review: how hard can it be? by allison pearson

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Seven years ago Kate left her high-powered job to stay home with her kids, but now her husband is out of work and spends all his time cycling; it's time for Kate to get a job. As she's about to turn 50, Kate decides it'll be easier to get a job if she reinvents herself as a 42 year old. Although she does get the job, Kate realizes the lie is hard to keep up—she must change the ages of her kids and her résumé could give her away with a reference to taking O levels (Kate is British). Allison Pearson tries very hard to make How Hard Can It Be? funny, but falls flat. The running joke of "Roy" as Kate's assistant for her perimenopause-addled brain grows old while the so-called disasters are either ridiculous or should've been easy to solve. The writing is choppy with little sense of any character other than Kate which makes it hard to rationalize some of her decisions.
1/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, St. Martin's Press.