It’s a battle of the generations! The Knockoff explores fashions and generational changes.
Long-term editor at Glossy, Imogen Tate, comes back to her career world changed by young Eve who wants to turn the beloved magazine into an app. So what’s a middle-aged woman to do against this whippersnapper who wants to change everything?
I struggled with this The Knockoff. I really did. The synopsis caught my attention and I was intrigued (obviously). I love the idea of the cunning and very cut-throat world of fashion that sits just behind the beautiful facade. It reminds me of the politics and power plays that I often find in performing. While I hate it in real life, it creates a great story.
The beginning was great. Imogen is a fun narrator who’s had her problems and has worked hard. She’s well rounded and seems like someone most of us would like. She’s made a career based on the fact that she is kind to everyone. I would want to work for Imogen.
I hope that I could take some of Imogen’s manager traits into my future.
Unfortunately, I got frustrated. The first young person introduced, and for some time, the only person under the age of 40 is crazy and exactly what most people think of when they say the word “millennial.” She’s bossy, strict, overworks her staff and herself, is only interested on curating her life to make others jealous, and is willing to step on anyone to get where she wants. She’s entitled, rude, and thinks she knows better than everyone else. It’s frustrating and Imogen is constantly positioned as the person who is treated unfairly for absolutely no reason. This is despite the fact that Imogen, while having great management traits, also has kept herself in the 1980s in terms of technology.
It was at this point that The Knockoff almost got put in my very small pile of books I’ll never finish.
I live this life. In my work life, I am constantly surrounded by people who want to work but refuse to use the tools used today. They want to do things the way it would have been done in the 1950s, but also want us to do everything just as fast and just as well as would have taken a full staff to do.
I work every day with people who would rather I print out their emails to them, just like Imogen Tate.
This infuriated me.
But I continued reading on. Characters who were introduced slightly later were given better storylines. There were now multiple characters in each age group, giving a better representation of what each generation is like. It made me pause and re-think about my frustration with my inability to teach one of my workers to use the computer. (It made me think, not change my opinions. Imogen proves that learning how to update and navigate a new world means being taught and being willing to learn.)
While I was frustrated and struggled with certain parts of this book, I also appreciated the story. We all know someone like Imogen. We all know someone like her boss who likes to grab secretary’s butts. We all know someone like Eve who we love to hate.
So if you’re a 20-some-year-old masochist like me, who wants to read a story about changing times and how ultimately, no matter the age, people all still want the same thing this might be the book for you. It may challenge your beliefs.
If you’re a middle-aged career woman who wants to complain about how horrible the younger generations are, this might also be a book for you to challenge your beliefs.
Ultimately, we’re reminded that no matter the generation, and no matter the career, there are all sorts of people in this world who will drive us crazy or restore our faith in humanity.
***
The Knockoff
By: Lucy Sykes & Jo Piazza
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Publication: 2016
ISBN: 110872209
Publisher: Anchor
Price: $8.99 ebook/$11.23 paperback