Still Needs Work: A Novel

(Paperback)

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Description

Marianne gets the call while attending a conference in San Francisco: laid off, department dissolved. Two days later, shes back home in the dicey Kansas City neighborhood she moved to after a reversal of fortune two years ago. After all this time rebuilding her life, its all collapsed.

The daily grind is just thata grind. Until it isnt, until its gone and taken health insurance, retirement contributions, and the currency to buy food and shelter, never mind the free coffee at the office, along with it. In the aftermath of her layoff, Marianne tries all the usual routes to re-employment, but a middle-aged woman, regardless of experience, has little job cred in the tech world, especially with an address in the heartland. A contract job at a Chicago startup morphs through two acquisitions in eight weeks. And then shes mugged in her own neighborhood, which frightens her enough to consider a permanent move away.

An irreverent look at the alien denizens of the tech world, the fraught business of mergers and acquisitions, and the parallel universe of job openings, Still Needs Work is a contemporary story of the working world wrapped around a very human story of one person, her dog, and her community.

Reviews

"The writing is crisp, perfectly befitting the personality of the protagonist, whose insights into the hidden messages and evasive mind-games of the corporate world are perfectly on target--even if that doesn't always work out in her favor. The character's inner voice is entertaining and insightful."
--Diane Winger, author of the Ellie Dwyer series

"A realistic portrayal of how isolating, ruthless, and demoralizing the modern tech economy can be."
--Mike Trigg, author of Bit Flip

Author Bio

Ellen Barker grew up in Kansas City during a period of demographic upheaval and returns there in her novels. She has a bachelor's degree in urban studies from Washington University in Saint Louis, where she developed a passion for how cities work, and don't. She began her career as an urban planner and then spent many years working for large consulting firms, first as a writer-editor and later managing large data systems, jobs rich in corporate drama large and small. She is the author of East of Troost, which introduced readers to the neighborhood where Still Needs Work takes place. She now lives in Los Altos, California, with her husband and their German shepherd, Boris, who is the inspiration for the dog in this novel.