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Not Working: A Novel
Unavailable
Not Working: A Novel
Unavailable
Not Working: A Novel
Audiobook6 hours

Not Working: A Novel

Written by Lisa Owens

Narrated by Tuppence Middleton

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

3/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

In the tradition of Jennifer Close's Girls in White Dresses comes a "a pin-sharp, utterly addictive debut" (Vogue U.K.) told in vignettes that speak to a new generation not trying to have it all but hoping to make sense of it all.

"Everyone's been talking about this book. . . . Charming and funny, this read is simply delightful."-Bustle

"A deadpan comic debut for the procrastination generation."-The Guardian

Claire Flannery has just quit her office job, hoping to take some time to discover her real passion. The problem is, she's not exactly sure how to go about finding it. Without the distractions of a regular routine, Claire confronts the best and worst parts of herself: the generous, attentive part that visits her grandmother for tea and cooks special meals for her boyfriend, Luke, and the part that she feels will never measure up and makes regrettable comments after too many glasses of wine. What emerges is a candid, moving portrait of a clear-eyed heroine trying to forge her own way, a wholly relatable character whose imperfections and uncanny observations highlight what makes us all different and yet inescapably linked.

Praise for Not Working

"Ruefully funny . . . features a kind of millennial Bridget Jones whose red wine-and-TED Talk-fueled pursuit of a higher purpose in life leads to hard truths and hangovers."-Vogue

"In this laugh-out-loud debut, Claire Flannery is a lost soul who quits her day job to discover her true passion. In taking a hard look at her own character, Claire finds that her loveable qualities are sometimes squashed by mistakes, like the evenings she blurts inappropriate remarks after too many glasses of wine. [Lisa] Owens's story is a smart, relatable and delicious debut."-Harper's Bazaar
 
"It's no mean feat to fashion a novel out of the stuff of everyday life. . . . Fortunately, Owens is quite a writer. . . . Not Working works because there is lots going on beneath its placid, ordinary surface. . . . With this funny, serious debut, Lisa Owens has proved that she's one to watch."-The New Statesman

"There are sharp observations about generational change, particularly on the topic of work. . . . The novel is a light read but it raises some timely issues. . . . A secure job with a future is not that easy to find, as Claire's comic and compelling tale serves to show. This book offers a form of catharsis for anyone who has felt that they are not quite doing their job right. . . . It is soothing to find you are not the only one noodling along in your career."-Financial Times

"Stellar . . . [Owens has an] ability to take the potentially trite problem-of-the-privileged trope and deftly craft it into readable fun."-Publishers Weekly

"Owens offers a millennial take on the traditional British chick-lit heroine. . . . Claire is a realistically awkward character who will appeal to readers looking for a less-angsty take on the new adult trend."-Booklist

"A novel as insightful about the contemporary dilemmas facing young professionals as it is sharp, incisive and laugh-out-loud funny."-The Observer

"Lots of people say they laugh out loud when they read a book they love. But in the case of Not Working, I really did laugh out loud, often and raucously."-Elisabeth Egan, author of A Window Opens


From the Hardcover edition.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 3, 2016
ISBN9780451484161
Unavailable
Not Working: A Novel
Author

Lisa Owens

Lisa Owens was born in 1985 and grew up in Glasgow and Hertfordshire. After reading English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, she spent six years working in publishing. In 2013, she completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Not Working is her first novel. Lisa wrote the screenplay for feature film, Days of Bagnold Summer, based on the graphic novel of the same name. She lives in London with her husband.

