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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
For people who loved Convenience Store Woman, this is a story of a woman in her late twenties who has the lowest-paying job in her office building and feels isolated and disconnected from her coworkers. The only one who she feels she can vent to is her printer. Day in and day out, our unnamed main character shares her stream of consciousness aloud to her printer (and yes, the printer is listening). Eventually her coworkers overhear her monologues enough that they begin to grow concerned and decide they've got to intervene.
Hard Copy is one of those blink-and-you-might-miss-it kind of books (my favorite kind). Its premise is so deliciously weird and story so plainly fun to read, you almost forget to notice how stuffed to the brim it is with pointed commentary. This book is not just an insight into how normalized it is for our workplaces to dehumanize us (although it is that), it is a look into questions of humanity -- Who are we when we can no longer relate to the people around us? How much value can a person's inner thought life have if it's not being shared with anyone else? How can we define ourselves apart from our pasts?
I feel like I found an absolute treasure in this book. I hope lots more people will love it too!
Hard Copy is one of those blink-and-you-might-miss-it kind of books (my favorite kind). Its premise is so deliciously weird and story so plainly fun to read, you almost forget to notice how stuffed to the brim it is with pointed commentary. This book is not just an insight into how normalized it is for our workplaces to dehumanize us (although it is that), it is a look into questions of humanity -- Who are we when we can no longer relate to the people around us? How much value can a person's inner thought life have if it's not being shared with anyone else? How can we define ourselves apart from our pasts?
I feel like I found an absolute treasure in this book. I hope lots more people will love it too!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
medium-paced
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
lighthearted
medium-paced
Was a fun enough time but don't think it will be particularly memorable.
This is definitely a book in the vein of things like There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job or Convenience Store Woman, but doesn't quite hit enough on the weirdness or the commentary to feel like a must-read. There are some reflections on what it is to be a young woman in the workplace, especially in a support role, and kind of a general malaise to work generally, but this comes in fleeting reflections rather than an overall theme. The relationship with the printer also isn't quite strange enough to leave an impression, apart from tapping into my bad feelings about throwing things away because they have feelings :(
I also feel like I didn't quite get the purpose of the darker story of the protagonist's past, and feel tonally it sat weirdly with the rest of the book. Overall I had a good enough time but I don't think this will make it into my list of weird, young women in the workplace books I'll recommend.
This is definitely a book in the vein of things like There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job or Convenience Store Woman, but doesn't quite hit enough on the weirdness or the commentary to feel like a must-read. There are some reflections on what it is to be a young woman in the workplace, especially in a support role, and kind of a general malaise to work generally, but this comes in fleeting reflections rather than an overall theme. The relationship with the printer also isn't quite strange enough to leave an impression, apart from tapping into my bad feelings about throwing things away because they have feelings :(
I also feel like I didn't quite get the purpose of the darker story of the protagonist's past, and feel tonally it sat weirdly with the rest of the book. Overall I had a good enough time but I don't think this will make it into my list of weird, young women in the workplace books I'll recommend.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No