Break in Case of Emergency: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries)

I guess I just didn't get the joke. There were bits in this book that were sort of funny and there is some quite clever wordplay, but mostly this novel came across as just whiny. In my various careers, I have worked for the flakiest, shallowest, most vain and extremely mean female boss imaginable, so perhaps that is why I can't get too worked up about this book. I love satire, I love comedy, but it is my guess that the target audience for this book is younger women who are fairly new to the workforce, and haven't learned the selflessness that comes with being all grown up.I hope this writer keeps at it. She knows how to stroke the English language to get a reader response. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

When I somehow lost my library copy of this book with only 20-something pages to go, I couldn't bear to delay the gratification of finishing it by reapplying to the library's wait list. So I ordered it from Amazon and will present it to the library as a replacement now that I've gobbled down the last bit. My point is that that is how enjoyable this book is: I paid a dollar a page. Jessica Winter is a stunning writer who deals hilariously with the bewilderment and frustration of a youngish woman named Jen, a new hire at a "feminist" foundation whose job description should have read: "Applicant must be willing to subject herself to whims of and humiliation by egotistical, hypocritical, manipulative women dedicated to women's empowerment." These devils drape themselves in altruism rather than Prada--well, probably that too--but evil cloaked as do-gooding can be just as devastating. The one cleansing breath in that toxic atmosphere, Daisy, almost steals the book with just the few strokes of her creator. Winter paints Jen's personal life richly, peopling it with more nuanced characters. Her relationships with her husband and two best friends are loving yet shaded with the grievances that can strain even the strongest of ties. The marriage of Jim and Jen, as portrayed by Winter, is, especially, a portrait of pathos, humor, and beauty. Recommend!

Should be a celebrity book club pick.

The dazzling Emily Bazelon raved about this book on the Slate Political Gabfest and I thought it would be just the ticket for a smart funny chick lit/satire. For a few days now I have been trying to frame what is good & bad about this book to a friend but it is very hard to articulate without sounding condescending. However, it has turned into a hate-read that I can't put down... The author is VERY educated and VERY in her early 30s, which quickly comes across as precocious and bratty. The extravagant vocabulary pulls the reader out of the novel time and time again, and I'd suggest that due to the lack of many funny observations that this is not 'satire' but merely exaggeration of some fairly tired tropes already found in chick-lit. That the protagonist does nothing to help her situation like look for a different job adds frustration with the lack of plausibility... but then she'll hit on a terrific observation (and I do like the less pretentious ones voiced by the narrator's husband) and I nod and keep reading. But I might have to give up before the end. The ever mounting descriptions of her excruciating pain about frankly living and working and fertility are so overwrought. Oh--and the "artist at heart" theme... Time to put it down, move on and accept this isn't my cup of tea Emily...

I enjoyed this book, it was funny and hit on the themes I'd expected - workplace nonsense and early thirties adriftness. I enjoyed the prose style and the narrator's incorporation of her reactions to the overall narrative. But I felt like after the big climax the end of the novel was kind of more of the same. And I wouldn't say that the story didn't resolve, but I started skipping over more and more of the back half of the book to find out what happened in the end.

This book is so incredibly trenchant. Winter writes incisively and authentically about the struggles of the dwindling middle class, from the perspective of Jen, who--like many women of her background (humble roots in Ohio; mom with a chip on her shoulder), was taught to apologize for her existence, never negotiate for anything, never, in short, to value herself or her contributions. In Jen's case, these contributions include gifted works of art, which she is all to happy to give away while toiling away at her Kafkan "feminist" (sorry, HUMANIST) day job, the vanity project of a vacuous woo-woo reality-TV star. Meanwhile, as she struggles with infertility (a series of scenes Winter describes with both wit and sensitivity), Jen also struggles with how much she wants the baby that seems destined never to arrive. Does this book use some big ole' words? You bet your pulchritudinous posterior it does--because guess what? "Women's" things (infertility, gendered workplace toxicity) ARE smart-people's things, because women can be smart people too. This book is elegantly plotted, its characters complex (most of all its protagonist, whom you sometimes want to bop softly on the noggin and go, VALUE YOURSELF!!!), its laugh-out-loud moments balanced out by frustrating ones. It's a good book. Read it! The end.

For a certain kind of reader, this will be a totally delectable bit of summer reading -- kind of a Bridget Jones for a new generation, meant to satirize a certain kind of workplace while celebrating a certain kind of person. That person takes the form of Jen -- the perfect name for a 30something midwesterner of solid middle-class background who is trying to make a life in New York as a communications professional. She's literally trying to make a life with the help of her wry schoolteacher husband, as they've been attempting to conceive for several years. Laid off from a job at a do-gooder foundation, one of her best friends from college helps land her a job at a new foundation with a very vague women's empowermenty mission. Founded by a B-grade TV celebrity, the foundation is a cube jungle where Jen finds her job to be undefined, and her every utterance misinterpreted, causing nonstop stress. I know people in that kind of world and so found the satire moderately amusing if a little overcooked, but I wonder to what extent readers outside the New York / DC / San Francisco do-gooder foundation/nonprofit epicenters would really enjoy it. Somewhat more successful are the plotlines involving Jen's conception difficulties, her female friendships, and her attempts to navigate issues of money, class, and social mobility. There, the satire is largely abandoned, and the writing is both more from the heart and realistic. I mean yes, Jen's problems are privileged ones (how to afford another round of fertility treatments, unease over buying an apartment in the wrong part of Brooklyn, my friends are rich and I'm not), and so some readers are definitely going to dismiss her as whiny, but I found her inner life and relationships with her friends to be honest and relatable. It's also worth noting that while the book follows a certain formulaic path (the source of the happy ending is obvious the moment it appears), on a sentence by sentence level, it's really well written. So if the idea of a book about a young woman trying to make it all work in the big city doesn't appeal, probably best to avoid. But if that sounds just fine and you want something fun and light, but not too light, to take to the beach/cabin/plane -- give this a shot.

One minute I'd be reading a book I really liked, the next I didn't know what the heck she was talking about. I gave up and returned it... but wish I hadn't had to. If written in plain English all the way through, it could have been a favorite book for me.

excellent combination of keen observation of humanity, wittiness and superb style. enjoyed it hugely. recommended for anyone interested in understanding the challenges of the facebook generation.

Laughed out loud one page and felt deep sadness on the next. Overall good book on an array of issues

The story was an interesting view for nowadays times and how many young people are having to swim through all the career and family life trying to keep up with the society requirements and social media overall. It was funny at times but also insightful and very realistic with heartwarming and heartbreaking moments. Will definitely read more by the author in the future.

This is a generally enjoyable, decent story told in an amusing way. There are some laughs, strong characters and reasonable settings. It will see you through a holiday from departure to return flight. Jen, the central character, is perhaps too much of a wimp with a light drug habit and a penchant for totally avoiding the truth. She is one of those characters with no self-belief, and she doesn't even redeem herself, chance does. So, go for this book if you are after escapism, but not if you want validation.

My wife found this very hard to read and to get into. Not my cup of tea, a real struggle to read. I’m sure others will find it readable, but not me.