The Assistants

Camille Perri

Penguin, May 3, 2016 - Fiction - 288 pages

The debut novel that J. Courtney Sullivan calls “addictive, hilarious, and smart. It’s "9 to 5 for the student loan generation” and Publishers Weekly describes as “if the characters from HBO’s Girls were capable of larceny and blackmail.”
 
Rule #1: All important men have assistants. Rule #2: Men rule the world. Still. Rule #3: There is enough money. There is so much money.

Tina Fontana is a thirty-year-old executive assistant to Robert Barlow, the CEO of Titan Corp., a multinational media conglomerate. She’s excellent at her job and beloved by her famous boss—but after six years of making reservations and pouring drinks from bottles that cost more than her rent, the glamour of working for a media company in New York has completely faded, but her student loan debt has not.

When a technical error with Robert’s expense report presents Tina with the opportunity to pay off the entire balance of her loans with what would essentially be pocket change for her boss, she hesitates. She’s always played by the rules, but this would be a life-changer. As Tina begins to fall down the rabbit hole of her morally questionable plan, other assistants with crushing debt and fewer scruples approach her to say that they want in. Before she knows it, she’s at the forefront of a movement that has implications far beyond what anyone anticipated.

Featuring an eclectic clan of coconspirators, a love interest far too handsome to be trusted, and a razor-sharp voice full of wry humor, The Assistants is a rallying cry for the leagues of overeducated and underpaid women who are asking themselves, How is it that after all these years, we are still assistants?


From the Hardcover edition.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - CMDH5 - LibraryThing

Solid 3.5. This hit a lot things I look for in a good summer read. Funny, check. Moves quickly, check. Doesn't depend entirely on a love interest, check. Strong female lead, check. So why didn't The ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - debann6354 - LibraryThing

I enjoyed much about this book, great sense of humor that dealt with an important issue...college debt. Wish it had more substance. I liked the female characters but eventually they were much to ...

Contents

• Section 1: 3
• Section 2: 16
• Section 3: 23
• Section 4: 37
• Section 5: 49
• Section 6: 56
• Section 7: 69
• Section 8: 76
• Section 9: 85
• Section 10: 96
• Section 11: 102
• Section 12: 117
• Section 13: 126
• Section 14: 137
• Section 15: 149
• Section 16: 156
• Section 17: 163
• Section 18: 179
• Section 19: 186
• Section 20: 196
• Section 21: 203
• Section 22: 216
• Section 23: 225
• Section 24: 231
• Section 25: 238
• Section 26: 247
• Section 27: 254
• Section 28: 263
• Section 29: 275

About the author

Camille Perri is the author of The Assistants. She has worked as a books editor for Cosmopolitan and Esquire. She has also been a ghostwriter of young-adult novels and a reference librarian. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from New York University and a master of library science degree from Queens College. Perri wrote the first draft of The Assistants while working as the assistant to the editor-in-chief of Esquire.


From the Hardcover edition.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Assistants
• Author: Camille Perri
• Publisher: Penguin, 2016
• ISBN: 0698180801, 9780698180802
• Length: 288 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Contemporary Women; Fiction / Humorous / General; Fiction / Satire