Leslie Pariseau reviews 'Temporary,' a dark fantasy of the millennial gig economy by Hilary Leichter.
So goes the maxim of the young, unnamed woman at the center of” In the gossamer territory Leichter has conjured, the insistence that gainful employment is superior to all else is exactly what seems to deprive the young woman of “the steadiness,” or that beguiling quality of assimilating into what one is meant to do foreverto work for a bank, to slice heirloom tomatoes and collect heirloom treasures, to wear cashmere and never have to clean your own house anymore, ever.
“Temporary’s” narrator works for a temp agency, where she is assigned to a series of jobs that unspool and accrete with delightful absurdity. She shines shoes at Grand Central Station. She hails taxis. She cleans the windows of skyscrapers and fills in for mannequins at a department store. She is a barnacle and a pirate and a chairman of the board . Shoes must be literally filled and pins are literally put into briefing books.
Leichter’s narrator occupies a substratum of a fantastical world where temps, who have their own creation myth , regularly fill in for all sorts of jobs while engaging in their own existential struggle — namely how to achieve permanence. A batty, playful satire, “Temporary” twists the jargon and anxieties of a millennial gig economy into a dreamscape of spires and scaffolding through which we swing as our narrator seeks out her steadiness.
Time and space do not apply in Leichter’s world, and her fabulist ability to transport her narrator from murder shack to bomb-dropping blimp situates her among writers whose work some might label magic realism, slipstream or even surrealist — writers like
日本 最新ニュース, 日本 見出し
Similar News:他のニュース ソースから収集した、これに似たニュース記事を読むこともできます。
'Never Rarely Sometimes Always' Review: Teen Pregnancy Drama's a Quiet StunnerTeen pregnancy drama ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’ will leave you devastated. Read Peter Travers' review
続きを読む »
Capital One Secured Mastercard Review: Start building your credit with security deposits as low as $49Need to build better credit with a secured credit card? CNBC Select breaks down the rewards, benefits and fees associated with the Capital One Secured to help you decide if it’s right for you. Terms apply.
続きを読む »
‘Spellbound’: Film ReviewA tale of missed connections both earthly and ethereal, Pascal Bonitzer’s haunting “Spellbound” starts underground before it creeps upward to the atmosphere and beyond. Clad in a chic trench coat a…
続きを読む »
Rage rooms where people break things becoming popular: review - Business InsiderAt Break Bar in New York City, visitors can come to enjoy a cocktail before smashing everything from their empty glass to printers and computers.
続きを読む »
‘Resistance’: Film ReviewAt the time of his death in 2007, Marcel Marceau was the world’s most famous mime. But in 1938-’39, when World War II rescue drama “Resistance” takes place, Jewish-born Marcel Mangel was just 15 ye…
続きを読む »
'The Plot Against America': TV ReviewDavid Simon adapts Philip Roth's novel about Charles Lindbergh's rise to the presidency and its impact on one Jewish family in an HBO limited series starring Winona Ryder, JohnMTurturro and zoeinthecities. Read THR's review for ThePlotAgainstAmerica:
続きを読む »