Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32525 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-07
• Binding: Paperback
• 394 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Sasha never intended to be a temp: "My school wanted us to go to university, as though that would, aside from keeping them up in the league tables, be the magic formula. "You don't want to end up typing for a living," they said. So I went to university, got the degree and bingo, here I am typing for a living anyway."

It's a year since she left university. After six months travelling with chinless boyfriend Matthew, they've ended up in a house owned Sasha's oldest and best friend--and former boy-band sex-god--Ben Cameron, along with layabout Craig, housing advice worker Donna, and city-type Tania, who writes her name on milk cartons, and throws a fit if someone chucks out her flat champagne. "Between us we have notched up five degrees, two careers, one ex-career, three dope habits, two years on the dole and, so far this year, sixteen jobs, fourteen of them done by me."

Alongside hilarious tips and observations on work life--including step-by-step instructions for holidaying PAs on how to make their temporary replacement's life hell and how to get fit by filing inefficiently, thinking and taking up smoking in a non-smoking office--this clever, witty, well-constructed novel also packs in a nail-biting, page-turner of a plot, some shocking and moving bits, revenge, romance and a sly poke at all those trashy novels aimed at twenty-somethings. "Giles or Luke? Penny couldn't decide. All she knew was that being a successful model/editor/advertising executive/film producer/private detective was not proving to be as fulfilling as she had expected. What do you do when you've got everything but all you want is love?". --Lisa Gee

Synopsis
We all know how it works: first you go to School, then you go to University, and then you enter Real Life. And that's the important bit. Real Life is about achievement, recognition, choices. It's about a boss who trusts you, a wardrobe that suits you, friends who support you and a relationship that fulfils you. It's a mobile phone, an expense account, a company car and a place to park it. Happily ever after. Unfortunately, Real Life isn't working that way for the Temp. She's managed the university bit, but the job, the dough and the happily-ever-after seem harder than anybody ever told her. Living in Stockwell while she moves through a series of jobs ranging from the horrifying mindless to the bemusingly witless to the simply extraordinary, she realises that something isn't right. Who cares about a boss who trusts you? She'd settle for a boss who knows her name. This can't be Real Life, can it? Building on the success of her "Independent" column, Serena Mackesy has created a wonderfully witty, acerbic expose of office anthropology and a genuinely moving story about the early-twenties doldrums.

From the Author
invisibility has its uses
Temping means: invisibility, boredom, poverty. It's a life of trailing from office to office where everyone assumes you're thick and the person you're replacing has carried out small acts of sabotage to ensure that their opinion stays that way. It's being called "Um" to your face and "The Temp" to your back, it's never knowing where the sandwich shop is. It's watching people glaze with boredom at parties, praying that the weekly cheque won't be late, laughing in the face of pension funds. Temping's a dog's life: everyone knows that. Then again, it's anonymity, and anonymity is power. It's the freedom to observe without being observed, to slip from place to place without anyone knowing more about you, to know that, once you've left a place, you've also left their memories. And if you've got revenge in mind, anonymity is the strongest weapon in your armoury. This is my first novel.

Customer Reviews

Funny and easy to relate to
Hilarious writing in which i found myself relating the charectors described to real life work colleagues.It is the perfect book for passing time or a holiday with the easy to read writing style and interesting story although i was slightly dissapointed with the ending, but hey its worth buying!

OUTSTANDING!
I am well read in the newly named 'chick lit' genre, and always read what the authors did before deciding to write a book. Many I have read seem to be written by 'freelance' journalists and newspaper columnists, convinved that because they can get published in national newspaper, that deems them qualified to write a book. Some of them are good, some simply stink, this one rules!
I was transfixed from the word go, and have since read the book more than half a dozen times. The observations are startling and true to life, both hilarious and deeply depressing. The characters are brilliantly developed, especially those of Donna and Sasha. Perhaps the greatest thing about the book is the way it portrays the true meaning of friendship, the way whole groups can be united over something so terrible and destroying.
With most books, I find myself obsessing about the names of characters, and how this fits with who they are supposed to be. The way Sasha's name was kept until the end really added to the feeling of the story, and her feelings of identity an belonging.
I would seriously recommend this book to anyone, of any age or any sex. Outstanding!

A fun, 'feel good' read!
'The Temp' is a refreshing change from many modern novels which feature soppy, spineless heroines that spend most of the novel confessing their insecurities and searching for the perfect man. The heroine of 'The Temp' is smart, funny and thoroughally realistic. After finishing university, she moves with five friends into a houseshare in London while she works for a temping agency until she can find a 'proper' job. Unfortunately, as we all know even the best laid plans can go badly wrong and nothing in life is predictable...

'The Temp' is fresh, cleverly written and even laugh-out-loud funny in places. It will certainly appeal to anyone who is at, or who has not long finished university, and anyone who has ever worked for a temping agency. The plot is not at all predictable and the characters in the story are easy to identify with as they all have their ups and downs and none of them are perfect. This book is long but extremely readable, and it never becomes stale or boring. The plot occasionally jumps around a little but not so much as to spoil the story. The conclusion of the story is surprising, even though you know it's all going to end happily, and this is a fun, feel-good book that I really enjoyed.