The Pursuit of Other Interests
A Novel
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4.0 • 7 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Charlie Baker is a neurotic but charming 50-year-old workaholic CEO of a major Chicago ad agency who seems to have it all: an impressive house in an upscale suburb, an equally impressive salary, the requisite pretty wife and accomplished son. All of this comes crashing down when Charlie is unceremoniously fired. In an instant, his life is transformed from corporate titan to just another out of work American.
For Charlie—an admitted workaholic—a world without a job is a strange world indeed. Rather than tell his family, every morning Charlie leaves home to spend his days at an outplacement firm, where he meets a cast of equally desperate corporate misfits. As Charlie reluctantly embarks on a journey of self-discovery, he finds out what happens when his work life is lost and his real life begins.
Humorous, poignant, and honest, The Pursuit of Other Interests offers a glimpse into the lives, hearts, and minds of the 21st-century American family.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The gainfully employed, the underemployed and the woefully unemployed will all likely appreciate this timely novel from Kokoris (Sister North), in which he tackles the subject of joblessness the same way a job hunter might approach his day with serious consideration and a bolstering sense of humor. After Chicago ad exec Charlie Baker gets the ax for his "frenetic style" (his wife just calls him crazy), 50-year-old Charlie realizes he may have already lost his family and friends. Aided by nebbishy "transition consultant" Ned Meyers and other colorful "refugees" at the outplacement center, Charlie, "who had never been much of a ponderer," begins to figure out what went wrong in his life. While it's difficult for the average earner to empathize with an ill-tempered executive who banked a $400,000 salary, Kokoris creates in Charlie a citizen funny enough, a husband flawed enough and a father desperate enough that any reader might identify with his search for security and happiness, as well as a job dream or not that facilitates them both.
