Category: Women Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN-10: 1466436898
Type: Fiction
Pages: 358
Copyright: August 4, 2012
ISBN-13: 9781466436898
N.Y. Times best selling author, Ken Morris (author of Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin, Man in the Middle, Deadly Trade), calls The Floater "the Rocky of legal dramas" and adds, "Protagonist Norma Reyes--hired as an overqualified secretarial floater and forced to battle long odds in a high powered law firm--is often beaten down but never knocked out. Gritty and necessarily graphic, The Floater is a well-written and spellbinding ride through Lilly Ledbetter-glass ceilings and racial barriers. Shocking, uplifting, and enlightening, The Floater is a dramatic tour de force."
All 46-year-old Norma Reyes wanted was to shatter the glass ceiling and become a well-paid professional. Despite being raised in a poor, Puerto Rican household (the eldest daughter of an unfeeling mother and a lecherous father), Norma manages to put herself through law school in middle-age, confident that once she earns her law degree, she'll land a job at a top-tier law firm and be able to support her elderly mother while subsidizing her welfare-collecting, drug abusing younger sister, 22-year-old autistic nephew, and 19-year-old niece (herself the single-mother of two young children).
But after successfully completing a summer clerkship at one of New York City’s most prestigious firms, Norma’s plans for career advancement are derailed by The Great Recession. Rather than receive the glamorous, $160,000-per-year associate position she expected from Robertson, Levine and Shemke, Norma is instead offered a consolation prize as a floating secretary when the firm imposes a hiring freeze on new attorneys.
Norma is grateful to have landed any job in such a brutal economy, but gets a bitter taste of just how thankless and demeaning it is to be a “floater”: She’s shuffled from desk to desk; ordered around like a trained seal; and forced not only to order lunch for stuck-up attorneys half her age, but serve it to them as well. When Norma is reassigned to Jonathan Shemke, the firm’s managing partner, she hopes he’s summoned her to work as his law clerk (a position she held the previous summer). But even that modest ambition is squelched when it turns out Jon merely needed to replace his disgruntled secretary.
Norma’s luck seemingly changes for the better when she meets Oscar, the copy room supervisor. Despite her misgivings about this African American divorcé—his unremarkable job, ex-wife and teenage daughters, Norma finds herself instantly drawn to him. But no sooner do they declare their feelings for one another than Oscar hands Norma a “smoking gun”: An incriminating, tell-all memo, authored by Jonathan, admitting to age and national origin discrimination in the firm’s decision not to hire Norma as a junior attorney. Despite this latest setback, Norma must find the inner strength she needs to battle the firm for her rights, while her increasingly intimate connection to Oscar forces her to face invisible scars left behind from her own troubled childhood.
Excerpt
Oscar cleared his throat. “I hate to ruin our special moment, Norma, but you really need to open this.” He nudged the envelope toward her.
“Oh yeah. The envelope, please,” she giggled.
“I’m guessing you won’t be laughin’ once you’ve read it.”
Norma unfastened the clasp and removed a memo. “To: Recruiting Committee. From: Jonathan Shemke. Date: March 1, 2009. Re: Fall 2009 Hires.”
She proceeded to scan the document. After introductory comments explaining that Jonathan’s assessments were formulated in part from other partners’ evaluations, and that he hadn’t had the opportunity to work personally with all of the candidates, Jonathan proceeded to summarize each of the summer associates in a few brief paragraphs, extolling their virtues and enumerating their various shortcomings. Norma skipped over the other names and began reading silently when she spotted hers:
“Norma Reyes. Efficient and a quick study. Candidate has a good mind and a great deal of potential. However, given the candidate’s less-than-stellar academic credentials (she is completing her final year of study at New York Law School), I do not feel she would be a good fit for the firm.”
Big deal. Tell me something I don’t already know, Norma thought bitterly. This wasn’t news, although she was somewhat miffed to learn that Jon had lied about it not being his decision. She continued reading:
“Moreover, given the candidate’s age (she is in her late-forties), it would, in my opinion, be ill-advised for RLS to make the substantial financial investment required to train her to become a fully-functioning member of this firm.”
