Workhorse by Caroline Palmer
At the turn of the millennium, editorial assistant Clodagh “Clo” Harmon wants nothing more than to rise through the ranks at the world’s most prestigious fashion magazine. There’s just one problem: She doesn’t have the right pedigree. Instead, Clo is a “workhorse” surrounded by beautiful, wealthy, impossibly well-connected “show horses” who get ahead without effort, including her beguiling cubicle-mate, Davis Lawrence, the daughter of a beloved but fading Broadway actress. Harry Wood, Davis’s boarding school classmate and a reporter with visions of his own media empire, might be Clo’s ally in gaming the system—or he might be the only thing standing between Clo and her rightful place at the top.
In a career punctuated by moments of high absurdity, sudden windfalls, and devastating reversals of fortune, Clo wades across boundaries, taking ever greater and more dangerous risks to become the important person she wants to be within the confines of a world where female ambition remains cloaked. But who really is Clo underneath all the borrowed designer clothes and studied manners—and who are we if we share her desires?
Hilariously observant and insightful, Workhorse is a brilliant page-turner about what it means to be in thrall to wealth, beauty, and influence, and the outrageous sacrifices women must make for the sake of success.
Review: A huge thank you to Goodreads and Flatiron books for an ARC won through Goodreads giveaways!
Small-town Clodagh "Clo" Harmon is thrilled to have grasped a bottom rung of an entry level job at a prestigious fashion magazine in New York City in late 2001. Desperate to rise through the ranks, she clearly realizes she does not have the pedigree or wealth required to ascend. In short, she is a workhorse, not a show horse around the office. She is enamored and deeply envious of her officemate Davis, who comes from a privileged background and for whom everything seems to come with ease. As time passes, Clo becomes increasingly willing to do whatever it takes to be accepted and perceived as one of the elites both within and outside of the office.
This novel was deeply immersive in the world of high fashion magazine life in the early 2000s. It is abundantly evident that the author has lived experience with this world and all the little details gave it such an authentic taste of the world in which Clo is living. She is living on a meager salary that barely covers her rent while enjoying under the counter luxury perks like borrowing designer clothes from the office, expensing many of her costs, and being invited to many spectacular events. In opening this book, you are transported to the world of a well-established institution that plays by unwritten but very defined rules but yet is threatened by emerging forces like the internet.
The heart of this novel is a tale of Clo's envy and ambition to claw her way to the top, no matter the cost. She has such a toxic relationship with Davis who she earnestly desires to be, but also passionately resents, all while ignoring all the haunting red flags about the dark side to Davis's life. Clo becomes increasingly dislikable as the novel goes on. Little white lies and small transgressions snowball into immense wrongs. Despite it all, Clo rarely seems to feel much guilt or shame for her increasingly poor choices.
I was particularly intrigued by Clo's absolutely overwhelmingly self-consciousness, particularly early on the novel, when she is fully aware of just how little she blends in with her surroundings. She is horrified by what she feels is the sheer enormity of her body compared to the miniscule physical bodies around her. She is constantly trying to minimize the size of her breasts and refers to her body at various points as a "redwood tree" (30) and later a "clumsy giraffe" (111). She is horrified by not innately knowing the way things are done like she would be had she been raised in this rarified environment. For instance, at one point she is invited to stay in Southampton for the weekend and shows up with her roller suitcase only to be horrified to find everyone else has packed a tote bag from L.L.Bean: "I silently despair that, despite great strides in my education, there are still so many little things I don't quite grasp" (171). Ironically, as the novel goes on, this self-conscious slowly fades away to a shocking lack of consciousness, where Clo seems to not self-reflect on any of her actions or the way she comes across to others, beyond being gratified that she now looks the part.
This is a thick novel that, at over 500 pages, will be daunting to some. Yet, I devoured it. It's mix of skillful, immersive writing and compelling plot left me feeling like it was far shorter than its heft suggests. This has many of the elements of The Devil Wears Prada but make it literary fiction with a dangerously unethical female lead and without a sweet love story or friend group.
Stars: 5
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