Help Wanted: A Barack Obama Reading Pick 2024

(Paperback, Main)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

'Poignant, funny, stealthily ambitious' The New York Times'Eliot-like ... . It is simultaneously a joke, a homage, and a provocation for our unequal age. Help Wanted washes labour in a stately, almost Steinbeckian light, emphasizing its difficulty but also its dignity' New YorkerTightly plotted, slyly caustic and often very funny' Daily MailAt a superstore in a small town in upstate New York, the members of Team Movement clock in every day at 3.55 am. Under the red-eyed scrutiny of their self-absorbed and barely competent boss, they empty delivery trucks of mountains of merchandise, stock the shelves and stagger home (or to another poorly paid day job) before the customers arrive. When Big Will the store manager announces he's leaving, everything changes. The eclectic team members now see a way to have their awful line manager promoted up and away from them, and to dream of a promotion of their own. Together they set an extravagant plan in motion.

Reviews

'A superb, empathic comedy of manners. Perhaps the most impressive thing about Help Wanted is that Waldman manages, in telling her small story, to describe not just the American economic prison but the global one. So: both a novel of manners and a systems novel, a book that shows us, perhaps, how intimately linked these apparently disparate genres were all along' - Guardian

'Waldman applies her sharp sense for relational drama and dark comedy to the retail sector... The book shines' - The New York Times

'Tightly plotted, slyly caustic and often very funny, it's hugely enjoyable' - Daily Mail

'Waldman is a sharp observer of the world, a writer whose attention to particulars only sharpens the bigger picture' - Atlantic

'Scathing, often humorous and sharply observed ... Waldman's writing is richest and most humane as she traces each worker's private ambitions' - Telegraph

Author Bio

Adelle Waldman is the best-selling author of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., which was named a best book of the year by the New Yorker, Economist, NPR, Elle, and many others. Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, among other publications. She lives in New York State.