''The Unprofessionals'', also stylized as ''The Unprofessionals: A Novel'', is the debut novel of American author

Julie Hecht Julie Hecht is a contemporary American fiction writer specializing in interlacing short stories. Personal life Hecht has purposely revealed very little about her personal life. According to her publisher's website, she lives in the winter on the e ...

. The work was first published on September 2, 2003 through

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

and was reprinted in paperback in 2008 through

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

. The book follows Isabelle, a freelance photographer first introduced in Hecht's 1997 short story collection ''

Do the Windows Open? ''Do the Windows Open?'' is a 1997 short story collection and the first published book by American author Julie Hecht. The book was first published in hardback on January 21, 1997 through Random House and a paperback version was released the follow ...

''.

Synopsis

Swiftly approaching her fiftieth year, Isabelle (who is never referred to by name in the novel) finds that she's becoming disconnected from the world around her and has increasing difficulty finding her purpose in life. Her only real outlet is her friendship with a young man she met years ago during a photoshoot with his father, a wealthy and powerful surgeon.

Reception

Critical reception for ''The Unprofessionals'' has been positive.

Richard Eder Richard Gray Eder (August 16, 1932 – November 21, 2014) was an American film reviewer and a drama critic. Life and career For 20 years, he was variously a foreign correspondent, a film reviewer and the drama critic for ''The New York Times''. ...

of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' praised the work, comparing Hecht's writing to that of

J. D. Salinger Jerome David Salinger (; January 1, 1919 January 27, 2010) was an American author best known for his 1951 novel ''The Catcher in the Rye''. Salinger got his start in 1940, before serving in World War II, by publishing several short stories in '' ...

and stating that it had "beautifully contoured reflections". The ''

Chicago Times The ''Chicago Times'' was a newspaper in Chicago from 1854 to 1895, when it merged with the ''Chicago Herald'', to become the ''Chicago Times-Herald''. The ''Times-Herald'' effectively disappeared in 1901 when it merged with the ''Chicago Record' ...

'' also wrote a favorable review, writing that it was "a corrosive sendup of the way we live now, spun out by a modern loner who happens to be every bit as distressing as the benighted, T-shirt-wearing masses she rails against."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unprofessionals 2003 American novels 2003 debut novels Fictional photographers