Blurbs & Reviews
Click HERE to read a recent article in The Wall Street Journal that mentions Help Wanted, Desperately.
Click HERE to read a recent article in USAToday that mentions Help Wanted, Desperately and Ariel in her other life as a teacher.
Click HERE to read a recent article in The New York Times about Ariel and her novelist sisters!
Click HERE to read a recent article (10/11/04) about Ariel and Help Wanted, Desperately in Newsday!
“Alexa Hoffman, the 21-year-old University of Pennsylvania senior at the center of Ariel Horn's debut novel, has got exactly seven months, three weeks and two days before her initiation into the real world. Determined to secure a job in New York City, she embarks on a life-altering journey from one bizarre interview to the next. As a last resort and to avoid moving back in with her parents, she signs up to become an English teacher on the Third World island of Majuro while continuing her search for a job that will prevent her from actually having to go there. Over the course of this witty and wise coming-of-age novel, Alexa interviews for every imaginable position—earthworm breeder, deodorant sniffer, phone sex operator—evoking all the expectations and anxiety of the modern-day career search. Each chapter ends with a list of ‘Lessons Learned’ comprising such hard-learned aphorisms as ‘Never assume your mother believes in something you plan on doing simply because she doesn't say otherwise’ and ‘Do not—under any circumstances—interview for Internet jobs listed as 'other' ever again.’ Blithe and fresh-voiced, this book covers almost every tribulation of entering adulthood, forging a career and falling in love, against the odds.”--Publishers Weekly
“Alexa Hoffman is a senior English major at the University of Pennsylvania who fears she will be the only person in the world to remain unemployed after graduation…there is obviously a kernel of truth in Horn's tales of the job-hunting neuroses of college seniors. Horn (whose initials are the same as those of her protagonist) is also a Penn graduate and uses her own job-interviewing experiences for comic effect. From phone-sex operator to earthworm breeder to deodorant sniffer, Alex racks up rejections, but they ultimately serve to crystallize her vision of what she really wants to do with her life. Soon-to-be and recent graduates will certainly relate to Alex's travails and enjoy the over-the-top humor.”--Booklist
“With
its sense of humor and immediacy, Horn’s writing and feels youthful and
fresh.”--The Pennsylvania Gazette
What
Other Writers Are Saying:
-"Ariel Horn has written a novel that is funny, smart, and full of heart about the ordeal of finding that first job out of college. It's a perfect vacation read and a fresh new voice. Delightful!"-- Paula Marantz Cohen, author of Jane Austen in Boca and Much Ado About Jessie Kaplan
-"Meet Alexa: Self-deprecating, witty, hilarious -- and eminently lovable. In Ariel Horn's deft hands, the whipsmart tale of her pothole-ridden search for the right first job will captivate anyone who ever ached with Bridget Jones, spotted phonies like Holden Caulfield, or was too busy papering a wall with 'ding' letters to read.
Lessons Learned:
1) Do not read Help Wanted, Desperately while riding public transportation. You will miss your stop.
2) Do not read Help Wanted in front of potential date. Snort-like laughter will immediately kill any hook-up potential.
3) When job search drives you to consume entire supermarket birthday cake and/or find out truth about tequila worm, think of Alexa instead. Smile." --Rachel Solar-Tuttle, author of Number Six Fumbles and Table-Talk: The Savvy Girl's Alternative to Networking
