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She's Got Issues Book Review |
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Book Reviews -
Women's Fiction
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Written by Jennifer Thompson
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 She's Got Issues, by Stephanie Lessing
Meet Chloe Rose: clueless, naive, and hopelessly obsessed with shoes. Her boss is a nightmare, the editorial department has it out for her, the art department is playing mind games with her and her sister's writing thirty-page novellas telling her how to navigate through it all.
She's Got Issues is Stephanie Lessing's debut novel about Chloe Rose and her adventures as the new assistant to the assistant at Issues magazine. Chloe has been a shoe fanatic ever since she was a child. Instead of playing with dolls, she assigned personalities and roles to her shoes and used them to play magazine office in her bedroom. (Assigning personalities to shoes continues into adulthood and plays a prominent role in Chloe's office romance.) Chloe is so enthralled with shoes that she will buy shoes that don't fit her; she will buy shoes to wear to events that may never happen; she'll buy shoes to display as artwork.
We meet Chloe as she is on her way to interview for a position at Issues magazine. As she goes through her interview with Ruth, her future boss, we begin to see that Chloe's grasp of reality and her ability to read people are both weak at best. Ruth is, well, ruthless, and sees Chloe as her ticket to promotion and greater recognition at the magazine. Chloe doesn't see that Ruth intends to use her, even though it is plainly obvious to the reader. After Chloe debriefs the interview with her sister, Zoe, she goes to bed, only to wake up to a mini-novel from her beloved sister outlining step by step what Ruth will do (she's right on the money) and how Chloe should handle it (advice she heeds only part of the time). Chloe is not street-smart at all (she can't even figure out how to use the subway), but she shows sparks of genuine creativity when Ruth asks her for promotional ideas.
One of the greatest thrills for Chloe at her new job (photocopying piles upon piles of Ruth's files certainly isn't one of them) is finding her way to the "shoe closet" - hundreds of shoes used in photo shoots that employees have access to when they need to or want to borrow a pair of shoes. Chloe unwittingly locks herself into the shoe closet and spends time in the pitch black figuring out which shoe is which purely by touch. When someone finally comes along and lets her out, he turns out to be a charming and handsome man who finds himself intrigued by Chloe's theories about shoes, their personalities and how they ought to be organized.
The supporting cast of characters is colorful but stereotypical - the feminist sister and her capitalist boyfriend, the jealous and sniping editorial ladies, and the wacky art department. Joe the custodian and Liz the cafeteria lady prove to be a couple of Chloe's truest friends and allies.
There aren't many surprises in the story, and it has a happily ever after ending that leaves everyone with everything they always wanted. The handsome man from the shoe closet - Chloe calls him Stan until she realizes what his name actually is - is Chloe's knight in shining armor. Ruth is the wicked stepmother. The editors are the wicked stepsisters. Toward the end of the book there are monologues from a few of the main characters, including Chloe, that seem out of character. Frankly, Chloe spends so much of the book being a peppy and innocent young woman that it's hard to believe her when she suddenly delivers one of the more articulate speeches of the story.
She's Got Issues is lighthearted and a nice escape if you're looking for a read that's easy and fun. Don't look too hard for reality and you won't be disappointed.
Copyright 2005.
This review is available for reprint.
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