Help Wanted (2024)

Why this one?

This was an ARC from Serpent’s Tail via Netgalley (many thanks!)

I chose this one through a combination of the cover (very nice) and subject matter, which sounded timely and interesting.

Adelle Waldman (1977- ; active 2013- ), was born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. She graduated from Brown in 1998 and later attended the Columbia University School of Journalism. She has since worked as a journalist and reviewer, writing for Slate, Vogue, The New Republic, and as a columnist for the Wall Street Journal.

Her debut novel, The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., was published in 2013, and named as one of the year's best books by the likes of The New Yorker and the Guardian. It was later followed by a digital-only novella telling the same story from a female character's perspective. Help Wanted is her second novel.

Thoughts, etc.

Help Wanted takes place in a large chain "big-box" store in upstate New York, and shifts focus between the employees of its "Movement" (aka Logistics) team as they race to complete their repetitive tasks in the early hours of the morning, snark about their awful middle-manager Meredith, and eventually plot to attempt to have her replaced.

The novel is a realistic depiction of the sad state of the world of late capitalist employment, with the rank and file team members employed on an hourly basis, with their bosses strategically ensuring they work just few enough hours to miss out on key benefits, and leaving many needing to work a second job to survive. In this sense, it's a timely book in that it shines a light on the reality of life for huge numbers of normal people across the world in 2024. It manages to squeeze in a few pointed remarks that highlight (the unnamed) Amazon's role in driving down workers' rights at other employers like this one, which again is accurate and worthy of attention from fiction.

Unfortunately, beyond this overall nobility of purpose, I didn't get much else from this one. Its characters were believable, but thinly drawn and hard to care about (over and above the basic grimness of their situation). The writing felt laboured and overly expository, with an excess of telling rather than showing, and far too much left to uninspiring dialogue. Its central plot amounted to little more than everyday office politics, familiar to almost everyone no doubt but lacking both fresh insight and humour.

It had its moments, and certain characters worked better than most, such as the genuinely awful boss Meredith, and the socially stunted but ultimately sympathetic geek Milo. But for me, the subject matter (worthy as it is) needed to be treated with more teeth - either sharper humour or more vicious critique. As it is, the book presents the workers' status quo as sad and inevitable, but lacks any meaningful insight as to what might be done to break the cycle.

Score

4

Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by reading little beyond winners and shortlists of literary prizes, but this one sadly didn’t hit the spot for me at all.

Next up

TBC