Review: Absurdities of Job Loss
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 15, 2012
This collection is comprised of Dean's thoughts on losing her job and the hopelessness (and overeating) that followed. There are two different types of writing in this collection, Dean's autobiographical tales about her efforts to get a new job, and some short fiction based on her experiences.In general I found the autobiographical essays to be the strongest part of the book. Dean is funniest when writing about her own life. The fictional parts are so short that there's no real chance for character development, and this is really one of those cases in which the truth is more bizarre (and funnier) than fiction.The strongest message that I took away from this book was a sense of the absurdity of what people will go through merely to get a decent job. The reminder of all of the ridiculous machinations job candidates go through (aside from the normal things like being competent and qualified) is really surreal. This book is not meant to be serious social criticism, but it's hard to leave the text and not be stuck by the demeaning foolishness that is so much a part of job-seeking.