This Could Hurt

October 30, 2017
Medoff (I Couldn’t Love You More) explores the effects of the 2008 economic downturn on a small staff of human resources managers at a research firm in this witty novel. At the twilight of a successful career, 64-year-old Rosa Guerrero, Ellery Consumer Research’s widowed HR chief, is losing her edge. She experienced a ministroke some years earlier and now has had a second; at work, she’s endured a major lieutenant’s embezzlement and company cutbacks. Rosa is tough but secretly a mother hen, so it’s sweet (but never saccharine, because of Medoff’s wry and ironic sensibility) when her most trusted staffers nurture and cover for her to keep her at the job that is her whole life. At least one of the four underlings whose stories are told along with Rosa’s has ulterior motives, but all will recognize their weaknesses and become more fulfilled by the end. The characters are well-drawn, though the author gets stuck in their personal tangents, which occasionally drags down the storytelling. Nevertheless, this is a sharp and moving novel.

Six talented narrators perform this story of office dynamics and existential angst amid the 2008 financial crisis. At 64, Rosa Guerrero, HR chief for Ellery Consumer Research Group, faces health issues and looming retirement while dealing with another round of layoffs in her department. Though Rosa is the story's focal point, we also follow the careers and personal lives of several of her employees, Lucy Bender, Leo Smalls, Rob Hirsch, and Kenny Verville. Each narrator assumes a specific point of view that shows the same characters through a different lens, resulting in a captivating, though sometimes disorientating, RASHOMON effect among the cubicles and conference rooms. Office life can be a slog, but these narrators provide warmth and humor that will keep listeners invested. A.T.N. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Starred review from November 15, 2017

Rosalita Guerrero, chief of human resources, is the beating heart of Ellery Consumer Research Group. She has weathered market downturns before, but the latest round of layoffs pared her department to the bone. Though a widow and in her 60s, Rosa can't imagine not working: her people need her, and her to-do list is miles long. Chapters alternate among Rosa's key staffers, delving deep into their hopes and fears, their loneliness, their courage, and their loyalty to the woman who gave them their jobs. Handy organizational charts track staffing changes over time. Anyone who has worked in a modern office will relate to the sly jabs at corporate mores and business jargon. But this novel is more than an HR primer--it's a thoroughly satisfying character study and exploration of the social microcosm that is the modern workplace. VERDICT Medoff (I Couldn't Love You More) is a master of the small, telling detail that completely nails a person's psyche, delivering a cast of characters flawed yet struggling to redeem themselves. An ultimately hopeful, completely inventive tale. [See Prepub Alert, 7/9/17.]--Christine Perkins, Whatcom Cty. Lib. Syst., Bellingham, WA

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2017
Intrigue swirls around HR executive Rosa Guerrero in this engrossing workplace drama by Medoff (I Couldn't Love You More, 2012, etc.). Ellery Consumer Research Group is one of "a glut of boutique research firms...fighting for market share" in the wake of the economic meltdown. The HR department has already shrunk from 22 to 16 to 13 as the story begins in November 2009, and the CEO is pressuring Rosa to cut more. She's just had to fire her trusted right-hand man for embezzling, leaving her at age 64 without an obvious choice to groom for succession. Longtime training and recruiting director Rob Hirsch is blatantly burned-out, while hotshot Wharton MBA Kenny Verville is too busy looking for a better job at a bigger company to pay much attention to his current work. Rounding out the cast of principals are Communications/Policy VP Lucy Bender, gunning for a promotion, and Employee Benefits manager Leo Smalls, Rosa's principal confidant. These two cover for their boss after she has a minor stroke and, once back at work, her memory and behavior continue to deteriorate. Although Medoff frankly chronicles plenty of scheming and self-serving, Rosa's devotion to her staff is repaid with loyalty and affection that are all the more poignant coming from believably flawed characters. People get second chances here: Kenny buckles down at Ellery after blowing an outside prospect, and Rob finds that getting laid off is the kick in the pants he needs to revitalize himself. At the center stands Rosa, a tough corporate infighter who is also a mother hen; she's the most vivid figure, but everyone gets nicely textured treatment in an engrossing narrative that manages to encompass Lucy's therapy issues, Rob's devotion to his family, Leo's search for Mr. Right, and Kenny's troubled marriage while maintaining the main focus on their lives at work. An economical epilogue makes clever use of corporate organization charts to quickly trace the characters' odysseys after the story's bittersweet conclusion in August 2010. A sharp-eyed novel of corporate manners.

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December 1, 2017
Medoff (I Couldn't Love You More, 2012) takes on corporate dilemmas in her newest incisive novel. Following the economic downturn of 2008, the organization chart for the human-resources department of Ellery Consumer Research Group looks pretty tight. Rosalita Guerrero runs an efficient ship, as befits her decades in the business. Peter, Lucy, Leo, Rob, and Kenny take care of everything from operations to training, and it's a congenial, if not always supercharged, team. But as the recession worsens, Ellery demands cutbacks, and one by one Rosa's staff is either fired or catapulted into work overload. They need her guidance now more than ever, but Rosa suffers a debilitating stroke, inspiring the team to come together in a genuine life-or-death project. All the petty drama of office life is on display: who has Rosa's ear, who's out to stab someone in the back. Medoff's scenarios will be familiar to everyone employed everywhere, no matter the company size, and she cogently captures the angst and celebrates the camaraderie of coworkers committed to group success while struggling with personal demons.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)