Not Working

by Lisa Owens

Claire Flannery has quit her job in order to discover her true vocation - only to realize she has no idea how to go about finding it. Whilst everyone around her seems to have their lives entirely under control, Claire finds herself sinking under pressure and wondering where her own fell apart. 'It's fine,' her grandmother says. 'I remember what being your age was like - of course, I had four children under eight then, but modern life is different, you've got an awful lot on.'

Sharp, tender and funny, Lisa Owen's brilliantly observed debut Not Working is the story of a life unravelling and a novel that asks the questions we've never dared to say out loud.

• ISBN10: 1444832301
• ISBN13: 9781444832303
• Publish Date: 1 April 2017 (first published 21 April 2016)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 1 June 2022
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: F A Thorpe (Publishers)
• Imprint: Ulverscroft Ltd
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 354
• Language: English

Reviews

[Kait ✨]

I was so highly anticipating this and [b:The Assistants|26067909|The Assistants|Camille Perri|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1460909627s/26067909.jpg|46003649] as realistic depictions of what it’s like to be a young woman working in the world today, but Not Working particularly was a massive letdown. Claire Flannery quits her job—some kind of marketing position? It’s never made quite clear—to find something “meaningful.” I just hated Claire, in the way I hated Becky Bloomwood of [b:Confessions of a Shopaholic|9416|Confessions of a Shopaholic (Shopaholic, #1)|Sophie Kinsella|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327872404s/9416.jpg|3237433] fame: they’re both so irritating in their stupidity. Another Goodreads reviewer called Claire “an inconsequential, superficial and shallow central character”, which I agree with completely—though I would add selfish and inconsiderate to the list. I just can’t comprehend quitting a job to “soul search”—without a plan! when one has bills to pay. Quite near the end of the novel (I think I was about 80% in), she thinks,

Oh yeah, what is wrong with “her”—i.e. me—is, I’m the spare human in the world. If you counted everyone up, I’m the one who’d be left over, the one who does nothing, only takes, always takes things, a drain on everyone, completely pathetic like the poor old—poor old thing, the poor old wooden spoon, floating in the dirty sink…

Sadly this is a completely accurate description of her. Frankly, I have no desire to read about someone like that unless they show some signs of growth or developing maturity, but I did not feel that was the case here.

There were some good things about this book: one thing I liked was the narrative style. The book consists of what are essentially little snippets of Claire’s life—usually a couple sentences or a paragraph, at most a page or two—with headings. It was an interesting experience to read a story told in such a fleeting way.

Ultimately, while there were some good bits, I just could not get over my irritation with Claire. I expected this to be right up my alley, especially since I’m 24 years old and still, to some extent, trying to figure out what I want the rest of my life to look like, but Not Working missed the mark by a mile.