Office Girl

By Joe Meno

"Meno's tender, hip, funny, and imaginative portrayal of two Chicago misfits...dramatizes that anguished and awkward passage between legal age and actual adulthood."
--Booklist, "Core Collection: New Adult Fiction"

Named "Best New Novel by a Chicagoan" and "Best Book for the Disillusioned Artist in All of Us" by the Chicago Reader

Selected by The Believer's readers as a favorite fiction work of 2012

One of DailyCandy's Best Books of 2012

"An off-kilter romance doubles as an art movement in Joe Meno's novel. The novel reads as a parody of art-school types...and as a tribute to their devil-may-care spirit. Meno impressively captures post-adolescent female angst and insecurity. Fresh and funny, the images also encapsulate the mortification, confusion and excitement that define so many 20-something existences."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Wonderful storytelling panache...Odile is a brash, moody, likable young woman navigating the obstacles of caddish boyfriends and lousy jobs, embarking on the sort of sentimental journey that literary heroines have been making since Fanny Burney's Evelina in the 1770s. Tenderhearted Jack is the awkward, quiet sort that the women in Jane Austen's novels overlook until book's end. He is obsessed with tape-recording Chicago's ambient noises so that he can simulate the city in the safety of his bedroom, 'a single town he has invented made of nothing but sound.' Mr. Meno excels at capturing the way that budding love can make two people feel brave and freshly alive to their surroundings...the story of the relationship has a sweet simplicity."
--The Wall Street Journal

"In Joe Meno's new novel, set in the last year of the 20th century, art school dropout Odile Neff and amateur sound artist Jack Blevins work deadening office jobs; gush about indie rock, French film, and obscure comic book artists; and gradually start a relationship that doubles as an art movement. They are, in other words, the 20-something doyens of pop culture and their tale of promiscuous roommates, on-again/off-again exes, and awkward sex is punctuated on the page by cute little doodles, black and white photographs (of, say, a topless woman in a Stormtrooper mask), and monologues that could easily pass for Belle & Sebastian lyrics ("It doesn’t pay to be a dreamer because all they really want you to do is answer the phone")."
--Publishers Weekly (Pick of the Week)

"Meno has constructed a snowflake-delicate inquiry into alienation and longing. Illustrated with drawings and photographs and shaped by tender empathy, buoyant imagination, and bittersweet wit, this wistful, provocative, off-kilter love story affirms the bonds forged by art and story."
--Booklist (starred review)

No one dies in Office Girl. Nobody talks about the international political situation. There is no mention of any economic collapse. Nothing takes place during a World War.

Instead, this novel is about young people doing interesting things in the final moments of the last century. Odile is a lovely twenty-three-year-old art-school dropout, a minor vandal, and a hopeless dreamer. Jack is a twenty-five-year-old shirker who's most happy capturing the endless noises of the city on his out-of-date tape recorder. Together they decide to start their own art movement in defiance of a contemporary culture made dull by both the tedious and the obvious. Set in February 1999just before the end of one world and the beginning of anotherOffice Girl is the story of two people caught between the uncertainty of their futures and the all-too-brief moments of modern life.

Joe Meno's latest novel also features black-and-white illustrations by renowned artist Cody Hudson and photographs by visionary photographer Todd Baxter.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Akashic Books
• Release date: Jul 3, 2012
• ISBN: 9781617751202

Joe Meno

Joe Meno is the author of over five novels such as The Great Perhaps,which was a winner of the Great Lakes Book Award for Fiction in 2009 and a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice. His short fiction has been published by the likes of McSweeney's, Witness and TriQuarterly. He is a professor of creative writing at Columbia College Chicago.

Reviews for Office Girl

[johnluiz-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The few times I read the opening pages of the Hairstyles of the Damned in bookstores, I could never get into. It seemed to cutey, too determinedly hipster. The Great Perhaps I absolutely loved -- an ambitious storyline, with grown-up, fully developed characters. Office Girl feels like a step back, to me. It's very vignette about two quirky twentysomethings working low-level office jobs while they pursue their artists -- the girl's being to start a new art movement that defies all conventions about what great art should be and which basically means do public acts of pransterism; the young man, a sound engineer, constantly records every type of noise he hears in their city of Chicago, as he hopes to create a simulation of the sounds of the city. After failed romances (and his case a failed marriage), they meet fall in love and make either short-term happy. Not much happens and the scope of the novel and the character development, perhaps intentionally, feels so small in scale. If the author comes back to his The Great Perhaps form in future novels, I'll come back, but if he sticks with this style, I'll take a pass. I know Hairstyles has become a cult favorite, but it's just not my cup of tea.

