The Unprofessionals: A Novel [Hardcover]

Julie Hecht (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2003

There is no American writer alive who is funnier, more inquisitive, or more surprising than Julie Hecht. The Unprofessionals, her first novel, whose nameless narrator also told the stories in the author’s bestselling collection, Do the Windows Open?, is a mordant triumph. It follows the friendship between the narrator—a photographer in her late forties—and a young man whom she has known since his childhood and who has always shared the narrator’s dismay about the way Americans live now: our discount chain stores, our incomprehensible architecture, our preoccupation with pets, our lack of manners. As the narrator takes us through the various stages of this friendship, she also tells the story of the young man’s incongruous predicament on his path to heroin addiction and the absurdities of his attempted recovery. The Unprofessionals is in part a masterpiece of comic despair, in part an illumination of the customs and mores of a new and bewildering century, in part a hilarious and sad story of two outsiders who see the world with painful clarity—and, as a whole, a novel of unexampled originality.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At once provocative and insular, this debut novel invites readers back inside the head of the protagonist of Hecht's cultishly popular short story collection Do the Windows Open? chronicling one of the strangest friendships in literary history. The unnamed narrator is 49, a reclusive, hypersensitive photographer; her best friend is a boy of 21. They have known each other for 10 years, since the photographer shot a story featuring the boy's renowned surgeon father. Though they meet occasionally, their friendship is primarily conducted over the telephone, in rambling conversations covering everything from the boy's sartorial preferences ("neatly pressed khakis and well-ironed shirts") to the relative virtues of different prescription drugs ("They gave me clonidine for a while. You should try it") to the maddening behavior of unprofessional professionals (therapists, leg waxers). When the narrator learns that her friend is a heroin addict, she is shocked and saddened that this could happen to someone she knows so well. She begins to reconsider the past: "I imagined him buying drugs from these guys, or getting a tip on where to get some nearby. I knew it and I didn't know it at the same time." As she tries to stand by the boy through rehabilitation and relapse, she berates herself for not seeing the big picture in time to prevent his agonizing downfall. With her studiedly offhand, acute social observations, Hecht captures the particular world-weariness of the new millennium (a not-always-appealing mix of vulnerability, petulance and narcissism), but it is her rendition of friendship in its most essential, pared-down state that gives this novel its undeniable power.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The New Yorker

Hecht's first novel revisits the batty, obsessive narrator of her short-story collection "Do the Windows Open?," a photographer who continuously criticizes everyone who doesn't share her preoccupation with organic vegetables, vitamins, and plain white cotton shirts. Now the narrator is more self-aware, and she occasionally even shows sympathy for others. The story itself charts the course of her friendship, conducted in endless late-night phone calls, with a kindred spirit of sorts, a young man whom she has known since he was a child, and whose fastidious revulsion with the world around him equals her own. His witty tirades—he loathes the tastes of his own generation and longs for the seemlier style of the nineteen-fifties—mask a dark self-destructiveness that makes the narrator's eccentricities look trivial.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Random House; First edition. edition (September 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400061741
• ISBN-13: 978-1400061747
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,331,474 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Struggles, June 9, 2004

By 

dorkys (United states of cheese) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Unprofessionals: A Novel (Hardcover)

I have to admit, this book grabs you. You're thrown into this 49 year olds battles with herself and those around her. The plot development was slow, but only being 14 myself, it was a satisfying read. Her struggles are expressed through a series of events throughout her relationship with this "boy" which tests her sanity as she matures into middle age.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Second Act, December 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Unprofessionals: A Novel (Hardcover)

The Unprofessionals is a perfect second act to Hecht's collection of short stories, "Do the Windows Open?" She paints her characters with a very fine brush and her language is equally immaculate: there is never a word out of place or a vulgar shortcut when it comes to portraying emotion. Hecht is a consummate professional when it comes to writing. Anyone who winces when they read something badly written should treat themselves to both books.

I look forward to re-reading this novel and reading what ever will come next.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Julie Hecht is brilliant., December 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Unprofessionals: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is a hilarious, harrowing, immensely moving novel from an essential writer. I highly recommend it.