Thursday, June 4, 2009

Book Review of Citizen Girl


Book: Citizen Girl
Authors: Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Pages: 306

Back Cover Blurb: The blurb on the back cover looks like a newspaper classified ad. Very attractive in my opinion, although maybe not the best as to a description of the book. It reads:

SEEKING Qualified applicants looking to build their careers on sand. Requirements: a bachelor’s degree worth a fraction of the debt you incurred. One or two years of experience working for a deranged harridan who has sucked your very life force. Fluency in at least two major jargons. Must be resourceful, flexible, action oriented, stress tolerant, enthusiastic, and desperate. Primary responsibilities include: figuring out just what we’ve hired you to do; working closely with no one for clients we’ll never identify, and a practice we’ll never commit to. All interested e-mail your integrity to www.mycompany.com.

My Review: To be honest; I do judge books by their cover. This one seemed like my kind of book, as it appears to be the legs of an overworked hip and trendy New Yorker… something I personally long to be! Well, the hip and trendy at least. I feel like I’m slightly stressed in the work department enough. When I looked at the back, a review by Austin American Statesman read: Think The Beauty Myth meets Sex and the City. Again, I think where can I go wrong now.

I will admit, this was one of those books that I just kept reading, thinking surely, this has to get better at some point! It never did. The characters don’t seem to have real names; the main character is referred to simply as Girl in the whole book. She works for My Company, another nameless.

Throughout the whole book, she is attempting to figure out just what her job is. Literally, not how to do it best, but what she’s actually supposed to be doing. She never seems to figure it out, and the people she asks don’t seem to know either. Chapters jump from one subject to the next, work, boyfriend, boss (named Guy), party. None of these topics ever really seem to blend together, or have any point to the rest of the story.

I have to say that off the top of my head I can think of only two other books that I found this bad. I read quite a bit, and even if I’m having trouble getting into one of them, I put for the effort to finish what I’ve started, and have been pleasantly surprised by several of them. This one however, no such luck.

I rate this book a D+, the plus being for the cute cover.

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