Recommended Reading: Characters in Retail
There are few things that take up as much of our time as work these days, and let’s face it: sometimes it feels like a nightmarish dystopia come to life. There are lists upon lists dedicated to bookseller-protagonists, so our booksellers have rounded up some of our favorite titles with characters working in retail and service, with a few office workers sprinkled in for good measure. From satire and science fiction to heartwarming coming-of-age, these picks run the gamut!
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
In twelve inventive and deeply disturbing, dystopian stories, Adjei-Brenyah offers a damning critique of racial capitalism. What makes these stories so disturbing is that, although obviously satirical and hyperbolized, the speculative futures illustrated here (graphically! And gorily!) are very much rooted in the undeniable reality of our current consumerist culture; a culture that relies on the continued dehumanization of a racial underclass. Edgy and sharp are apt words to describe this collection, which leaves a visceral impact on all it’s readers, but I would be remiss to not also emphasize how funny and cerebral it is as well! –Serena
The New Me by Halle Butler
For anyone who has worked a dead-end job, or has found themselves a bit directionless and in a work environment that is oppressive and condescending, you’ll find much to relate to in Halle Butler’s The New Me. Butler brilliantly excavates the tedium and ennui of a lonely, snarky millennial, Millie, looking for something, anything, to bring purpose to her life. She is committed to reinventing herself, any day now, and becoming the attractive, social, successful person she knows the world wants her to be. It’s a quick read and delightfully savage in its takedown of Girl Bosses and the distended capitalism we have come to live and work inside of. –Colleen
Finna by Nino Cipri
A delightful interdimensional romp, Finna is the adventure I didn't know I was waiting for. It features a pair of ex-partners sent off on a wormhole-traversing quest that they are *not* paid enough to do, while exploring themes of multidimensionality, queer relationships, mental health, and soul-deadening minimum-wage retail labor, wrapped up in clean, precise prose and topped off with a bright bow of humor. There are infinite dimensions with infinite versions of this book, but I'm certain that this is the best one. –Abby
The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
Please mark me with at least five demerits for choosing three novels that have been turned into movies (and in one case, also a tv show!) Listen, I have two small children, and my brain is tired! My booksellers are all much, much smarter than I am, which is exactly how it should be.
Perhaps you’ve seen the movie Carol? It was based on this novel by Patricia Highsmith, who is most famous for writing the Tom Ripley books. Highsmith is the best at writing gloriously tense novels, and this is no exception. What you might not know, if you’re just picturing a 1950s lesbian romance with Cate Blanchett, is that the main character of Therese is in fact based on Patricia Highsmith herself, who also became smitten with a female customer while working retail one holiday season. Which is to say: everything is material, and will eventually lead you to Cate Blanchett. –Emma
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
A true modern classic of retail literature! Rob owns a record store in London, and he and his employees sit around and talk all day about music and love and heartbreak. Hornby is a genuinely fun writer, and if you are the kind of person who listens to endless podcasts about music, and can easily name your top five favorite records in any given genre, this is the book for you. –Emma
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
“When we were new” —These are the opening words of Ishiguro’s newest novel where we are introduced to Klara, an “Artificial Friend” created to be a companion to small children. Klara knows only the store and what she can see out of its window as the reality of her own world. Klara and the other AFs are all sentient, they have conversations with one another and the Manager, they read magazines when the store is closed, and have their own thoughts, and they all want to have a child of their own. Even with their sentience they are displayed along magazines, dishes, and home decor to be purchased by the children who come to the store, just like a doll. The Manager of the store can be seen almost as a matron of an orphanage, caring for the AFs and trying to find them homes, whether it is out of love for them or it may be purely to turn a profit. There can be a lot to be unpacked from the sale of these artificial sentient beings, and Ishiguro’s novel questions these ideas of humanity and love through the eyes of Klara when she is finally purchased and her entire world and “life” changes. –Anthony
Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami
You may be most familiar with Mieko Kawakami for her novel Breasts and Eggs, but this offbeat novella about adolescent love–doomed, inevitably–is not to be missed. The premise is simple: a boy goes to the supermarket nearly every day to see the titular character, a woman who sells sandwiches, with whom he believes himself to be in love. It’s easy to underestimate Ms Ice Sandwich for its levity and humor, but Kawakami has a deft grasp on the emotional life of her young narrator and offers subtle and pointed critiques of societal norms and expectations. –Nika
Temporary by Hilary Leichter
In this whimsical and absurdist reimagining of late capitalism, a woman working as a temp receives assignments that just get stranger and stranger. Hilary Leichter writes on the edge of humor and discomfort without taking it too far in either direction: Temporary is fun to read, but its entertainment value doesn’t take away from the seriousness of its subject matter. The ridiculousness of the work in the novel only underlines how ridiculous and bizarre work is in the ordinary world. And it is! –Nika
Shopgirl by Steve Martin
Who is doing PR for young women selling gloves? Like Therese in The Price of Salt, Mirabelle sells gloves at a fancy department store. And yes, this is the Steve Martin, with his first novel, which weighs in at a whopping 130 pages. A novella! Funny and sad. This is in many ways, the inverse of The Price of Salt, and if you work in retail, it will remind you why not to date your customers. –Emma
The Mall by Megan McCafferty
This coming of age tale is set in 1991 New Jersey suburbia, and full of reminders of that era including the fact that malls were the teen place to be all over America. For Cassie Worthy, what better way to spend her last few months working at the mall before heading off to college in NYC. Cassie has good grades, caring parents, and a doting boyfriend - but all of that will turn upside down, just when she least expects it. She reconnects with an old friend who hires her at her family’s boutique. Together they find a clue that leads them on a mall scavenger hunt - will they find the hidden treasure?
If I were to describe this novel in three words, I’d say it’s fun, vibrant, & nostalgic. So if you’re in the mood for some cheer, I definitely recommend. Also, I think a lot of us can relate to working at mall retail jobs in our teens! I invite you to reminisce. –Jacque
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Convenience Store Woman centers on Keiko, a woman who has worked–enthusiastically–at a convenience store for nearly two decades, as she arrives at a juncture in her life. Sayaka Murata draws out all the anticipation, anxiety, and abstract dread that you’d expect in a horror film from her scenes, so the reading experience is about as disturbing as it sounds, but in a good way. Eerie and dreamlike, the prose matches the novel’s disquieting atmosphere perfectly, which is to say that it suspends the reader in uncertainty for the duration. I’m still unsettled by Convenience Store Woman and by Keiko, but that’s the genius of it. –Nika
Front Desk by Kelly Yang
Kelly Yang's Front Desk is the bright, funny, thoughtful story of ten-year-old Mia Tang, who is throwing her all into what she's claimed as her job: managing the front desk of the Calivista Motel. At first Mia and her family were excited for this new job--it's a place to live, and seemed a far sight better than the horrible workplace her parents are leaving behind--but it turns out that the awful Mr. Yao is just as bad as they bosses they've left behind. So Mia's mission? To enter a writing contest and try to win a free hotel that she and her parents can manage themselves, and provide a safe haven for their immigrant friends also escaping awful work environments. Mia is wonderfully spunky, making her one of my favorite middle grade heroines of the last few years, and her story of kindness, bravery, and community will remain in my heart for a long time to come. –Abby
