Stevie Turner's Reviews > Just an Odd Job Girl

Imogen, having turned down a career in nursing to please Peter, the love of her life, wonders how to re-build her life after he deserts her in middle age for a younger woman.

After comfort eating and moping about, Imogen decides she wants to be gainfully employed again after many years of being a wife and mother.  She'd had experience of many jobs in her youth, and nervously approaches an employment agency.   She is asked by Andrew Jenkins at the agency to talk him through the list of jobs she'd worked at in the past so that he could place her in the most suitable post.

Imogen reminisces about the times she spent working in a seaside kiosk, in a large department store, in a hotel, and as a dental assistant and a receptionist at a funeral home to name but a few.  I think Mrs Cronin may have worked at some (or all?) of these jobs herself, as she writes with great expertise about them.  There are some laugh-out-loud moments too. I particularly liked the 1970s disco scene and Imogen's night out wearing her new wig, and  then there were the strange female customers who frequented the cosmetic department of Huntley's Store, and the few dodgy clients who wanted to place adverts when Imogen worked at telesales...

As Imogen looks back in time at all the experiences she has had, she re-gains her self esteem and realises she is not ready to be thrown out just like yesterday's newspaper.

Recommended for fans of light reading / humorous women's fiction.