Huh? More than half the young associates hired by large law firms typically quit by their three-year anniversary to work for smaller firms. Of those remaining, by the time they would otherwise become eligible to make partner, probably three-quarters left to work in-house for a corporation, start their own practices, or abandon the law altogether. And what about all those female associates of child-bearing age who dropped out—temporarily or permanently—to have babies? Why were they worth the so-called “investment,” and not her? It got even better:
“Perhaps most importantly, as I have always maintained, I do not believe that RLS would be a good cultural fit for Norma. Although poised and well-spoken, her background is decidedly different from the prototypical RLS candidate. For one thing, Norma is of Chicana ancestry. For another, she attended law school at night while working full-time in a clerical position at the phone company. To put it bluntly, Norma is of a lower socioeconomic class than is charac-teristic of our new hires. I therefore believe she would be incapable of relating to RLS’s wealthy client base, nor appreciate the magnitude of their sizeable financial transactions.”
Chicana? Norma was Puerto Rican, not Mexican—not that it should matter either way. Clerical position? She had supervised twenty operators at the height of her tenure at Verizon. Low class? Now, what could she possibly say about that? She didn’t get to choose how wealthy or poor her parents were. Was it her fault her father had been a janitor and her mother a factory worker?
And now for the coup de grace:
“Let us not forget, we all knew Norma Reyes was not considered a viable candidate for long-term employment at RLS. We only brought her on for a summer to countermand negative publicity generated by a recent American Lawyer survey ranking RLS at the bottom tier in minority, non-Ivy-League hiring. Although Norma managed to excel in our program, this does not change the fact that she presents numerous assimilation chal-lenges which, in my opinion, are insurmountable to Norma’s successful integration into the firm culture. In summary, while I like Norma personally and have no qualms with the quality of her work, I cannot recommend her for a permanent attorney position.”
“I cannot fucking believe that bastard!” Norma hissed. “He summed up my whole life in four paragraphs. Where does he get off dismissing me in three hundred words or less as some ghetto spic not worth the time of day?” Norma immediately regretted losing her cool and cursing in a public place. She could feel the other diners’ eyes on her. But she nonetheless hoped Oscar wouldn’t “shush” her or tell her to “calm down,” which would only make matters worse. He didn’t. She nodded at him, grateful for that much. “Where’d you get this, anyway?”
“From Ramón. He brought down a box of stuff for me to shred from Sheila’s filing cabinet. When I saw the memo, it all came back to me: That’s where I’d seen your name earlier this year. After everything we’d talked about on Saturday, my curiosity got the better of me, so I read the whole thing this morning. I tell you, Norma, it’s like some friggin’ sign from above.”
“How do you mean?”
“First, I mention that I’d seen some paper with your name in it, which, by the way, I shouldn’t have done. Then, we go on a couple of dates and you tell me about how you’re gettin’ dogged by the firm. And now—bam—that damned thing shows up in my copy room.”
“I suppose I should thank you,” she whispered. “But somehow, I feel worse now that I know.”
Before Oscar could answer, their waitress returned pushing a wheeled cart. Norma admired her elegant sari, a green and red georgette material draped expertly around her body. It rustled softly as she leaned over the table, the woman’s bare stomach peeping out from beneath the fabric. Norma noticed the extravagant embroidery of sequins, stones and beads, and for a brief moment, felt mesmerized by the exotic woman’s quiet presence and the pungent aroma of their food. For just a minute, she allowed herself to be transported to another world, one where she did not have to deal with ugly truths staring up at her from an interoffice memorandum labeled “HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL.” Norma turned the memo over, scrunching her nose as though it stank. The waitress arranged their dishes on the table, nodded, and left without a word.
“So what now?” Oscar asked, picking up his fork and breaking into her trance.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you got concrete evidence the firm discriminated against you. What do you plan on doin’ about it?”
Norma picked up the memo again. Stunned, numb, and with smoking gun in hand, a part of her wanted to rush back to the office and confront Jonathan. Her inner “ghetto girl” could picture herself overturning his desk and hurling that fancy Tiffany clock right through the glass. But then, she filled with self-loathing as his words resonated someplace deep within her: “Less-than-stellar academic credentials;” “decidedly different background;” “lower socioeconomic class.” She stole a glance from the memo back to Oscar’s expectant face and wondered if he secretly felt that way about her, too.
