Help Wanted

Author: Adelle Waldman
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc., 2024
Pages: 288
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Every day at 3:55a.m., team members of Team Movement clock in for their shift at big-box store Town Square in a small upstate New York town. Under the eyes of a self-absorbed and barely competent boss, they empty the day's truck of merchandise, stock the shelves, and scatter before the store opens and customers arrive. Their lives follow a familiar if grueling routine, but their real problem is that Town Square doesn't schedule them for enough hours - most of them are barely getting by, even while working second or third jobs. When store manager Big Will announces he is leaving, the members of Movement spot an opportunity. If they play their cards right, one of them just might land a management job, with all the stability and possibility for advancement that that implies The members of Team Movement - including a comedy-obsessed oddball who acts half his age, a young woman clinging on to her "cool kid" status from high school, and a college football hopeful trying to find a new path - band together to set a just-so-crazy-it-might-work plot in motion.

Review: This book was highly recommended to me by a my favorite librarian. She and I have similar tastes in books, and enjoy talking about the ones we've both read. I don't think I loved this book as much as she did, but there were laugh out loud moments. There were also poignant and relatable moments.

This book is about everyday people leading everyday lives. I liked it.