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Reviews for Not Working

Rating: 3.1818156818181818 out of 5 stars
3/5

44 ratings8 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Best for: Anyone looking for a quick read that is linear but written in a slightly different style.In a nutshell: Claire has quit her job without another lined up, in an effort to find something she wants to do.Worth quoting:“When I had a job, I used to fantasize about what I’d do if I didn’t have to work anymore. Go to the gym every day, get really fit, train for a marathon perhaps. Finish Ulysses, and read Moby Dick and one of the big Russian guys. Get to grips with the economy, also modern art.”“You know, not everyone can be a hero, or live the dream — we just need to contribute what we can. Pull our weight, earn a living. There’s no shame in that.” Why I chose it: The paperback cover (in the UK at least) is striking and made me pick it up. Then I read the back and knew I had to read it.Review:Have you ever read the first chapter or so of a book and seriously wonder if it’s your own memoir? That is to say, have you ever related so hard to the circumstances in a novel that you’re slightly bummed because now you can’t turn your own story into a novel because you’ll be sued for copywrite? That’s kind of how I feel about this book.Claire has quit her job. She doesn’t enjoy her work, and wants to take time to actually sort out what she wants to do. She has savings, and has a mortgage on a flat with her boyfriend (a doctor trainee), so she’s obviously in a position to do this. But she doesn’t know where to start. She doesn’t have an obvious passion, or any real sense of what she wants to be doing with her life. She has some skeptical friends (most of them seem unsupportive - something I couldn’t relate to), and a mother who isn’t speaking to her.The story is presented across a few chapters, but nearly every few paragraphs has a little sub-heading. It’s an interesting device making the book read more like a diary. It’s a convention that I think is challenging to do well, but Ms. Owens pulls it off well.I enjoyed Claire’s comments and attitude and flaws because I could see myself in much of her. I, too, quit my job earlier this year. It was a necessity — we moved across the world — but I wanted to do it because it isn’t a field I wanted to be in. And I’m still sort-of working in that field (less than full-time), and still haven’t been able to sort out what I’m going to do long-term. I’m lucky enough that we can afford me not working full-time at my previous salary, and it does feel a bit indulgent to be able to go to the gym at 10 AM on a Monday because I don’t have to have my butt in an office chair at 8 AM. So reading someone who is in a somewhat similar position to me was almost cathartic.But even if I couldn’t relate so hard, I still think I would have highly enjoyed it. If you’re looking for a fairly quick read that still has some heft in terms of the relationships explored within, I think you’ll enjoy this one.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    A special thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

    Okay, so maybe it is because I'm a Gen-Xer, or maybe it is because this book was pitched as being in the same vein as Bridget Jones's Diary and I Don't Know How She Does It, but I found it incredibly manic and I didn't enjoy it.

    Our narrator, Claire Flannery, is in her late 20s and lives with her boyfriend in London. She quits her job in the hopes that she will discover what she wants to do with/in her life. There really wasn't much of a story here, and the small choppy sub-titled sections didn't do the narrative any favours - this staccato rhythm was distracting and didn't help me engage with the characters. Claire comes off as selfish, shallow, and spoiled. She is unlikable, and to be frank, rather dull. There were some funny bits, but all-in-all, there was really nothing there character-wise and plot-wise.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Arc provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

    At first I was skeptical about this title - I could not really get a sense of or connect with Claire. While it was expected she would be a flawed character, (Because if she wasn't, what would be the point of this book?) and she would have her conflicts and resolutions, it seemed to be slow going. But as the book progressed and shaped, Owens uncanny ability to explain even the mundanity of our lives (Clair flopping face first into the bed while she talked with Luke was near perfect example! How could the description of something we do almost every day feel on point -- it's perhaps we don't think about how our everyday things can have some sparkle or playfulness to them when we look at them from afar) with such clarity, I felt as if I was Claire and this was my life.

    In a way, it was.

    I picked up this book because the premise of Claire quitting her job to find herself, or find a position she loved, was exactly where I was at in my life at the time of this reading. As the writing and development of the book became stronger, Claire's actions / thoughts / feelings were mirroring my own about the lives we choose. Coupled with how the book was shaped, as vignettes, and the situations Claire found herself in, the slow going and the jumpy first bits seemed worth getting through to get to the height of the book.

