Break in Case of Emergency
Written by Jessica Winter
Narrated by Xe Sands
3/5
()
Unavailable in your country
Unavailable in your country
About this audiobook
‘Extremely funny – a satirical masterpiece that is tender and existentially-minded as well. I loved it!’ Elizabeth McKenzie, author of THE PORTABLE VEBLEN
‘Very smart and juicy and weird and entertaining … it reads like a chick lit plot written by Franzen’ Curtis Sittenfeld
Jen has reached her early thirties and has all but abandoned a once-promising painting career when, spurred by the economic crisis, she takes a poorly defined job at a feminist nonprofit. The foundation’s aim is to empower women, but staffers spend all their time devising acronyms for imaginary programs, ruthlessly undermining one another, and stroking the ego of their boss, the larger-than-life celebrity philanthropist Leora Infinitas.
Jen’s complicity in this passive-aggressive hellscape only intensifies her feelings of inferiority compared to her two best friends – one a wealthy attorney with a picture-perfect family, the other a passionately committed artist – and so does Jen’s apparent inability to have a baby, a source of existential panic that begins to affect her marriage and her already precarious status at the office.
Jessica Winter’s ferociously intelligent debut novel is a wry satire that explores the difficulty of navigating friendships as they shift to accommodate marriage and family, and the unspoken tensions that can strain even the strongest bonds.
Jessica Winter
Jessica Winter is an editor at The New Yorker and the author of the novel Break in Case of Emergency. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Bookforum, and other publications. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family.
Related to Break in Case of Emergency
Related audiobooks
The Brightest Sun Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYour Story Matters: Find Your Voice, Sharpen Your Skills, Tell Your Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMona in Three Acts Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Scissors, Paper, Stone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sofa Surfer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thalia Book Club: Sloane Crosley, Look Alive Out There Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsParadise City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Paris or Die Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThey Are Trying to Break Your Heart Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Awakening Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRaised By Wolves Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Be Brief and Tell Them Everything Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cut Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5When I Grow Up: Coversations With Adults in Search of Adulthood Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlue Portugal and Other Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWeekends with Matt: A memoir of an unlikely friendship forged over wine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIs This OK?: One Woman's Search For Connection Online Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Writer's Room Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unbecoming Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pressure Chamber Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWish I Was Here Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun?: Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In Search of Silence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Charmed Life of Alex Moore: A quirky adventure with an unexpected twist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Price of Two Sparrows Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Here in the After Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOther Houses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHome Fires Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Fiction For You
The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hunger Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A Hunger Games Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hate U Give Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Break in Case of Emergency
8 ratings1 review
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I got this book through the Amazon Vine program to review. I really really didn't like this novel. I thought the writing was poorly done and the characters were shallow, unlikable, and just plan stupid. There really wasn't one single thing I found interesting or engaging about this book…Mostly this book was just boring. The writing doesn't flow well and the reader is jerked around from subject to subject in a way that is discontinuous at best; downright confusing at worst. We found ourselves immersed in the shallow culture of a foundation focused on the empowerment of women (I know there’s some irony here) only to suddenly be immersed into Jen’s struggle with fertility. Amidst all of this are scenes following the art culture which Jen is tenuously a part of as well; it was just not woven together well and was very jerky. The majority of this book is incredibly insulting to women as a whole; I mean are the majority of women really this shallow? Even Jen, the main character, comes across as selfishly obsessed with having a baby. She does not consider other options such as adoption or spending her time helping out other needy children. She just drugs herself to the gills with fertility drugs and decides her whole reason for existence is to have a baby; how is any of this empowering? I think her husband is incredibly understanding about her obsession. However when he calls her on the fact she lets people walk all over her she basically calls him a lazy good for nothing who doesn’t earn enough money.There is no plotline to speak of. The main character works for a foundation that is supposed to empower women (which is basically a farce and is funded via the foundation CEO's divorce settlement) and is constantly letting people take advantage of her. After a lifetime of doing this all it takes is her husband yelling at her once to make her change her ways which I found completely unbelievable. The whole book wraps up in a way that is very fairy tale happy and very abrupt...and completely unbelievable and contrived.Some of this could have been forgiven if the book was cute or witty, however the dialogue is weak and jerky and awkward. The main character seems to be in a haze that is either drug-induced or just poorly written I couldn’t decide which.I will say that I am most likely not the intended audience for this book. I am an engineer who works in a highly technical field and with very few women. I generally go out of my way to avoid the type of people in this book. There really isn’t a lot in here I can relate to...it all seems incredibly inane. I also don't read a ton of this type of literature but I have read much much better contemporary fiction than this. I found this book to be offensive and just very poorly written. This book is in my top five of disappointing books for this year. Overall I really really disliked this book. I could probably go on for quite a bit longer about the things I didn’t like about this book. I am trying to think of an audience to recommend to but I am struggling with that. I wouldn’t recommend. If you can pick up the book somewhere and read the first few chapters that will give you a good feel for whether or not this would be something you’d like. I kept waiting for the book to get more engaging or witty after the first few chapters and it just didn’t for me.