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If you’ve ever gone for a job interview you can probably relate to the first chapter or so of HELP WANTED, DESPERATELY. After that, Alexa Hoffman really stands out – as a job hunt loser.
You’ll quickly lose track of the interviews Alexa adventures out on. She tries valiantly to find a job prior to graduating from university, applying for everything from teaching to phone sex. But as it turns out, her dream job isn’t easy to find, because
although she knows where it is, she doesn’t really know what it is.
Along the way, Alexa leans on her family, including her soon-to-be-married sister and wedding-obsessed Mother. Her boyfriend, her poor, suffering boyfriend offers some of the funniest moments of the book – I thoroughly enjoyed his total acceptance of Alexa’s faults and his understanding of her, without putting her on a pedestal. He’d be the first to tease and torment her when she messed up, leaving me laughing out loud.
While Alexa’s incompetence does start to grate after a while, the book quickly picks up again as her self-imposed deadline draws near. She is naive, yet shows incredible insight and humour -- after the fact. The book is written in first person, letting us get to know her and her wacky way of thinking quite intimately. It’s soon obvious that Alexa’s biggest problem is that she doesn’t know herself and it’s worth your time to join her on her journey of self discovery. With laughs along the way, you’ll find yourself nodding, consoling and frequently congratulating yourself for not being in her shoes.
Reviewed by Sue Waldeck
for The Road to Romance
December 18, 2004
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