[erickandow · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Reading this book is like watching a very self-referential and self-conscious indie film. If you like that sort of thing, this is the book for you.

[akmargie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this more than I thought. The characters are messed-up, artsy, angsty twenty-something and should be more obnoxious but I ended up liking them for their struggles and hopes. As much about art and what it means to create meaningful work as it is about relationships and moving on.

[werdfert · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

i had some problems with this book. but maybe the problems were what kept it from being perfect and therefore imperfect. but i doubt it. let's just celebrate the wonderful things.i started jotting down quotes from the book onto post-it notes and sticking them into the book where they were found: "i want something that makes me look in wonder""i like to make things that are weird or small. i like things that don't make a whole lot of sense to anyone but me." and then i came across this:"...being in favor of unimportant things. insignificant stuff. things that get ignored. things nobody else cares about. like post-it notes." and i wrote that on a post-it note and stuck it in the book.it's ironic that this book and its characters want so much to be original but the story is ordinary. like there are only so many stories or ways that stories can turn out. and i read somewhere in a review that this book was destined to be an urban outfitter favorite. which goes against everything anyone inside the book would ever want.this book made me feel feelings, reminding me that my life doesn't have to be sapped away by corporations. i used to be full of energy and new ideas, but over time -- who cares? the answer, i guess is that you have to. i think if i were to want to improve this book i would get rid of two words: "and" and "really". but i can't do that so i have to accept the flaws as part of the perfection. or something.

[cecilturtle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

GenX readers will definitely identify with this book which will send them reeling into the past for a trip into nostalgia. Odile, carefree, imaginative but rudderless; Jack, romantic, passionate but timid - both shrug responsibility, accept a fate where the world where the world has been closed off to them but will enjoy the minute offerings of life to create a magical and welcoming enclave where they can discover each other.I really liked Jack and his sound project, Odile was too whimsical for me to take seriously as a sustainable character. I liked the drawings and the photos; the dialogue was mildly irritating with its whatevers and nothings (albeit realistic). The ending was perfect - noncommittal but elegant, totally in the spirit of the book.A charming read.

[jasonpettus · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)Regular readers know that I am a longtime fan of Chicago contemporary lit legend Joe Meno, one of only a handful of local authors here right now to have broken through into national-scale reputation, media attention and resulting sales; and there have been projects of his in the past that I've really loved, and ones I found only so-so, and ones I thought…er, not so so-so, so I'm never exactly sure what I'm going to get when I dive into a new one. But this latest, from our friends at the great Akashic Books and being released just this week, is a different thing altogether from anything else in this shapeshifter's career -- deliberately small and intimate, and easy to dismiss at first as the meaningless musings of hipster douchebags, by the end it manages to be rather wistful, heartbreaking and melancholy, a sneakily tight manuscript that gets better and better the farther you read. Essentially the full beginning-to-end tale of one of those torrid three-week romantic relationships that litter so many of our pasts, and set among good-looking twentysomething art-school dropouts because, hey, why not, Meno's point here is to look at one of these people who sometimes just randomly blows into our lives for a bit, changes it profoundly, then just as randomly leaves again for the entire rest of your life; and by following it in its full messy glory, Meno's bigger point is to remind us of why these experiences are so important, why we remember them so nostalgically and positively for nearly the rest of our lives. Set during the Great Chicago Blizzard of 1999, the entire book has a muted and closed-in tone that serves its Before Sunrise feel well; and although Meno occasionally leans on the Manic Pixie Dream Girl tropes a bit too much (she has doe eyes and a thrift-store coat! She bicycles in the snow! She does impromptu absurdist performance art on the el!), by humanizing her in a sophisticated and complex way he largely avoids the biggest sins of that cliche, making this a quickly paced charmer that I suspect will eventually be one of the most popular titles of his career. A novel just begging to get adapted into the quirky movie debut of the next big national indie-film darling, it comes strongly recommended to existing fans of Garden State and (500) Days of Summer; and don't forget that I recently had a chance to sit down and talk with Meno here in Chicago for nearly an hour almost exclusively just about this book for the CCLaP Podcast, so I hope you'll get a chance to check that out as well when it's available next week.Out of 10: 9.4

