What do you think?
Rate this book
Making It
From the award-winning author who tweets @BettyDraper comes a debut eBook original about contemporary advertising world shenanigans as experienced by a high-powered, bread-winning mom in the vein of Allison Pearson’s I Don’t Know How She Does It.Successful, feisty, and approaching a Certain Age, Audrey is afraid of becoming obsolete in the ever-changing advertising business. She has worked for the Madison Avenue firm Tadd Collins for nearly twenty years. When the firm acquires a smaller company, she is promoted and partnered with Kabal Prakash, an ambitious, attractive hotshot from London. Meanwhile, frustration mounts at home as she unsuccessfully tries to help her teenage son, Paley, get into her old alma mater. As she flirts with a relationship with her new boss Kabal, her irritation with her husband grows. Should Audrey give in to her new boss and his youthful corporate ambition? Can she cut it in a quickly changing industry? Or does she belong with her gray-ponytailed husband, whose only ambition is to perfect his recipe for mead? Making It is the first ebook to take literary fiction readers out of the box by offering opportunities to further explore characters in a digitally enhanced epilogue.
- GenresNew York
300 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 4, 2013
12 people are currently reading
137 people want to read
About the author
Helen Klein Ross
6 books383 followersHelen's third novel The Latecomers will be published by Little, Brown on November 6, 2018. Told in interweaving timelines, this story spans an American century, bringing steam engines, top hats and suffragettes into brilliant collision with cell phones, 9/11 and ancestry apps.
Helen's poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, literary journals and in anthologies, including SHORT, published in 2014 by Persea Books. Her first novel, Making It: A Novel of Madison Avenue, published in 2013 by Gallery/Simon and Schuster, is an e-book featuring the first digital epilogue. Her bestselling novel What Was Mine, published in 2016, tells the tale of a woman who kidnaps a baby from a shopping cart and gets away with it until the baby turns 21.
Helen is also the creator and editor of a poetry anthology, The Traveler's Vade Mecum, from Red Hen Press. Over 80 poets-- including Frank Bidart, David Lehman and Billy Collins-- wrote to telegram titles from an 1853 compendium that provides a glimpse into habits and social aspects of nineteenth-century America.
Helen lives in New York City and Lakeville, Connecticut where she is on the board of a haven for book lovers: Scoville Memorial Library.
Helen's poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, literary journals and in anthologies, including SHORT, published in 2014 by Persea Books. Her first novel, Making It: A Novel of Madison Avenue, published in 2013 by Gallery/Simon and Schuster, is an e-book featuring the first digital epilogue. Her bestselling novel What Was Mine, published in 2016, tells the tale of a woman who kidnaps a baby from a shopping cart and gets away with it until the baby turns 21.
Helen is also the creator and editor of a poetry anthology, The Traveler's Vade Mecum, from Red Hen Press. Over 80 poets-- including Frank Bidart, David Lehman and Billy Collins-- wrote to telegram titles from an 1853 compendium that provides a glimpse into habits and social aspects of nineteenth-century America.
Helen lives in New York City and Lakeville, Connecticut where she is on the board of a haven for book lovers: Scoville Memorial Library.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 25, 2013
Fantastic fun quick read, especially enjoyed that it's a "romance" for women over 40! Also a nice insider look at what it's like to work in a modern ad agency — just enough information to make me glad I live in a small town and have an uncomplicated job. Beautifully written, funny, lively, fast-paced and a great surprise at the end. NOTE: This is an ebook; I wasn't able to read it electronically, but I got a printed copy and whizzed through it. Apparently there are fun links at the end of the ebook, though.
February 5, 2015
Making It
Ross, Helen Klein *
This is a great book as an intro to the world of advertising and life of New York City. I adore that the author described why trends or ideals were popular in New York. She did not expect the average reader to know everything about fashion, and life in New York. Her story starts on a devastating day, when middle aged Audrey, has found her world crashing down. She has unexpectedly been fired, without warning, and even though she has deep connections in the company she has no explanation. As she slowly takes the weekend to gain her courage to tell her family that she would be unable to pay for the kitchen remodel, her son’s college she is heartbroken. She is lost confused and isolated, she attempts to hide her predicament from her husband to come home and find that it was all an accident. She has not lost her job, but this is the first of many trials to come in the next year. A merger with another company has changed her world. The no does policies, the loud music everything seems to be totally against her twenty years of experience. She tries to adapt, changing everything about herself, and this way is the reasoning why the writer begins to explain many new concepts with great flair, and genital explanation.
Ross, Helen Klein *
This is a great book as an intro to the world of advertising and life of New York City. I adore that the author described why trends or ideals were popular in New York. She did not expect the average reader to know everything about fashion, and life in New York. Her story starts on a devastating day, when middle aged Audrey, has found her world crashing down. She has unexpectedly been fired, without warning, and even though she has deep connections in the company she has no explanation. As she slowly takes the weekend to gain her courage to tell her family that she would be unable to pay for the kitchen remodel, her son’s college she is heartbroken. She is lost confused and isolated, she attempts to hide her predicament from her husband to come home and find that it was all an accident. She has not lost her job, but this is the first of many trials to come in the next year. A merger with another company has changed her world. The no does policies, the loud music everything seems to be totally against her twenty years of experience. She tries to adapt, changing everything about herself, and this way is the reasoning why the writer begins to explain many new concepts with great flair, and genital explanation.
July 15, 2014
For anybody who is or was in advertising/media at the turn of the century, you'll recognize a LOT of the landscape in this coming-of-middle age story about a woman who finds herself working for a man ten years younger and how does this affect her work, her marriage, her motherhood? It’s sort of like Mad Men thirty years later, from the point of view of an older, wiser, married Peggy Olson.
