Temporary - (Emily Books) by Hilary Leichter (Paperback)

About the Book

Eighteen boyfriends, twenty-three jobs, and one ghost who occasionally pops in to give advice: Temporary casts a hilarious and tender eye toward the struggle for happiness under late capitalism.

Book Synopsis

In Temporary, a young woman's workplace is the size of the world. She fills increasingly bizarre placements in search of steadiness, connection, and something, at last, to call her own. Whether it's shining an endless closet of shoes, swabbing the deck of a pirate ship, assisting an assassin, or filling in for the Chairman of the Board, for the mythical Temporary, "there is nothing more personal than doing your job."

This riveting quest, at once hilarious and profound, will resonate with anyone who has ever done their best at work, even when the work is only temporary.

Review Quotes

Shortlisted for the 2021 Firecracker Award
Longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Hemingway Award
A New York Times Editors' Choice
An NPR Favorite Book of 2020
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2020
A Bustle Must-Read Book of 2020
An I-D Best Book of 2020
A Thrillist Best Book of 2020
A Tor.com Best Book of 2020
A Refinery29 Best Indie Book of 2020
A Library Journal Best Debut Novel of 2020

"Temporary reads like a comic and mournful Alice in Wonderland set in the gig economy, an eerily precise portrait of ourselves in a cracked mirror." -Parul Sehgal, The New York Times

"[A] delirious and deeply humane satire. . . . Temporary has the manic, goofing energy of a lounge act." --Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal

"A batty, playful satire, Temporary twists the jargon and anxieties of a millennial gig economy into a dreamscape of spires and scaffolding through which we swing as our narrator seeks out her steadiness." --The Los Angeles Times

"Leichter has managed to blend the oddball and the existential into a tale of millennial woe that's both dreadful and hilarious at once." --The Washington Post

"[A] deeply hilarious, surreal manifesto against late-stage capitalism, all wrapped up in a mushroom trip. So, you know, exactly what we need in 2020. . . . I felt as if Leichter knew just what this year had in store for us." --Tim Herrera, The New York Times

"Leichter's funny, absurdist debut cleverly explores a capitalist society taken to a dreamlike extreme . . . her cutting, hilarious critique of the American dream will appeal to fans of Italo Calvino." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Refreshingly original." --The Chicago Tribune

"[Leichter] takes numbing routines to dreamy (or perhaps nightmarish) extremes, delivering subversive entertainment in the process." --Entertainment Weekly

"If a Salvador Dali painting were reimagined as a contemporary novel, it would be Leichter's Temporary, a trippy commentary on workplace culture and the gig economy. . . . With beautiful prose and colorful imagery, it's a poetic tour de force." --Parade

"Leichter's voice is lively, practically sprightly, and offers a smart balance to the big question she asks--When everything is considered work, how do we live outside of it?" --Vulture

"[A] surreal picaresque. . . . By embracing absurdity, Leichter evades realism while borrowing from reality." --The Baffler

"This book is very funny. . . . It's contemporary but kind of feels like a much older book." --Kevin Nguyen

"Wickedly charming." --Mary South

"A narrative so deliciously allusive and disarmingly literal that this reader kept thinking maximum glee had been attained, only for the glee to somehow grow even more maximal just a few sentences later." --Helen Oyeyemi

About the Author