, and sometimes strangely wholesome are currently my vibe, so it fits the bill. Even if at first the plot seems aimless, it ultimately wraps up quite nicely.
Finna meets There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job. I really think there should be a sub genre called employment-based existential horror. May have literary/elevated writing style, magical realism elements, heavy on social commentary, leaning dystopic.
We Had to Remove This Post and Horrorstor are also good candidates.
Of course, we could just call it ‘the realities of capitalism'...but this particular sub genre definitely exaggerates to emphasize the dehumanizing badness, desperation eliminating choices, emotional manipulation, endless unsupported hope, power and privilege differential, prevalent in the modern workplace.
This book in particular features commentary on training people to feel disposable in a capitalist setting, also
seems to be feminist subtext on society/tradition training women to be peacekeepers and people pleasers to the extent that they will put others' interests before their own safety and comfort.
If you managed to have a good experience with temp work (I can vouch it occurs, it just never lasts) or are in a steadier employment situation I can recommend it. Even in the interests of solidarity, I'm not sure I would have suggested it to mid-twenties me when I was GOING THROUGH IT.
Would read from this author again, as I'm now prepared for how dark she can go, and I love the breadth of her imagination.
⚠️SA
