Jen Lancaster is not a nice person sometimes. Come on and sit next to me, sister! In her memoir Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-centered Smart Ass, or Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office - yeah what a subtitle - she tells it like it is. She goes from being a "on her way up the corporate ladder" yuppie/shopaholic to being an unemployed mess, and trying to recover from the downfall. In the meantime, she marries her long term boyfriend (for the gifts - their broke, but the fact that the hotel where they have it is having a porn convention is a stitch), gets a pair of dogs that like to chew her expensive footwear, and starts a website to get rid of the frustrations. And that website catches on. And thus a writing career is born.
This book is a combination of many things. It's a a study of employment dos and don'ts, job searching dos and don'ts (if they tell you they want you to work on a pretend business plan and come back for another interview - they really are just scamming you out of a consulting fee - cause they are going to steal it if it is good.), and learning how to live within your means. Along the way you have the wacky family stories (her mother being hungover the day of the wedding - insisting she only had one glass of wine - that kept getting refilled), the touching moments between Jen and Fletch (he's a keeper!), and an example of what not to do while your drinking too much (phone calls are bad). It is also a book about the myth of the American dream that mass marketers want everyone to spend their money and time achieving. She learns that one the hard way. But everything is done with humor and being a smart ass doesn't help sometimes - but it sure is funny.
Take the Office, mix it with Bridget Jones, with the acidity of Seinfeld, and add Chicago and there you will have this book. Cause you know it is all about Jen. Very funny. I can not wait to read the next one.
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