    I also enjoyed that her relationship with Luke was not the centerpoint of the novel and she wasn't keen on getting married let alone having kids. I also liked that when Luke kept bringing up how he wanted to eventually get married ("we're engaged to be engaged"), Claire doesn't seem in any hurry to make that happen. She liked her life just fine except for that pesky finding a job she loved bit.

    One thing I do have to nitpick is many reviewers preference their review that this is a story about a mid-late 20s character. I don't think this is necessarily true -- Claire and Luke meet after university and have been together for nearly a decade. Claire also makes mention that she's been either in jobs or schooling for nearly 20 years of her adult life. If we make the reasonable assumption she started working at 16, this would put her at 36. Considering the pressure she gets from her parents and some of her friends about settling down and having kids, this makes her age in her mid-early to mid-late 30s (32 - 36). Also, Claire makes a lot of commentary about not being able to fit in with the younger crowd as she's now the older lady in the group when she goes out for drinks with the interns and new staffers at her temp job.

    In the end, highly recommended to readers who like women's fiction, strong women characters, and unconventional storytelling.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I was intrigued to read Not Working because it was described as "in the tradition of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary", which I really enjoyed. There are certainly similarities between Bridget and Claire, the protagonist of Not Working.Claire is a wine-guzzling, terribly dopey and egotistical late twenties/early thirties Londoner who quits her "creative communications"-job to "find herself". Not Working doesn't focus so much on Claire's love life (she has an incredibly supportive boyfriend of 7 years) but on her relationship with her parents, her grandmother and some "friends"/acquaintances and, obviously, on her search to find something meaningful in her life.It's not a traditional narrative. The writing consists of vignettes and some slightly longer episodes. There are brief, and sometimes quite random, observations on all sorts of things. A lot of it was humorous and made me smile. It took a little bit to get used to the style, but I actually ended up enjoying it. It was very good for dipping in and out of and so I finished it quite quickly. I found the ending too abrupt, though, a definite "That's it?!"-moment. There was nothing earth-shattering or very philosophical in here, but as light entertainment chic-lit style, it was pretty good.I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book by Owens is a marvel in some ways. As someone said to me long ago, it looks like a batch of old laundry tickets, but in some way she has tied them all together and come out with an interesting story. It took me awhile to catch on and to appreciate the work she has done in setting up this novel, and indeed the organization is novel, it is very unusual. I did enjoy it and am thankful to have received it through the Goodreads giveaway.J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the Isms" "Wesley's Wars" "To Whom It May Concern" and "Tell Me About the United Methodist Church"
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Starting out, this seemed like kind of a fun chick lit book. Protagonist Claire is taking a sabbatical from work to figure out what she really wants to do with her life. She discovers that she really has no idea, and almost everything in her life seems to be on the fritz. Her activities include going back to work at her previous company as a short-term contractor, and discovering that her replacement is more competent than Claire was. For about the first third of the book, this storyline was entertaining. Then it started to get old, and I wanted to shake Claire and tell her to grow up. Claire expects her boyfriend, who is training to be a surgeon, to be completely supportive of her "finding herself," while also getting ridiculously jealous about one of the other surgeons he works with. She also ends up being incapable of dealing with basic life tasks, like hiring a contractor to deal with an overgrowing plant. I'm not sure that the entertainment value was enough to make me happy I read this book, though it was a quick read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Arc provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

    At first I was skeptical about this title - I could not really get a sense of or connect with Claire. While it was expected she would be a flawed character, (Because if she wasn't, what would be the point of this book?) and she would have her conflicts and resolutions, it seemed to be slow going. But as the book progressed and shaped, Owens uncanny ability to explain even the mundanity of our lives (Clair flopping face first into the bed while she talked with Luke was near perfect example! How could the description of something we do almost every day feel on point -- it's perhaps we don't think about how our everyday things can have some sparkle or playfulness to them when we look at them from afar) with such clarity, I felt as if I was Claire and this was my life.

    In a way, it was.

