The irony of reading this book on Labor Day only struck me after I finished it.

Sebastian probably had every right to be a little off-kilter. His dad was an abusive alcoholic who made him sleep under the kitchen table at 32 years old, his mom died in a questionable manner when he was a teenager, and he was the underachiever of the year (possibly the decade). I didn't like him, but I had to admire the fact that he was doing a job that was nowhere near his dream job for so long. I loved the fact that he finally figured out where he belonged and how he could challenge the status quo of working in some small way.

He definitely was an underdog, but I'm glad he finally realized that everyone deserves a living wage and started working toward that. Preaching to the choir on this one! ( )

The irony of reading this book on Labor Day only struck me after I finished it.

Sebastian probably had every right to be a little off-kilter. His dad was an abusive alcoholic who made him sleep under the kitchen table at 32 years old, his mom died in a questionable manner when he was a teenager, and he was the underachiever of the year (possibly the decade). I didn't like him, but I had to admire the fact that he was doing a job that was nowhere near his dream job for so long. I loved the fact that he finally figured out where he belonged and how he could challenge the status quo of working in some small way.

He definitely was an underdog, but I'm glad he finally realized that everyone deserves a living wage and started working toward that. Preaching to the choir on this one! ( )

Lazy and overweight. 30+ and still inexperienced, living with their parents. Your average impression of a Millennials will get a power boost by reading David Gregory's Sebastian Needs A Real Job. Sebastian Boyne, 32 and despite a master's degree still a waiter and to-go servant at Kangaroo Burgers, until he's fired. He's the perfect anti hero who struggles his way to get a real job, but differently than you and I would expect.

Living with his father Eldon, enforced to sleep under a table, and not acting on any signal to grow up. Broke, without a real relationship, and only one friend Andy, Sebastian's bluffs his way through various employers, selling strategies, and job applications. Since real Millennials, often 5-10 years younger, did find a place to work and earn money, Sebastian is the typical dropout. Satire lovers will have a good time reading Gregory's fiction. Raw, explicit, and with lots of slang both Corporate America, mega churches preaching prosperity, as well as superficial friendships are targeted. It took the author 2 years to write, but it must have been fun time too :) ( )

"His objective statement at the top of the resume: "the opportunity to use at least 25% of my brain", 10 July 2016

This review is from: Sebastian Needs A Real Job (Kindle Edition)
(sent free as a file in exchange for review)

As I couldn't work out how to transfer this on to my Kindle (and thus had to read it at my desk and kept accidentally losing page) I only managed the first 50% of this book. But it was not because I lost interest in the story - and I would like to know the end!

Our 'hero', Sebastian Boyne, is an overweight 32 year old with a Masters degree - yet the story opens with him being fired from the only paid job he's ever managed to get - as a waiter. Sebastian reminisces how "the months turned into years. At year three the interviews stopped happening... When ten years happened a real job became a fantasy he would talk about on drunken nights with Andy. It was like Australians talking about snow."
But with an increasingly irate father and a girlfriend who is going to dump him if he doesn't get a job within the month, Sebastian must try to find gainful employment...

There were one or two quite funny moments. I liked Sebastian's way of stopping his father attacking him:
"Don't! I don't have any health insurance!" "Well, you're lucky I don't know how much it would cost to fix an arm out of pocket."
And as Sebastian finds himself working for a vastly younger boss ("a pubescent Genghis Khan"), we feel for his shame and anger.

Highlighting the modern problem of over-qualified youngsters being forced into Mcjobs, I found this a fairly interesting read - and I do hope Sebastian got a job!