Identifiable by the bright front doors on their covers, domestic noir novels have become an established genre in recent years. But we don’t yet have a term for their office counterpart. And yet there is just as much power in this setting.
Much the same extremes of human experience play out there. Colleagues take on the emotional heft normally absorbed by family members; swathes of our most personal belongings often lurk under desks and in drawers. There are few in-jokes as potent as the office in-joke, but the mood can shift quickly with the pressure of an angry boss or a missed deadline. The office is a place of extremes, intense with the buzz of industry and the threat of failure, and that’s a perfect starting point for fiction.
As a writer who finds it useful to anchor fictional plot and characters to a place or setting I know, I started mulling over the idea of using the office environment for my fourth book. While I work from home now, for years I burrowed daily into the anonymous armpits of fellow commuters and headed into the office. What Happened on Floor 34? puts the workplace front and central to the action, and here, I’ve chosen other books that do the same.
1. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
I was lucky enough not to have encountered a truly awful boss when I first read this, meaning that I could enjoy it solely as the sharp and funny novel it is, about a young woman who goes to work for tyrannical fashion editor Miranda Priestly. By the time I came back to it for a re-read, I had worked in more offices and the Miranda Priestlys of my own life made it resonate in a different way, Priestly stark in her reign of terror. I went freelance shortly afterwards.
2. Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
Offices are places where great comedy can be found. Booker-shortlisted Joshua Ferris pins this humour down in this character-driven novel with a huge cast of eccentric characters; it is in equal turn tender and tragic.
3. The Circle by Dave Eggers
Published almost 10 years ago, this novel – based in a Silicon Valley social media giant – was incredibly prescient. Shining a light on the way we give our whole selves to jobs we love, The Circle sees Mae land the gig of her dreams. Before long, work is her life. A cautionary reminder to pay attention to your work-life balance.
4. Not Working by Lisa Owens
I don’t tend to laugh out loud at books; this is still one of only a handful of novels that have forced an audible cackle from me. Not Working gets into this list on a technicality – it’s actually set around leaving an office – but I would argue that the workplace and its role in shaping our identity lies at the heart of this novel by virtue of its absence, as Claire struggles to find her feet without the marketing job she has quit.
5. A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark
It’s perhaps unsurprising that many novels set in offices choose publishing as their industry of choice. In Spark’s tale, we travel back to the postwar book business of London, where the blunt, no-nonsense Mrs Hawkins (favourite phrase for a terrible writer: a “pisseur de copie”) manages to lose not one but two jobs in these, her witty reminiscences from 30 years later.
6. The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe
Jaffe’s excellent novel (shown to be reading material for Mad Men’s Don Draper) charts women’s arrival in the office in 50s New York. It tells the story of three young women, Caroline, April and Gregg, who work in a New York typing pool, balancing their jobs with the different pressures of their lives. The book delves deep – Jaffe interviewed 50 women about the most private parts of their lives for her research – while delivering a lightness that makes it feel more modern than it is. Glorious.
7. There’s No Such Thing As An Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura
This novel – translated from Japanese by Polly Barton – came at a pertinent time. Published in 2020, it is about an unnamed thirtysomething woman who walks into an employment agency and asks for a job that involves minimal thinking. The book took a close look at the workplace and its role in our lives at the exact moment that many had just left it behind and were settling into Zoom calls and elasticated waistbands. Quietly hilarious. Absurd. Absolutely worth a read.
8. The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
An important book which delves into race and class inside the publishing industry. When Nella joins Wagner Books, she is part of a new generation of editors in a predominantly white industry. Then along comes Hazel-May, the “other black girl”, and before we know it the book changes tack and we’re in the sphere of a thriller.
9. Careering by Daisy Buchanan
I’m a huge fan of Buchanan’s writing and would read an instruction manual if that was what she wanted to publish next, but the description of this 2022 novel particularly intrigued me. Examining our relationships with our jobs in the careful detail we often reserve for romance, Buchanan tells the tale of two women at crossroads in their magazine journalism careers. Bursting with empathy and wit, this book will send your heart soaring and crashing.
10. Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
I was lent this while I was working on What Happened on Floor 34?, at a point when I usually seek out books that are removed from what I am writing. I didn’t realise until I opened Clare Chambers’ gargantuan word-of-mouth hit that it was also set in a newspaper office and by then it was too late to put this beautiful book down. I was hooked. Chambers uses the germ of journalist Jean’s story – a woman contacting her with a claim that her daughter was the result of a virgin birth – to form the novel’s own narrative. A beautifully crafted gift of a book.