Not Working

Reviews

“Ruefully funny . . . features a kind of millennial Bridget Jones whose red wine–and–TED Talk–fueled pursuit of a higher purpose in life leads to hard truths and hangovers.”—Vogue
 
“Everyone’s been talking about this book. . . . As Claire experiments and explores herself, [Lisa] Owens creates a fantastic journey of self-discovery. Charming and funny, this read is simply delightful.”—Bustle
 
“In this laugh-out-loud debut, Claire Flannery is a lost soul who quits her day job to discover her true passion. In taking a hard look at her own character, Claire finds that her loveable qualities are sometimes squashed by mistakes, like the evenings she blurts inappropriate remarks after too many glasses of wine. Owens’s story is a smart, relatable and delicious debut.”—Harper’s Bazaar
 
“It’s no mean feat to fashion a novel out of the stuff of everyday life. . . . Fortunately, Owens is quite a writer. . . . Not Working works because there is lots going on beneath its placid, ordinary surface. . . . With this funny, serious debut, Lisa Owens has proved that she’s one to watch.”—The New Statesman

“There are sharp observations about generational change, particularly on the topic of work. . . . The novel is a light read but it raises some timely issues. . . . A secure job with a future is not that easy to find, as Claire’s comic and compelling tale serves to show. This book offers a form of catharsis for anyone who has felt that they are not quite doing their job right. . . . It is soothing to find you are not the only one noodling along in your career.”—Financial Times
 
“Stellar . . . [Owens has an] ability to take the potentially trite problem-of-the-privileged trope and deftly craft it into readable fun.”—Publishers Weekly
 
“[A] rollicking debut novel . . . This hapless protagonist will leave younger readers laughing—and wincing—in recognition.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“Owens offers a millennial take on the traditional British chick-lit heroine. . . . Claire is a realistically awkward character who will appeal to readers looking for a less-angsty take on the new adult trend.”—Booklist
 
“A deadpan comic debut for the procrastination generation.”—The Guardian
 
“A novel as insightful about the contemporary dilemmas facing young professionals as it is sharp, incisive and laugh-out-loud funny . . . such a fresh voice . . . filled with blisteringly acute observations of the mundane thoughts and obsessions that fill the lives of people with too much time on their hands.”—The Observer

“Lots of people say they laugh out loud when they read a book they love. But in the case of Not Working, I really did laugh out loud, often and raucously. Claire Flannery is quite simply the most charming lost soul I’ve ever met. If you’ve ever felt like an impostor in your own life, been driven crazy by your mother, or worried that you were out of step with your friends, Not Working is your next great read.”—Elisabeth Egan, author of A Window Opens
 
“Lisa Owens’s eye for life’s mundane details makes for a novel that is hilarious, sharp, and true. Not Working is simply delicious.”—Kaui Hart Hemmings, author of The Descendants and The Possibilities
 
“Not Working is as close to the tenderness and funniness and uniqueness of real life as books get. It makes me feel like I did when I found Adrian Mole decades ago—like I know this person on the page or, in a way, am them. It’s really very rare, and very special.”—David Whitehouse, author of Mobile Library
 
“Not Working is absolutely brilliant, insanely funny, but also moving and true. Lisa Owens is one of those writers on whom nothing is lost.”—Nathan Filer, Costa Award–winning author of The Shock of the Fall
 
“I loved Lisa Owens’s Not Working, a bright, funny novel of daily life suffused with real melancholy.”—Marie Phillips, author of Gods Behaving Badly and The Table of Less Valued Knights
 
“Lisa Owens is a comedy genius and a serious, skillful, and beautiful writer. Not Working is so clever and original, pithy and poignant, capturing the voice of a bright, lost generation. It’s not often you find a kindred spirit in a book, but I found one here.”—Emma Jane Unsworth, author of Animals
 
“A pin-sharp, utterly addictive debut.”—Vogue (U.K.)
 
“Full of crackling, voice-of-a-generation observations.”—Glamour (U.K.)
 
“Combining the honesty of Bridget Jones with the bang-on social observation of early Sex and the City, this nails it.”—The Pool Expand reviews