[lkernagh · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really, really liked this one. Meno does a fantastic job capturing the transition between youth and adulthood, that period of life filled with uncertainty and angst while at the same time spiced with that wonderful freedom to experiment and push the boundaries of some of societies confining “norms”. Jack and Odile are the epitome of awkward young adulthood, when socially one feels spiritually devoid or at odds with familial and societies expectations, kind of like in adolescence when one is an uncoordinated mass of arms and legs during a growth spurt. Both have strong introvert tendencies which makes their stilted dialogue and emotionally restrained relationship a logical extension of their personalities. Both are drifting through a series of uninspiring jobs working the night shift taking phone orders for a company that sells instrumental music to doctor’s offices (that “Muzak” that is so annoying to listen to) that are at odds with their aspirations. Some may argue that Jack and Odile are rather flat, two-dimensional characters but I believe that Meno’s story is more an idiosyncratic artistic expression with poetic inflection than your typical character/plot driven story. Meno brings an artsy edge to this wonderful whimsical quirky story with his two protagonists engaging in random public Situationist-like acts, like when they impersonate ghosts on a city bus or take random Polaroids of their body parts while cycling through the wintery streets of Chicago to turn into a “picture book” that is circulated throughout the neighbourhood. Weird, yes, but weird in a way that works for me as Meno is sympathetic to the frustrations his characters feel against the status quo, summed up nicely by the following quote "We're celebrating the right to be stupid, which is probably the most important right we have in this country. We're staging an impromptu performance piece." "It's jusst something, like a puzzle, for people to think about. It doesn't have some grand meaning or anything. It's just like a moment to be surprised by something. Kind of like a daydream. But something... real." Even though Odile seems to be veering towards anarchy as art, and dragging Jack along with her, she is aware of her insecurities and realizes that she needs to make a break now or she will never leave the doldrums of dead-end telemarketing jobs and by extension, “give up” and not living a life their young adventuring minds want to live. Taking that leap of faith off the precipice and into the unknown is what makes this such a great story for me. Definitely a book that will not appeal to all readers, but a wonderful read for me and closing off with my favorite quote from the book: "... there are all these moments, moments just like this one, there are all these moments, and how everyone lives their lives in these short, all-too-short moments. There are all these moments and what's so interesting, what makes them beautiful, is the fact that none of them last."

[jasbro-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Office Girl seems well done, and enjoyable enough once I got into it. Still, I found it difficult to adjust expectations and perspective to this story of failed aspirations and relationships between Millennial art student / slackers. Other readers appear to have enjoyed it tremendously, and one would do well to look at their reviews to see what Joe Meno's fans appreciate most about this simple little book. After reading Office Girl, however, I'm not one rushing to track down his other Works, although it's good to know they're significantly different in style, tone and subject. To my mind, such reports speak of a versatile, skilled writer, whose books should be more widely available and better known. When I come across Meno again, I'm likely to at least pause and take a look.

[books_n_tea · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I have the most difficulty writing reviews for books that fall between "just okay" and "ho hum".Office Girl is a short novel about a romance that came and went. Most of the stuff in the middle is about Jack and Odile falling for each other while Odile subsequently tries “sticking it to the man” with her art projects. Maybe this is amusing if you’re a fan of guerrilla art, but it left me feeling indifferent. For me, most of the book falls into the realm of mediocrity, though I did find the ending to be redeeming. I don’t mean that in a snarky sense either. I really do mean the ending was perfect. It doesn’t suffer from a case of the rom-coms, where everything is pieced together and wrapped up in a pleasant little bow. It seemed realistic, and despite its bittersweet-ness, it left me feeling positive and fulfilled.I figured Office Girl was one of those books that has to be read by a certain age so it can resonate with the reader. Kind of like Catcher in the Rye, maybe. And considering I am around the same age as the characters in the book, I figured Office Girl would be the same kind of mind-blowing amazing that was Meno’s Hairstyles of the Damned back when I was in high school. Office Girl wasn’t though. Mostly I just found the characters to be kind of annoying and whiny and too angsty to be 24 years old. Okay, maybe I’m being a little harsh on Jack. He was actually a pretty interesting character, but Odile was too much of a hipster for me to appreciate. She caused me to suffer eye strain as a result of massive eye rolls.Overall,I’m not saying I hated Office Girl. I’m not even saying I disliked the book. I just didn’t think it was as good as some of Meno’s works that I was introduced to prior. Had I not approached Office Girl with expectations, I may have enjoyed it more. Maybe not.