    I picked up this book because the premise of Claire quitting her job to find herself, or find a position she loved, was exactly where I was at in my life at the time of this reading. As the writing and development of the book became stronger, Claire's actions / thoughts / feelings were mirroring my own about the lives we choose. Coupled with how the book was shaped, as vignettes, and the situations Claire found herself in, the slow going and the jumpy first bits seemed worth getting through to get to the height of the book.

    I also enjoyed that her relationship with Luke was not the centerpoint of the novel and she wasn't keen on getting married let alone having kids. I also liked that when Luke kept bringing up how he wanted to eventually get married ("we're engaged to be engaged"), Claire doesn't seem in any hurry to make that happen. She liked her life just fine except for that pesky finding a job she loved bit.

    One thing I do have to nitpick is many reviewers preference their review that this is a story about a mid-late 20s character. I don't think this is necessarily true -- Claire and Luke meet after university and have been together for nearly a decade. Claire also makes mention that she's been either in jobs or schooling for nearly 20 years of her adult life. If we make the reasonable assumption she started working at 16, this would put her at 36. Considering the pressure she gets from her parents and some of her friends about settling down and having kids, this makes her age in her mid-early to mid-late 30s (32 - 36). Also, Claire makes a lot of commentary about not being able to fit in with the younger crowd as she's now the older lady in the group when she goes out for drinks with the interns and new staffers at her temp job.

    In the end, highly recommended to readers who like women's fiction, strong women characters, and unconventional storytelling.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It's always great when you get a surprise in the mail. It's even better if it's a book. This is a book I had my eye on and listed under my To-Read folder on my Goodreads account. Just a few weeks back the Read it Forward site had a little contest challenging you to find the emojis on their website. Piece of cake for em to find them as I read 98% of the articles on Read it Forward, so they seemed to jump out at me. In return for my critical visual skills they sent me this cool book. Thank you to Read it Forward!Claire Flannery is recently unemployed.  It’s by choice as she frequently points out in conversations, so people don’t think she was fired or made redundant.  She wants to find The Job,  the one that will define her, the one that will make a difference in her life.  Being out of work leaves her  at loose ends and instead of actively searching for employment she is far too introspective.   Claire lives with her boyfriend, Luke, who has a promising medical career.  He is  very supportive of Claire taking time off work, giving her the time to “find herself”.The book is broken down as a diary, a bit reminiscent of Bridget Jones’ Diary actually, with a stream of consciousness rambling.  Each insight of Claire’s thought process has a category. For instance:AvailabilityA few rings and in comes the smug automaton: “Sorry but the person you’ve tried to call is not available.”“The person” is my mother and she’s screening my calls.The story line here is – she has alienated her mother by saying something inappropriate at her grandfather’s funeral.  It's ongoing through the book.Then there are parts which may qualify as a chapter, even though they are only a page and half long but they are categorized.  She is finally out of her sleep pants before 5 P.M. and made an effort with preparing a meal.“So, what have you been up to today?” Luke asks through a mouthful of Slow-cooked Pulled Pork and Super Zingy Slaw, breaking off a chunk of the Best Jalapeno Cornbread to mop up what’s left of the sauce from the Mac n’ Cheese With All the Bells n’ Whistles.Months go by and she hasn’t applied herself to looking for work.  There is always something going on that distracts her.  Claire’s good friend Rachel ask her to meet up at a pub, there is something important she wants to tell Claire.  “ You’re always talking about finding the right thing.  But who’s to say there aren’t five or twenty-five jobs you could love if you were just a bit more open-minded?  Doesn’t it seem equally unlikely that there’s only one thing that’s right for you and all the rest of us have found ours?”Everyone encourages Claire. It seems she has good friends and lovely boyfriend but she pushes them away at times by being over sensitive and worse, not holding her tongue when she drinks too much.  And does she ever drink too much!  Wine and more wine are not a good combination when one needs to be tactful or discreet.This isn't a format I love when reading a book but I did find it humorous and finished the book.LISA OWENS was born and raised in the United Kingdom. She studied English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and spent six years working in publishing. In 2013, she completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. She lives in London with her husband and daughter.