Her husband quips that it’s too bad she isn’t a qualified therapist because they could use the money. Primarily Lizzie works as a university librarian where she is unqualified and fills the voids of her work days by being the on-site amateur therapist. Eli attends first grade, is a truly delightful little boy, and Lizzie is a fun, responsive, and critically aware and present parent. She also answers email for her former mentor Sylvia’s ( who “used to check in on me sometimes to see if I was still squandering my promise”) doomsday blog, Hell and High Water.

Lizzie left her graduate work to care for her brother, Henry, an addict. Ben is a PhD classicist who makes educational video games. Neither Lizzie nor Ben is working in the field in which they studied. Even though she can’t afford it, Lizzie often hires a car service, where she is most likely the only customer in the age of rideshare competitors she wants owner Jimmy to survive. One neighbor is a drug dealer, and another, Mrs. Lizzie lives with her husband, Ben, and their son, Eli, in a small apartment in an unnamed New York City borough. The doctor says, “You don’t need a dentist, you need a psychiatrist.” She says, “I have a psychiatrist.” The doctor asks her again why she’s there. The book is also interspersed throughout with many amusing and corny jokes.Ī woman walks into a dentist’s office. Weather by Jenny Offill isn’t necessarily a funny book, but its author is very clever and her protagonist, Lizzie Benson, is a complicated mess, which can be amusing when it’s not crazy-making. In these uncertain times, reading something light with an edge of humor is a good idea.

Weather jenny offill review