[meganangela · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

After disappointments, setbacks and heartaches, Chicago hipsters Odile and Jack embark on a friendship and romance that ends as quick as it begins. Set in the winter of 1999, Joe Meno's Office Girl explores what it means to grow up, find your place, keep your originality and make something of worth (even if others don't see or understand it).As a fan of Joe Meno, and considering Hairstyles of the Damned to be one of my favorite books of all time, I was excited to read Office Girl and everything it had to offer. Unfortunately, I found this book to be bland, boring, and, frankly, pretentious and too hipster-ish for my tastes.One of the reviews on the back of the book exclaimed that this novel captures the essence of the first twenty five years of life, or something to that effect. As a twenty five year old myself, I can say that I have never experienced anything like the lives and relationships of Odile and Jack. I'm not even sure what I think this novel captures as both main characters are so incredibly messed up and are really two pretty crappy human beings.I'm sorry, but it becomes extremely hard for me to empathize with a character when one of your first encounters with him is being a complete creeper to his soon-to-be ex-wife and kicking their cat because he can't figure out a more adult way to cope. On top of that, Odile is a pretentious, self-absorbed, scared little girl with self-esteem and commitment issues of the worst kind. She's twee and far too "manic pixie dream girl" for me to really get behind her. Especially when Jack actually does start shaping up and getting his act together, and she just gets upset because he doesn't want to help her vandalize the car of an art professor who didn't like her work. I want characters I can root for or see myself in, not characters that are constantly making me roll my eyes and grate on my nerves.The real standout of this novel is the formatting. I loved the addition of sketches, photographs, walls full of text without punctuation and colored pages. It made the book itself, and not really the story, a work of art in its own right.In the end, I felt that this was a sub-par work by an author who seriously, in my mind, has the potential to write a great American novel one day. As I said earlier, Hairstyles of the Damned is such a fantastic book, and I constantly recommend it to everyone who will listen. Office Girl isn't even on the same level, and that pains me to say. Not even close. I might would rank it a step above The Boy Detective Fails, but only by a bit. For serious Joe Meno fans, I think you have to read it just to keep current on his body of work. Otherwise, I think this is a novel that would be easy to skip. Two and a half stars.

[4daisies · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In spite of how obviously Joe Meno has his finger on the pulse of the 20-somethings of this generation, I (being "of a certain age" shall we say), felt I could relate to the thoughts and feelings being conveyed by Jack and Odile. These two struggling artists trying to figure out how to live life in this world, while clumsily falling in love. Trying to figure out why no one seems to "get" them and realizing with mixed emotion that they have perhaps found someone who does... scary. And by the way - who determines what is relevant art?

[jlspad · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This novel takes place during a snowy Chicago winter in 1999. This means no one has a cell phone, or talks much about the internet, or the "new normal" of our economy. Odile and Jack, the twentysomething protagonists, talk about art and crappy jobs and wondering when or if what they think of as their real lives will start.The things bored twentysomethings have always talked about, right? Only here it isn't annoying -- maybe because it's the past and so we see the characters in action instead of watching them update Facebook with their suffering and ennui -- it's charming, in that "can you remember when?" sort of way. Really terrible things don't happen in this book and arguably really amazing things don't happen either, though you think and perhaps hope they will. (But I didn't want a sappy ending.) It's winter in Chicago and there is so much snow muffling the sounds of the city. Snow brings a certain quiet, a softness to sounds and temporary transformations of the landscape and this is the perfect setting for Jack and Odile, because they can't commit to anything too loud, anything beyond the temporary. They lack the ability, and mostly lack the willingness, but strugle on in hopes it won't always be the way it is now. Reading their story reminded me of how, when you are younger, you can go to extremes to avoid what you think will be crushing embarrassment but really the actions you take to avoid it just make it worse. Meno supplies two alternate titles to Office Girl: Bohemians, or Young People on Bicycles Doing Troubling Things. I suppose either of these would have worked, though the actual title fits and conjures up a sort of wonder about the office girl. It's a wonder Odile should have about herself, but doesn't.Interspersed with the text are photos from Todd Baxter and drawings from Cody Hudson, who if you are a Meno fan you will recognize from his story collection Demons in the Spring. I liked the additions, though the simple line drawings reproduced much better than the black and white photographs. I enjoyed reading this novel, as I did Meno's last (The Great Perhaps) but I am left wanting more stories. I want another collection like Bluebirds Used to Croon in the Choir, because I think Meno offers more sting and thought per page with them. Still, recommended.