Ester is a recent college grad (theatre) who is slacking her way through the summer back at her parent's house. She hangs out with other slackers and then gets a nanny job. She's on anti-depressents and it's revealed that she had a break-down or serious burn-out during her senior year of college. The circumstances of this are interesting, but they aren't examined or given a satisfying storyline, it's just told in a flash-back scene. 
 Ester is depressed but smart, and the commentary on her life is amusing. She isn't too irreverent, but she is a little flip about serious subjects like Judaism, that might be a turn-off for 
 some readers. 
 She is the anti-heroine: she's trying to find direction and inspiration for her life. She fools around a bit with the dad of the four-year-old she watches but I was disappointed that this went nowhere. This novel does get a point for the very realistic sex scene between Ester and her crush, Jack (who just uses her). 
 The tone at the end didn't quite fit the rest of the book: Ester on a tire swing, spinning away her childhood insecurities. She didn't grow enough for me, the story could've been so much more. 
 I read through this novel in the same way Ester was drifting through life: looking for inspiration and distraction, often while reclining on my couch, asking myself "what's the point?" 
 When I can relate, I like. I used to nanny in the summers during college, and I stretched my 
 college years as a performance arts major as much as I could (7 yrs.). 
 Quote: "I rode north. I tried to change gears. There was a time in my life when I knew which gear was for, but now they all seemed arbitrary; it was difficult to pedal no matter which one I selected. Was I doing something wrong? Probably."