"Periodically a writer captures the pattern of comedy and tragedy that
peppers office life like alternating colors of carpet squares. . . . As
smart as Medoff's critique of corporate inanity is, it's tempered by
compassion for these people, who are ultimately tender with each other,
too. . . . Medoff finds plenty of hurt--but strains of hope, too." --Ron
Charles, The Washington Post
The acclaimed and deeply felt novel that illuminates the pivotal role
of work in our lives.
Rosa Guerrero beat the odds as she rose to the top of the corporate
world. An attractive woman of a certain age, the longtime chief of human
resources at Ellery Consumer Research is still a formidable presence,
even if her most vital days are behind her. A leader who wields power
with grace and discretion, she has earned the devotion and loyalty of
her staff. No one admires Rosa more than her doting lieutenant Leo
Smalls, a benefits vice president whose whole world is Ellery.
While Rosa is consumed with trying to address the needs of her staff
within the ever-constricting limits of the company's bottom line, her
associate director, Rob Hirsch, a middle-aged, happily married father of
two, finds himself drawing closer to his "work wife," Lucy Bender, an
enterprising single woman searching for something--a romance, a
promotion--to fill the vacuum in her personal life. For Kenny Verville,
a senior manager with an MBA, Ellery is a temporary stepping-stone to
bigger and better places--that is, if his high-powered wife has her way.
Compelling, flawed, and heartbreakingly human, these men and women
scheme, fall in and out of love, and nurture dreams big and small. As
their individual circumstances shift, one thing remains constant--Rosa,
the sun around whom they all orbit. When her world begins to crumble,
the implications for everyone are profound, and Leo, Rob, Lucy, and
Kenny find themselves changed in ways beyond their reckoning.
Jillian Medoff explores the inner workings of an American company in all
its brilliant, insane, comforting, and terrifying glory. Authentic,
razor-sharp, and achingly funny, This Could Hurt is a novel about
work, loneliness, love, and loyalty; about sudden reversals and
unexpected windfalls; a novel about life.
