The Opposite of Success
Eleanor Elliott Thomas
All Lorrie wants is to get promoted, accept her body and end global warming. By Friday. Is that really too much to ask?
Council employee Lorrie Hope has a great partner, two adorable kids and absolutely no idea what to do with her life. This Friday, she’s hoping for change: it’s launch day for her big work project, and she’s applied for a promotion she’s not entirely sure she wants. Meanwhile, her best friend, Alex, is stuck in a mess involving Lorrie’s rakish ex, Ruben—or, more accurately, his wife. Oh, and Ruben’s boss happens to be the mining magnate Sebastian Glup, who is sponsoring Lorrie’s project…
As the day spirals from bad to worse to frankly unhinged, Lorrie and Alex must reconsider what they can expect from life, love and middle management. The Opposite of Success is a riotously funny debut novel about work, motherhood, friendship—and the meaning of failure itself.
INTERVIEWS and REVIEWS
First Time podcast (0:48:00)
Readings
andThe Opposite of Success
‘The Opposite of Success is full of the riches of life: joy, hilarity, intelligence, stupidity and bad behaviour. I loved it.’
‘Like a brilliant conversation, The Opposite of Success is witty, honest and full of natural charisma.’
‘A funny and warm novel about motherhood and friendship.’
‘Raucously funny and gloriously, painfully real. Think Fleabag as an Australian mum. It’s utterly endearing—I never wanted it to end!’
‘From motherhood and marital affairs to female friendships and fighting climate change, this book captures the messiness and absurdness of life to illustrate that failing is a necessary part of it. The Opposite of Success sits between the popular ‘sad girl’ books and commercial women’s fiction and has elements of Monica Heisey’s Really Good, Actually, Claire Christian’s It’s Been A Pleasure, Noni Blake and Liane Moriarty’s novels.’
‘Enjoyable and fun…Perfectly encapsulates the anxieties of modern motherhood…Definitely a page turner.’
‘I was on page two of Eleanor Elliott Thomas’s debut novel The Opposite of Success when I laughed out loud for the first time. By page five, I was reading paragraphs aloud to my partner. I found this story about motherhood, love, friendship, and middle-management desperately relatable, and by the end of the first chapter I had a new favourite Australian author…The Opposite of Success is a firecracker of a book that crackles with quick-fire dialogue, gorgeously rendered details, and is liberally peppered throughout with precise and enjoyably unexpected similes.’
‘An intelligent, funny and warm debut.’
‘An excellent romp, funny, chaotic and acutely observant.’
‘Genuinely hilarious. I highly, highly recommend The Opposite of Success.’
