Jen Lancaster had the perfect man, the perfect job, the perfect life and there was no reason to think it wouldn’t last. Or maybe there was, but Jen Lancaster was too busy being manicured, pedicured, and generally adored to notice. Fired from a Vice President sales job two weeks after September 11, she is forced to cope with the indignity of unemployment lines and the loss of her quarter million dollar salary, jewels and designer purses. Bitter? Absolutely. We follow Jen as she searches for jobs to the point of harassing headhunters and media figures. Her application letters are written with such wit and hilarity you wonder how she wasn’t hired. We are at her marriage in Vegas; the adoption of two dogs; her search for a new, less expensive apartment; and weight gain. We journey with her through her initial high point of confident, well-paid employment, through the lows of drinking cask wine and the reality of possible eviction, and back to the relative high solvency and discovery of a new career. Jen slowly changes from a self-absorbed, self-involved, selfish yuppie to a frugal, more self-aware and self-assured person.

Her stylish road map to ruin and back will resonate with those who wish they were rich and also those who sometimes wish that the rich could become poor. Filled with caustic wit and unusual insight, BITTER IS THE NEW BLACK is a rollicking read as speedy and unpredictable as the trajectory of a burst balloon.