The Nobodies

When she's on her game and in her true voice, Liza Palmer is one of my favorite Women's Fiction writers. She has a unique blend of sincerity, snark, humor and poignancy, wrapped up in wildly creative plots. Lately she is writing a lot about hitting middle age and measuring your dreams against reality (a topic I can still relate to as I hit, uh, older middle age). Joan has lost her financial and emotional security as her journalism prospects have dried up, and in desperation she takes a job as a junior copywriter at a Millennial-filled tech company called Bloom. When her journalistic instincts tell her there's something rotten going on underneath the motivational speeches and free snacks at Bloom, she enlists the help of her new boss and colleagues, all of whom are at least a decade younger, to dig out the truth. But is she pursuing a worthwhile story or going on a wild goose chase in a futile attempt to prove to herself that she hasn't lost her touch? Joan is easy to root for. She's a hard worker and a good friend. I liked the way her self-esteem issues aren't easily traced to parental dysfunction - she has a perfectly lovely family, who have taken her in while she's putting her life back together, and an especially close relationship with her brother. Sometimes it's not as important to figure out why you don't believe in yourself, as it is critical to figure out how to start believing in yourself. And of course there is the valuable lesson that you can't do everything on your own - you are stronger with help from your friends. The secondary characters, including Joan's family, friends and new colleagues, are all well developed (at least one of them is crying out to be the subject of a sequel) and two of them provide a cute secondary romance. The primary romance, between Joan and a younger Bloom colleague who bond over shared low self-esteem and the desire to find their true professional passion, felt slightly lackluster to me, partially because the object of Joan's affection was pretty much perfect so there wasn't much suspense about whether or not they would end up together despite the age difference. The generation gap between characters is played for gentle humor. Palmer isn't here to rag on Millennials for their kombucha and buzzwords (okay, maybe just a little); as she says, “I came in here looking to make fun of a generation of people because they appear to be doing work that is thought of as silly or unimportant. The truth is, they're doing the same work people have done throughout the ages with the same level of thoughtfulness...Unlike us, however, they have an eye and a respect for innovation and looking to the future instead of proclaiming that ‘this is how we've always done things.'”I have to admit that I didn't see the signs that there was something hinky going on at Bloom; Joan's deduction that all of the buzzwords had to hiding something only made me think that Liza Palmer has never sat through any modern organizational meeting. But once Joan got rolling, I appreciated the journalistic and detective skills that she and the rest of the enthusiastic Scooby Gang displayed. I wasn't a huge fan of Palmer's most recent release, [b:The F Word 30319083 The F Word Liza Palmer https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1489050115i/30319083.SX50.jpg 50809662], but this one has me firmly back in her camp. Hell, the 1980s party alone that brings together Joan's Gen X friends with her Millennial colleagues is worth the price of the book. Whether you remember a time before cell phones or not, you'll enjoy The Nobodies.ARC received from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.