Only now and then am I tempted to pick up a Chick Lit title. I know there’s originality out there, but it still seems like the genre is populated by countless hordes of twenty-somethings who just lost their publishing jobs and their boyfriends. I picked up The Pajama Game because the heroine and I have something in common – we both work retail. A couple of years ago I started working retail part time to fund what my employer would call a “passion for fashion” and my husband would call a “steady drain on our finances.” Moxie, the heroine in question, works at a chain lingerie store that clearly represents Victoria’s Secret. My interest was piqued, and I was pleased to discover a book that was both well-written and entertaining.

Moxie Brecker is a former middle school science teacher living in Boston. For reasons she couldn’t quite understand, she felt burned out and unable to continue teaching, so she’s taken up the life of a retail slave, peddling bras and following company-dictated procedures from an operations binder. She has little enthusiasm for her current job, but it seems more doable than anything else right now. She has a best friend who works in Neiman Marcus who keeps her sane, as well as other quirky friends and acquaintances who fill up her life.

I hesitate to reveal much of the plot, because the story progresses in an inventive, round-about way, and the journey itself is very interesting. Characters who seem fairly insignificant at first have an impact later in the story. All of the following characters or places are part of Moxie’s world:

• Gerard, the aforementioned Neiman Marcus friend. He’s gay, and has a serious thing for James Spader
• Allan, a mysterious man who flirts with Moxie even as he buys lingerie for another woman
• Sue, a mullet-sporting employee at the Boston aquarium
• The Planned Parenthood clinic near Moxie’s apartment, which comes complete with regulars like “too short pants man,” who yells at all the women entering
• Mary Alice, a co-manager with Moxie, who is way more enthusiastic about the retail industry and lingerie
• Joe, the owner of a joke shop right near Planned Parenthood
• Dr. Luttman, Moxie’s bored and ineffectual shrink, who keeps urging her to go on anti-depressants
• A nail salon run by Vietnamese women who watch the financial news all day
• And (my personal favorite) Steven Tyler, Moxie’s mysterious neighbor who receives packages from all over the world just because people are stupid enough to think he’s the Steven Tyler. He’s described as looking like “a sweet pirate” who would “rape and pillage but tidy up afterwards and make sandwiches for everyone.”

All of these people and locales intersect as Moxie works her monotonous shifts and fights off her unexplainable malaise. At first, it was a little difficult for me to identify with Moxie, despite our shared occupation. The main difference between us is that I actually like my job – and I really don’t think anyone should work retail if they hate it, or if they don’t like what they are selling. After all, what are employee discounts for? However, as the book unwound Moxie started to make more sense to me, and I understood why she was working in a job that didn’t really suit her.

The retail setting is what drew me to the book in the first place, and happily Olson gets most of it right. The ineffectual district manager who complains about shrink, the too-large-to-really-be-helpful operations binder, the sullen and stupid coworker, the managers who don’t really manage but dutifully parrot every line passed down from corporate as if it came from the mouth of Jesus – all these things are in my world too. I also laughed as Moxie and Gerard played “adventures in retail,” each trying to one-up each other with the best story during their lunch breaks, with the loser buying the winner a cookie. I wanted to play too (I know I would have won big with the mother who asked if she could use the fitting room to spank her child). I also found myself nodding my head with sympathy as Moxie dealt with holiday shoppers, determined shop-lifters, and men shopping on Valentine’s Day. Oddly, the only thing not on target is Moxie’s wardrobe. If you know anyone who has worked at Victoria’s Secret, you know that they have to wear mostly black all the time.

But this book is really much more than a string of anecdotes about the mall. Olson has a gift for little details that are both quirky and believable. Moxie’s life is at times strange and funny, but it’s never so out there that it doesn’t seem possible. The humor is dark at times – I couldn’t believe I was laughing at the story of how Gerard got his limp, or at Moxie’s altercation with a demonstrator – but the wry tone suited the tenor of Moxie’s life nicely. I also have to mention a culminating scene with Gerard in Neiman Marcus. It ties several of the storylines together and is as funny as anything I’ve ever read. I literally laughed until tears streamed down my face.

Chick Lit has been around for a few years now, but it’s still in something of a honeymoon period. Lots of publishers are cashing in, and the quality of what’s out there varies pretty widely. Lately, my shelves stocked with books available for review have as much Chick Lit as they do romance. Whether you are a huge fan of the genre or someone who just wants to check it out, I’d encourage you to try The Pajama Game. The quality is a cut above the pack, and I really think you’ll enjoy it.