Cover art by Justin Gradin

Order at the places below or whatever retailer you want!

• Powell’s Books

• Amazon

• Barnes & Noble

The lady at the plastic-cup-making factory is missing her fingers. The kid at the burger joint is spitting on patties. The newspapers are thrown out of dented vans in the darkest hours of morning. There are blood bank maimings, factory near-faintings, and storage facility mysteries. Time clocks are forever. As are those unrelenting bills.

All the Work I Never Wanted contains all of Rex Marshall’s minimum-wage stories from 1987–2002. All the years he traded his time for low wages. Paying the bills with his precious hours. Tales of toils. Workplace woe. Has he ever not worked? Will he ever not work? Rex is now brain-damaged and has bad hips. You lift sixteen tons, and what do you get? Fast-food scars and a warehouse back. All the Work I Never Wanted: A Memoirella of Jobs is Rex Marshall’s pitiful, seedy CV. Infused with delightful self-deprecation and laugh-out-loud observations, Marshall’s work stories are a refreshing look at the lives of those who’ve had to use a little elbow grease to get through a shift but someway, somehow end up making it. Usually.

PRAISE

“The book’s chapters come like stories told in smoky green rooms and the backs of band vans. Marshall is a raconteur….a statement about how little say we often have in how we spend our time…a slim and punchy “memoirella.” — Matthew Trueherz, Portland Monthly

“Rex's account of being an employee felt relatable down to the smallest details. It is a quality coming of age story through the experience of a working man. Easy to read, engaging, and hilarious. Rex does not let the weight of low wage work crush his creative spirit. He has a healthy understanding of just how absurd minimum wage work is. This memoir brought back memories of jobs and coworkers I had forgotten about. It will make you laugh and feel less alone as a minimum wage employee.”

— Radish of Radish Patch Mending

“As someone who is no stranger to dumb, soul sucking jobs, Rex Marshall's chronology of jobs serves up pure gold in the way of onion and pickle smells that never wash clean, mind numbing assembly line antics, and the motley crew of co-workers that oddly become periodic families. The quest to live, albeit on a decidedly non-livable wage, will ring true to anyone who has ever stumbled through that second coming-of-age chapter: the dirt-poor, underemployed twenties. Marshall may very well be the best ramen and rent historian of the pre-social media era. I loved every self-deprecating, sweet word of this particular history book.”

— Robyn Saunders Wilson, author of Junkyard Princess

May 19 - Book Launch & Interview @ Literary Arts

• 6:30 - 7:30 ish pm — RSVP

• 716 SE Grand Ave, Portland

About the Author

Rex Marshall is from Las Vegas and still recovering from that fact. When he is not trading his hours for money, Rex Marshall jets around with his long-running music project, Mattress. He runs a small print publication called Mercy Flush. Plays vinyl records in the coolest bars. Collects books, VHS, records, coins, scorpions, rocks, and drum machines. His favorite color used to be blue but he doesn’t play favorites anymore. He laughs too loud and if you must, he prefers tequila soda in a tall glass.