Review: Office Girl

Office Girl by Joe Meno

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Remember a few years ago, when everyone was getting all crazy about the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope? Here's the latest entry in that genre, Office Girl - and it's great!

Jack is a strange 20 something with the requisite strange hobby - tape recording found sounds, essentially. Odile, a college dropout, likes vandalism street art and sex. When they meet at their office (where they both sell Musak systems), they go on happy twentysomething adventures and try to change their world in that happy twentysomething way.

This is effectively Garden State in print, in a lot of ways. A lot of Deep Meanings about life, and it's so hipster it hurts in a lot of ways. And yet, as a tiny little hardcover novel, it's extremely engaging. The characters are actually fairly fun, the messages not too brickbatty, and, while it doesn't throw you any surprises, it's a great read. This one was easily polished off on a two hour plane ride and it was the perfect piece of literary candy.

If you're looking for something a little lighter, you could do a lot worse. This book won't change the world, it probably won't change you, but it's really the perfect diversion, and that's a success in itself.



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