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walkitoutI know, I know — the expectation has to be there that this is another screen against p-books. And that may yet happen! But right at the moment, it is about reading 3 p-books by JAK. Two were bound as one — _Worth the Risk_ contains _The Challoner Bride_ and _Wizard_. The other was _Lady’s Choice_. This interrupted my reading of an e-copy of _The Tragedy of Heterosexuality_ by Jane Ward, which I think has just given me a delightful new lens to think about reading JAK.
_Wizard_, in particular, has a bunch of early versions of things that recur over and over and over again throughout JAK’s books (notably, martial arts mastery, but also, the daughter of academics who strikes out on her own / is too colorful to fit in in academia but goes home and brings with her new skills that serve her well in that older context, discovering the previous love interest in flagrante delicto), but it has something I have _never_ seen in this particular form in another JAK novel and I sort of wish I had! The heroine of _Wizard_ is currently working in a secretarial pool, in a very sexist technology company in Dallas. The hero is a mathematician who has shown up to consult on a mathematical model for the company. One assumes — altho I am not sure this is explicitly stated — that the company is a petrochemical processing company of some sort. The heroine has a friend in the secretarial pool who is qualified for a much higher position in the company, but is stymied in her efforts to get such a position due to rampant sexism. The heroine is biding her time; she intends to open a boutique shop that sells the dresses and other clothing items she designs. At a crucial moment in the story, both women are super angry at the company (friend) and the hero (heroine). The friend hatches a plan to steal trade secrets from the company and sell them to a competitor in exchange for a position at that company. _That_ element actually shows up in later JAK novels (several times, actually), but as something that is actually accomplished, usually but not always by a man — right down to the involvement of a secretarial / administrative assistant who is typing up sensitive information.
But the trajectory of this part of the story is super different! First, heroine tells hero, and he takes further advantage of her as a result. Second, the friend calms down. Third — and this is the part I absolutely love — the heroine concocts an alternative form of revenge. She gets the friend a better job at another company, but without the selling trade secret element. And the _mechanism_ the heroine uses is fantastic! She identifies companies that _actually have a track record of hiring women at high levels in management_ (as part of her preparation for opening a boutique, she’s been reading tons of business magazines and business profiles). The friend picks the one she wants to apply at. The heroine puts together a resume that _takes credit for her friend_ for all kinds of stuff the company has done (and which the friend has actually done most of the work that she is claiming, but for which she has never received credit). Then the heroine writes a bunch of favorable letters about her friend, slips them into stacks of to-be-signed letters to various executives, re-extracts them after (because she’s friendly with their assistants and can get access to their stacks of stuff in progress), mails them out to the target company, and then creates the appearance within that company (letter to executive from exec at the company heroine / friend work at to target company) that the target company is trying to recruit friend, and they better not poach her!!! Finally, a set of phone calls, some pro forma interviews, and friend has the new job and current company belatedly realizes what they have lost.
This is sooooooo awesome! I love it!
I’m still reading _The Tragedy of Heterosexuality_ (well, I was until the package of JAK books arrived). There was a confusing and terrifying sentence about someone whose husband would blow his nose in the shower and clog the drain with the mucuous. I asked my FB friends about it, and there are people who Can Confirm. *shudder*
_Wizard_, in particular, has a bunch of early versions of things that recur over and over and over again throughout JAK’s books (notably, martial arts mastery, but also, the daughter of academics who strikes out on her own / is too colorful to fit in in academia but goes home and brings with her new skills that serve her well in that older context, discovering the previous love interest in flagrante delicto), but it has something I have _never_ seen in this particular form in another JAK novel and I sort of wish I had! The heroine of _Wizard_ is currently working in a secretarial pool, in a very sexist technology company in Dallas. The hero is a mathematician who has shown up to consult on a mathematical model for the company. One assumes — altho I am not sure this is explicitly stated — that the company is a petrochemical processing company of some sort. The heroine has a friend in the secretarial pool who is qualified for a much higher position in the company, but is stymied in her efforts to get such a position due to rampant sexism. The heroine is biding her time; she intends to open a boutique shop that sells the dresses and other clothing items she designs. At a crucial moment in the story, both women are super angry at the company (friend) and the hero (heroine). The friend hatches a plan to steal trade secrets from the company and sell them to a competitor in exchange for a position at that company. _That_ element actually shows up in later JAK novels (several times, actually), but as something that is actually accomplished, usually but not always by a man — right down to the involvement of a secretarial / administrative assistant who is typing up sensitive information.
But the trajectory of this part of the story is super different! First, heroine tells hero, and he takes further advantage of her as a result. Second, the friend calms down. Third — and this is the part I absolutely love — the heroine concocts an alternative form of revenge. She gets the friend a better job at another company, but without the selling trade secret element. And the _mechanism_ the heroine uses is fantastic! She identifies companies that _actually have a track record of hiring women at high levels in management_ (as part of her preparation for opening a boutique, she’s been reading tons of business magazines and business profiles). The friend picks the one she wants to apply at. The heroine puts together a resume that _takes credit for her friend_ for all kinds of stuff the company has done (and which the friend has actually done most of the work that she is claiming, but for which she has never received credit). Then the heroine writes a bunch of favorable letters about her friend, slips them into stacks of to-be-signed letters to various executives, re-extracts them after (because she’s friendly with their assistants and can get access to their stacks of stuff in progress), mails them out to the target company, and then creates the appearance within that company (letter to executive from exec at the company heroine / friend work at to target company) that the target company is trying to recruit friend, and they better not poach her!!! Finally, a set of phone calls, some pro forma interviews, and friend has the new job and current company belatedly realizes what they have lost.
This is sooooooo awesome! I love it!
I’m still reading _The Tragedy of Heterosexuality_ (well, I was until the package of JAK books arrived). There was a confusing and terrifying sentence about someone whose husband would blow his nose in the shower and clog the drain with the mucuous. I asked my FB friends about it, and there are people who Can Confirm. *shudder*