Being a grown-up today is not like it was twenty years ago. Relationships are different. Networking is different. And working is definitely different. Millennials are tagged with a lot of snarky monikers and saddled with bad attitudes. But it's a tough world out there. Just ask Elinor.
Elinor Tomlinson is a recent journalism graduate living in New York City with her boyfriend Mike. They met in J-school and kept their relationship together through first jobs. But while he's writing long-form pieces for his website, she's working as a nanny to pay her share of the bills. Fortunately for her, his mother (a famous writer) knows people, and she sets Elinor up with an interview at a new journalism website, Journalism.ly.
Elinor is very happy to land the job at Journalism.ly, but it also brings new challenges. Working in an office where no one talks to each other, they all just stare at their laptops all day, she's not sure who to ask for help. And because of the vagueness of her job description, she's not entirely sure what it is she's supposed to be doing there. But she does have a mentor, or two, and her first piece for the site goes viral, so she must be doing something right. Right?
As Elinor learns to navigate through her adult relationships, through a job with few instructions and very little direction, through her own doubts and insecurities, she also learns what it is to be an adult in a new, social world.
Rebecca Harrington's Sociable is an immensely readable novel that is both an entertaining coming of age story and an ironic satire of today's workplaces. Written in the same vein as Camille Perri's The Assistants, Sociable is a smart and funny parody of the brave new world of today's young adulthood. From the clueless managers to the challenges of online dating, from the awkward networking events to the open-space workplace, Elinor's experience can be felt by all of us who have ever had a bad job or an apathetic partner. Sociable is the novel of the new reality, and fortunately, it helps us laugh at ourselves as we struggle to gain a foothold in this new world. Very highly recommended!
Galleys for Sociable were provided by Doubleday through NetGalley, with many thanks.