Shopgirl is a fitting title for this book. One of the main characters is Mirabelle, a twenty-something wallflower who spends a large part of her days behind the glove counter at Neiman’s. She is a girl who works in a shop.
The book really captures the boredom that surrounds that type of retail job. She sells things that no one wants to buy. She spends her days arranging the gloves, waiting for customers that rarely appear, and daydreaming until it is time for her to go home. The next day is the same, and so is the next one. You can feel time slow down to a crawl within the walls of Neiman’s as Mirabelle is working her shift.