Shopgirls: A Vibrant Novel of Self-Discovery, Friendship, and the Exuberant Fashion Scene of 1980s San Francisco―Perfect for Summer Reading

While I have loved two of Jessica Anya Blau’s earlier novels, her latest effort, Shopgirls, is simply a mess with a protagonist too naive to be believed.

It’s San Francisco in 1985, and19-year-old Zippy is working at the iconic I. Magnin store. She has no college education, no experience with boys or men, and lives with a lawyer, Raquel, who is world-wise in all the ways Zippy is not. Their friendship, built on Zippy answering an ad for a roommate, is just one of the ridiculous plot points in this novel. As Zippy becomes one of the strongest sales clerks at the store, she slowly learns what it is to feel torn between the job you love and family duties when her mother’s husband, Howard, is hurt in an accident. While she navigates this, she is also contacted out of the blue by her birth father, a one-night stand her mother barely remembers.

Sound far-fetched? I haven’t even mentioned the paper dolls she plays with at work.

The descriptions of the clothing in the store save this from being a complete waste of time, but just barely.