Book description
In Temporary, a young woman’s workplace is the size of the world. She fills increasingly bizarre placements in search of steadiness, connection, and something, at last, to call her own. Whether it’s shining an endless closet of shoes, swabbing the deck of a pirate ship, assisting an assassin, or filling…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Temporary as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I spent my summers during college doing odd jobs as a temp, but even readers who’ve never known anything but “the steadiness” at work will enjoy this mythical look at the gig economy.
The unnamed narrator, born from a long line of temps, takes pride in her ability to “accurately replace a person,” whether that’s a pirate, an assassin, or even the chairman of the board. This book is for anyone who’s ever wondered what it would take not just to survive their job but to transcend it.
From Alison's list on The best novels about women’s ambition and the battle for our souls at work.
Leichter, in Temporary, pushes working in the gig economy to the extreme as the narrator is placed at increasingly bizarre and demanding temp jobs over the course of the novel.
The book is full of incisive commentary of what working in a state of permanent precarity does to a psyche, while balancing these insights with perfectly absurd satire. My favorite is the narrator’s stint as a barnacle, but there are so many options to choose from.
From Julia's list on The best books about women grinding their way through late capitalism.
If you love Temporary...
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On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
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