It also takes you out of the box of an e- book with a digitally enhanced epilogue that lets you jump to content "created by" each character. I hope readers have as much fun reading it as I had writing it!
It also takes you out of the box of an e- book with a digitally enhanced epilogue that lets you jump to content "created by" each character. I hope readers have as much fun reading it as I had writing it!
March 21, 2013
A beautiful story that made me sad.
Very well written, this novel follows the professional and sentimental adventures of a woman approaching fifty.
Working in advertising, Audrey is a woman of experience in a constantly evolving environment. An informatic error related is the start of a deep questioning.
She finds herself out of job one weekend and must face her fears. Her husband is financially dependent of her salary while he has assumed the role of the housewives. Her son is applying to college so, Audrey has to keep bringing money if she wants to pay him the best education. Finaly, she has to struggle with the difficulty of finding a job as a creative at 45 in a world that sees only through the youth.
Then she returns to her duties a little shaken by the experience. Adds to her insights, she has to deal with the merging her agency with another entity younger and more competitive. Former colleagues get fired and she must adapt to new working methods if she wants to stay in the game. Working with a charming boss, ten years his junior, awakes her desire and raises questions about her marriage.
A common anecdote, you hear about regularly. However, this banality and normality is what makes this story a very human and very real one. It is generally more difficult to create an interesting tale by pointing the normalcy of the scene. Here, the author has managed it with accurately and empowered to build it. The reader witnesses a slice of life where the questions raised by the heroine reflects perfectly the society.
The difficulty of being active at more than 45 when the vision of seniors is proposed as cumbersome and outdated. A new generation arrogant, disrespectful and obsessed with its belly bouton, highly educated, but not necessarily cleverly cultivated. The sacrifice of women pursuing careers and guilt that can inhabit them from not being better mothers. The need to feel desired at any age.
In short, if my reading was quick and pleasant, I ended slightly depressed. This dive into a reality, aptly portrayed, was probably too close to the truth ...
Great novel.
Lucie
http://newbooksonmyselves.blogspot.fr...
Very well written, this novel follows the professional and sentimental adventures of a woman approaching fifty.
Working in advertising, Audrey is a woman of experience in a constantly evolving environment. An informatic error related is the start of a deep questioning.
She finds herself out of job one weekend and must face her fears. Her husband is financially dependent of her salary while he has assumed the role of the housewives. Her son is applying to college so, Audrey has to keep bringing money if she wants to pay him the best education. Finaly, she has to struggle with the difficulty of finding a job as a creative at 45 in a world that sees only through the youth.
Then she returns to her duties a little shaken by the experience. Adds to her insights, she has to deal with the merging her agency with another entity younger and more competitive. Former colleagues get fired and she must adapt to new working methods if she wants to stay in the game. Working with a charming boss, ten years his junior, awakes her desire and raises questions about her marriage.
A common anecdote, you hear about regularly. However, this banality and normality is what makes this story a very human and very real one. It is generally more difficult to create an interesting tale by pointing the normalcy of the scene. Here, the author has managed it with accurately and empowered to build it. The reader witnesses a slice of life where the questions raised by the heroine reflects perfectly the society.
The difficulty of being active at more than 45 when the vision of seniors is proposed as cumbersome and outdated. A new generation arrogant, disrespectful and obsessed with its belly bouton, highly educated, but not necessarily cleverly cultivated. The sacrifice of women pursuing careers and guilt that can inhabit them from not being better mothers. The need to feel desired at any age.
In short, if my reading was quick and pleasant, I ended slightly depressed. This dive into a reality, aptly portrayed, was probably too close to the truth ...
Great novel.
Lucie
http://newbooksonmyselves.blogspot.fr...
March 12, 2013
This was a glimpse into a life so much diferent from mine, yet surprisingly similar. The author did a wonderful job of engaging the reader psychologically and emotionally. I found myself identifying with the main character, Audrey, then dispairing her choices, disliking her, only to understand and accept her as she forgave herself for her own flaws.
I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys beautiful writing and good character development that weaves a story that keeps you turning the page.
I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys beautiful writing and good character development that weaves a story that keeps you turning the page.
October 18, 2016
I really enjoyed this book. The main character's struggles with being a working mother of a "certain age" were very relatable. The author does a great job of portraying the current advertising industry and her main character is a modern Peggy Olson of sorts. I am looking forward to this author's next book. Highly recommend!
January 22, 2020
I bet I would have had a totally different take on this book had I read it when I first heard about it and when I was earlier on in my own advertising career. This book is set so firmly in a time and a place it was like being in a time machine. Ahhh, New York City.
February 17, 2018
Ugh, one more book about rich people problems. NYC literati, nobody cares.
July 26, 2016
I could have read this in a day if I didn't have other things to do. I quickly got into this and really liked Audrey and appreciated her constant struggle to "keep up". She's mid 40's and adapting to a new, young culture in the ad world. A fast paced plot with flawed and interesting characters. Believable sub-plots of college, marriage, stay-at-home vs. career. Highly recommend.
NOTE: Curiously, for some reason this book doesn't readily come up on Amazon or Goodreads when searching by Title. I have to put in the Author. Unfortunate, because it gets lost unless you know specifically who you're looking for.
EDIT: Now I can search by Title and it comes up!
NOTE: Curiously, for some reason this book doesn't readily come up on Amazon or Goodreads when searching by Title. I have to put in the Author. Unfortunate, because it gets lost unless you know specifically who you're looking for.
EDIT: Now I can search by Title and it comes up!
May 21, 2016
Not as good as some other similar books about the creative world. The main character just wasn't very interesting.
August 9, 2016
A complete waste of time. Pass on this one. I would give it negative stars if I could.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews