Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls: Stories
By Alissa Nutting
(Ecco)
Do you remember the first horrible job that you worked? The one that still makes it hard for you to go into a store without adjusting the racks or finger-spacing hangers as you walk by? Author Alissa Nutting certainly does. And her collection of short stories (originally published in 2010, re-released in 2018) explores the odd jobs women work and the weird ways in which they leave their mark.
Although the positions held in Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls range from the mundane to the futuristically surreal, the struggles faced by each of the women profiled are familiar. An intergalactic cargo delivery girl with a cryogenically frozen convict for a mother becomes relatable through Nutting’s satirical writing. After all, suddenly defrosting your murderous mom isn’t that far off from going home for the holidays. In this way, each tale entertains with its far-fetched and fantastical plots, while keeping readers engaged as characters grapple with the constructs of gender and the confines of the female experience we all know so well. (5/5)
By Madison Nunes
Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls was released July 3, 2018
This article originally appeared in the October/November 2018 print edition of BUST Magazine. Subscribe today!
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