Not Working by Lisa Owens

Hardcover, 256 pages

Published May 3rd 2016 by The Dial Press

What They Say......In the tradition of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary and Allison Pearson's I Don't Know How She Does It comes a wise and laugh-out-loud debut novel that captures a young generation trying not to have it all, but to figure out what it all means. Claire has just resigned from her job without a plan for her next move. As she struggles to explain herself to friends and family, she experiences the emotions and minutiae of day-to-day life as only someone without the distractions of a regular routine can—and discovers what happens when she seeks true purpose in life.


What I Say.....So I'm getting ready to go buy flowers to do the flowerpot planting around the pool, but I took the time to sit down and read the last bit of this book on my Kindle so I could get the review out before I get in the pool with a paperback.  Sounds a bit like work, huh?  Yeah, it was.

The story was told in the way of Bridget Jones Diary, and was a fun, easy read.  But I never found myself rooting for Claire as much as I did for Bridget.  Mostly because I don't have a lot of patience for people who aren't actively working to help themselves (Bridget Jones's greatest strength was ability to move forward).  

Claire has quit her job because she didn't like it, but she really doesn't have a plan to find another job that she does like or to be happier in any way.  She spends her day surfing the internet, grabbing coffee, getting so drunk that she damages friendships, and lets the house get dirtier and dirtier.

Her sweet boyfriend is in medical school studying to be a neurosurgeon, but still has time to support her breakdowns.  But after a bit, even he seems to be getting tired of the wallowing.

Her mother isn't speaking to her after she laughingly tells her cousins at her grandfather's funeral that he used to take her in the bathroom and flash her.  That was a weird drop in the middle of her story, and you never do get any resolve on it, as her mom begins to give her articles on false memory syndrome, but Claire refuses to say that her memory isn't accurate.

At the end of the book, Claire does seem to have pulled herself out of it and encourages her boyfriend to take a course in America, but there was no resolution on her grandfather issue (kind of a big one!), and she really doesn't have a plan to do anything but temp, travel and then get a job - so I don't know, I liked the book but I felt kind of let down at the end - I'm a Virgo and I like things wrapped up!

Current Goodreads Rating 3.38