Help Wanted, Desperately

by Ariel Horn

In between ridiculous mistakes and egregious oversights, Ariel Horn explores whether jobs will ever give life meaning -- and where meaning comes from in the first place. With candour, wit and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060589582
• ISBN13: 9780060589585
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 342 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

LOVED IT!

just what i needed during my own job search...just moved to LA and am trying to find a job here, and this book had me cracking up the whole way! LOVED it!! recommmend it 100%

hysterial and realistic

This book was SO funny!! Alexa is at times ridiculous and absurd-which is what makes her such a realistic and believable character (which almost NEVER happens in chick lit!). Sometimes (more often than not, actually) she does the wrong thing. But you know what? So do I. Everybody does, basically. And I loved that she was unafraid to be who she was: flawed, imperfect, funny, paranoid, silly, neurotic. Great read-- funny and entertaining throughout.

HILARIOUS (and true!)-- great gift for grads

We've all been there...the nightmare job interview, where your crushed self-worth is overshadowed only by the interviewer's body odor. What better revenge than to laugh about it? Ariel Horn captures the absurdity of looking for your first job-- and she'll make your worst interview screwup look like a cakewalk. Alexa's attempts to become everything from a financial consultant to a deodorant sniffer range from funny to hysterical (you WILL laugh out loud again and again!), but in the end there's a surprising point to it all-- and an inspiring one too. This book would make an awesome gift for any college senior, or for anyone else who's going through the job search and needs to laugh about it.

Crazy funny adventures, and brilliantly written

This is a refreshing new book that's really hard to put down. Each of Alexa's adventures is crazier, and more hilarious, than the last. I especially like that the author has made an effort to make Alexa into a real character, something sorely lacking in the chick-lit genre. You'll laugh at her, with her, but also feel for her. I highly recommend this very entertaining book.

Laugh out loud on buses = buy this book!!!

I picked up this book just having seen it on the shelf, and am very glad I did. For anyone who has ever had a long and ridiculous search for employment - or, alternatively, anyone who wants to laugh at someone who did - I can't recommend this book enough. Alexa's misadventures in her desperate search for employment can be funny, ridiculous, sad or pathetic, but they are never boring. She interviews for everything from model scout to phone sex operator to glorified magazine intern, but you can find that out by reading the back of the book. What you can't discern until reading it is that this is not only a hilarious book, but a poignant one. Alexa is neurotic and bizarre, thoughtful and capable = in other words, she is REAL, not like the cardboard cutout characters you find in other chick lit books who seem to have been put together from some Sex in the City assembly line at a marketing firm. This is the real thing = chick lit, literature about women characters who are witty, anxious, funny, loving and smart. Just like real women. "Help Wanted, Desperately" passed the "laugh out loud" test and then some (I have embarrassed myself in public all over NY). It is a real pleasure to read "chick lit" that is intelligently written and genuinely funny. I can't believe the author's only 23, and hope that means lots more books are in store from her.