After eight years with "the company," Trisha Donahue, the ideal candidate for an imminent promotion, is stunned when an underqualified man gets the job. Forty-four-year-old Trisha--smart, capable and committed to quietly "fitting in" like "one of the guys"--overcomes lifelong self-doubt and confronts the injustice in a dramatic, clever escapade at the company's annual Banquet Day, an event that falls soon after her betrayal and "wasn't exactly optional."
In A Cowardly Woman No More, the sensitive, often funny 11th novel from Ellen Cooney (The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances), Trisha is unequivocally likable. The company grows "sleek and even stern" after a "new regime" takes over, but her job meshes well with the comfortable suburban life Trisha shares with her loving husband and two young sons; she reminds herself she is "lucky lucky lucky." Reluctantly showing up at Banquet Day to find she is inexplicably (and literally) spotlighted as "Employee of the Year," Trisha flees into the employee-only regions of the Rose & Emerald restaurant. Here, a host of surprising allies shelters her: a sympathetic coworker, mysterious strangers and restaurant staffers she knew in her past. Each prompts memories and insights, and Trisha relaxes in her peaceful hiding place, pondering life-altering decisions. She has long endured workplace sexism and acknowledges the culture that fosters it, starting with the childhood lesson to "never speak up." A Cowardly Woman No More, narrated by a newly assertive heroine, is an inspiring literary reminder that the era of the classic feminist revenge movie 9 to 5 isn't yet history. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.