Joanne McNeila's debut novel is an idea-driven portrait of a woman
cornered by capitalism who lands her dream job.
For years, Teresa has meandered from one job to the next, settling into long
stretches of time, unable to move ahead in any field or career, the dreaded
move from one gig to another starting to feel unbearable. When a recruiter
connects her with a contract position at AllOver, it appears to check all her
prerequisites for a a€oegooda€ job. Ita's a fintech corporation with progressive
hiring policies and a social justice-minded mission statement. Their new
service for premium members: a functional fleet of driverless cars. The future
of transportation. As her new-hire orientation reveals, the distance between
AllOvera's claims and its actions is wide, but the lure of financial stability and a
flexible schedule is enough to keep Teresa driving forward.
Joanne McNeil, who often reports on how the human experience intersects
with tech, brings all of her compassion and criticism about labor and
technology to Wrong Way . In this thought-provoking, fresh, and humane
novel, she captures the existential perils imposed by a nonstop, full-service
gig economy, and exposes the toll of corporate calculations on the human
spirit.
Joanne McNeil was the inaugural winner of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art
Foundationa's Arts Writing Award for an emerging writer. She has been a
resident at Eyebeam, a Logan Nonfiction Program fellow, and an instructor at
the School for Poetic Computation.
Joanne is the author of Lurking: How a Person Became a User
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
On Sale: Nov 14/23
5 x 7.5 • 288 pages
9780374610661 • $24.00 • pb
Fiction / General