Torn, she pressed her temples. The fighter in her might want to wage an all-out war for so-called “justice,” but what would be the point? Justice no longer existed in this day and age. Webster’s would do everyone a favor by dropping that silly word from the dictionary. Truth be told, the prospect of taking on a firm like RLS—of fighting such an uphill, losing battle, filled Norma with dread. She wanted nothing more than to put the entire mess out of her mind and focus on her budding relationship with Oscar. But how could she do that, now that she knew the truth?
She finally answered, “I don’t know, Oscar. Right now, all I know is that I should have a job as a lawyer, but they’ve got me working as a secretary.” He nodded sympathetically. “But Jonathan said if I hang in there and do good work for him, he’ll recommend me for an ‘of counsel’ position.”
“Meaning what?”
“I’d be doing hourly contract work. Granted, it’s a non-partner track job without benefits or perks, but as long as that’s a possibility, I’m not sure I want to rock the boat.”
“Norma, don’t be a fool. You read the memo. Jon’s never gonna hire you as a lawyer, no matter what load of crap he’s feedin’ you. And even if he did come through with some hourly bullshit, why would you be willing to accept that? It’d be like tellin’ them it’s okay to treat you different because of your race and your age.”
“So what are you saying? That I should give up hope?”
“No. I’m saying if you’ve got any pride, you gotta do somethin’ about it.”
“Like what?”
“You could quit, for starters.”
“I can’t quit. I need my job!”
“You need to take a stand. Jobs come and go, but you can’t let them rob you of your dignity and self-respect. Once you start doin’ that, the game’s over.”
Norma tensed. She knew Oscar was right, but she also wished he would back off. This was none of his business, and he had no right to pressure her.
“What would you know about ‘the game,’ anyway? You make copies for a living!” As soon as she’d uttered those words, Norma instantly regretted them. She’d just shot the proverbial messenger. Norma saw Oscar’s jaw tighten, his eyes harden to cover up his hurt. “Oscar, I’m so sorry. Please forget I said that.”
“Seems you say a lot of things you want me to forget.”
“No—it’s just—”
“So, is that how you see me? I’m just a dumb-ass nigger shufflin’ around the copy room?”
Norma’s stomach tightened. “No! I didn’t mean that. I’m just upset. I only meant—they take advantage of you, too. You said so yourself. And I don’t like you pressuring me. You just handed me this God-awful memo which I haven’t even had time to digest, and now you’re pushing me to take action when I don’t have the faintest idea what I should do.”
“Fair enough. But for the record, as you lawyers love to say, just ‘cause I work in the copy room doesn’t make me some feeble-minded imbecile who’s too stupid to form an opinion,” he shot back angrily.
“I know that. You’re obviously an intelligent man.”
“Who happens to care about you and has your interests at heart,” he added.
“Yes. I realize that, too. And I appreciate it. But I can’t quit. Not now. I need this job. The economy’s terrible, I’m a Hispanic female, and I’m almost forty-seven. I can’t go back to pounding the pavement because some memo told me what I already suspected.”
“Then get a lawyer,” Oscar said in a low voice. “Don’t just show up there tomorrow like nothin’s wrong. You can’t keep writing legal memos for that dickhead for no pay. If you do, you might as well lean over your desk, pull up your skirt, and smile while you let him fuck you in the ass.”
Now it was Oscar’s turn to symbolically smack Norma in the face with offensive rhetoric. But with one big difference: Norma’s tactless remark may have been hurtful, but Oscar had worded his scathing indictment of her with precision. He might well have a point, but Norma did not appreciate him forming such crude, sexual images of her in his mind, much less articulating them out loud. Her own thoughtless affront had paled by comparison.
“Who the hell do you think you are talking to me like that?” she hissed. “You really expect me to put up with that kind of vulgarity from you just because you’ve decided I’m your girlfriend? You barely know me!” Norma fought back tears. She couldn’t understand why this was happening—they were supposed to be enjoying a romantic dinner. Yet somehow, despite the warm-and-fuzzy closeness they’d shared a moment ago, their ill-timed third date had just as quickly degenerated into petty bickering and ugly put-downs.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “You’re right. That was way out of line. But I care about you, Norma. I know we haven’t known each other long, but I’m not blind. I see a beautiful, intelligent woman who has so much inner strength and potential. You can’t let these guys treat you like less than you are. Even I can see that it’s beatin’ you down. If you want somethin’ better for your life, you gotta start by believing you deserve it. I didn’t stick my neck out givin’ you that memo just so you could feel bad.”
“Then why did you give it to me?”
He considered her question carefully before answering. “Because I saw it, it concerned you, and I felt you had a right to know. I want you to know, I could be fired for this—I signed a confidentiality agreement when the firm hired me. They pay me to shred the firm’s incriminating records, not turn them over to my girlfriend.
“And I didn’t decide you’re my girlfriend, either. We both acknowledged that we have feelings for each other. I was sittin’ right here a minute ago when that happened.”
Norma looked at him and flushed a deep red. Not only had he had assessed the situation accurately, he wasn’t afraid to own his feelings, even after he’d gotten so angry with her a moment ago. Not to mention, he’d made his decision to “stick his neck out” and give her that memo before she’d agreed to be his “girlfriend.” She was looking at a good man, one willing to risk his job to do right by her for no other reason than because it was the right thing to do.
“Listen,” he sighed, “Givin’ you that memo was my choice. It’s up to you what you do with it—or don’t do—from this point forward.”
Norma took a long gulp of water under Oscar’s concentrated gaze. Despite what he’d just said, she knew he expected—and deserved—an answer all the same. There would be no casual dinner conversation tonight. “I honestly don’t know what to do,” she finally said, her appetite gone.
“Start by gettin’ yourself a lawyer and findin’ out what your rights are.”
“I can’t afford a lawyer.”
“Then call up one of those agencies—you know, where people go when they’ve been discriminated against?”
“You mean, the EEOC?”
“Is that who would handle this type of thing?”
“They’re the federal government department, but there’s also the New York State Division of Human Rights. I remember reading in a brief I typed for Neil that employees can file a claim both places.”
“Good. Then start there.” Norma nodded tentatively, not sure she had the courage Oscar seemed to expect of her.
He reached for Norma’s hand again, interlaced his fingers through hers and planted a long kiss on her knuckles. “I’m sorry I upset you. Look, our food’s gettin’ cold. Let’s eat, then you can go home and get a good night’s sleep. You’ll feel better tomorrow. Things are always clearer in the morning.”
“I can’t eat now,” Norma whimpered. “I’ve completely lost my appetite.”
“Okay.” Oscar squeezed her hand before releasing it. “Will you at least let me send you home in a cab with the food?”
Norma nodded. He gestured to their waitress. “Miss? Could we get this to go, please?”
Norma sniffled, guilty that she’d managed to ruin yet another meal.
Professional Reviews
A Personal Look at what Discrimination Does in Lives
The cover of Sorrentino's novel, The Floater is eye-catching and fun, but there are surprising scenes behind it that are thought-provoking, revealing...and so very human... Readers enter into the life of one woman, Norma Reyes. While she may not in any way match your own personal profile, she and her friend, Oscar, do well represent today's life style. In fact, it is "kinda" scary just how much you may find in this novel to relate to...
Sorrentino places us squarely into the hardship of Norma's family life, including flashes of memories from her father's abuse. And how that affects intimacy issues in her adult relationships. But a very important part of her story is the extensive harassment and discrimination she found when trying to enter the legal profession.
Once I finished the novel, I wondered whether there was just too much that happened in Norma's life to be believable, but while you are reading it, it feels real and the emotions displayed easily pull you into the story. No matter what, the author has bared the internal lives of, especially, two people who are trying to find a stable relationship and be able to maintain it. That struggle is sometimes more than bearable, isn't it?!
Norma had just graduated and taken the bar exam, although she had not yet received the results when she applied at a large firm at which she had worked the previous summer. She and her boss at that time had developed a good working relationship and Norma was confident of being accepted there.
She was, but not as a lawyer...
Needing the money, Norma became "The Floater," a secretary who moved throughout the firm whenever and wherever she was needed.
She soon began to feel the humiliation and pressure routinely given to the support staff... and more...
While at the same time, Oscar shared a letter he had been given, that documented the intent of the firm to discriminate against her. Later, it was Oscar, after they had acknowledged how they felt about each other, that supported her in filing a discrimination charge against the company.
I loved the ending of this novel, showing what was really important in making decisions for the future. But I was amazed at the complexity of the lives revealed, for instance, as Oscar, a divorced man with two children he loved, tries to deal with his own family responsibilities while attempting to meet the needs of the woman he now loved. At the same time, if Norma was to move into any type of personal relationship, she had to confront her past demons, especially about intimacy, and work through all the pain and fear of the past and learn to trust.
This is a remarkable story in many ways, delving deeper into the internal lives of people than most books, while yet sending a message of potential growth and love even though it comes later in life. I enjoyed that frankness not with a peeking-tom mentality, but rather from how much we learn that people, no matter what sex, age, race or profession all have the same emotional burdens that we seem to think can only happen to ourselves...
That leaves a very satisfactory feeling in closing the book, The Floater, by Sheryl Sorrentino...
A Thoughtful, Intelligent and Sensitive Story About Standing Up for Yourself
Norma Reyes has worked hard to improve her life, from leaving Puerto Rico for mainland U.S. to working her way up to a supervisor role at a call centre and putting herself through a bachelor degree part-time - all while financially supporting her younger sister who lives on welfare while caring for her son who has autism. Then she loses her job due to outsourcing, takes her newly widowed, dementia-suffering mother into her tiny apartment, and puts herself through a law degree all at the same time. At forty-six years old, her law degree is her crowning achievement and also her hope for a better future. After a summer internship at a huge corporate law firm, Robertson, Levine & Shemke, Norma had every expectation of getting a first-year attorney position with the annual intake of new graduates.
Instead, she's told by Jonathan Shemke, one of the partners, that she did a wonderful job but that unfortunately, due to the recession (it's 2009), the firm isn't taking on any first-years. After job-hunting for several months, Norma goes back to Jonathan and practically begs for something, anything. So they give her a floater job - a contract position with zero stability, where she works as a receptionist or personal assistant to whomever needs one, shuffled around sometimes week to week.
Working as a floater is something of a rude awakening for Norma. Sneered at, mocked for her night-school law degree from a less prestigious school, Norma is made quickly aware of the class structure and hierarchy at the firm and the sexual abuse the female administrative staff deals with, but she still believes she can prove herself and get hired as an attorney. When she finds out that the company did hire first-year attorneys, including ones she interned with, she questions Jonathan Shemke. The lawyers give her smooth lines and empty promises, and Norma is just naive enough to believe in them.
Her new assignment is as Jonathan's executive assistant, and part of her job is to make appointments for him with an escort agency - despite the fact that it's harassment and illegal, and Norma still has to go up before the ethics committee before being sworn in as a lawyer. In return, she is given a large amount of legal work to do, mostly in her own time, and for no money. Norma may well chafe at all this unfairness, but it isn't until her new boyfriend, Oscar, who runs the copy room, shows her a memo he was meant to shred that clearly outlines the discriminatory reasons why she didn't get hired as a lawyer, that Norma finally takes action.
The Floater is a thoughtful, intelligent and sensitive look into the difficulties non-white people, people who don't go to the "top" universities and know all the right people, have in breaking into certain fields, or certain companies. It's a story about discrimination, about standing up for yourself, about reaching out to other people and recognising when it's okay to ask for help.
I could sympathise with Norma, working in admin when she's so over-qualified for it, because of the job market (and other factors), because it's very similar to what I went through - and seriously, I may be good at administrative work, but Lordy do I loathe it!! I'd actually never heard of the term "floater" before, in the job sense, but Norma offers a very apt analogy of her new job:
"Her new job title conjured the distasteful image of a stubborn piece of shit bobbing in the toilet, refusing to go down no matter how many times you flushed. "Well, they can't keep this chica down," Norma silently vowed, confident she would not be working as a rotating secretary for long."
Norma is a lonely woman who's kept herself so busy she doesn't even recognise her own loneliness. Having protected and supported her younger sister all her life - from the sexual abuse of their father, and from being homeless and destitute - she takes on more responsibility, guilt and self-reproach than is healthy for anyone. Her mother, Leticia, who is probably suffering from dementia though she hasn't been diagnosed (land of out-of-reach medical care, right?), seems to outright resent eldest daughter while attributing everything that is wonderful to her younger daughter, Inez, even though Inez never visits her or helps out and, like Leticia, blames Norma for anything that goes wrong in her life.
Not only is her family less than supportive, but Norma's landlord, a detective who lives in the downstairs flat, barely speaks to her even though (or maybe because) they had a lukewarm affair several years before - before his pregnant girlfriend turned up. In truth, Norma's never had a real relationship with anyone, and she still thinks men just want sex and that sex is something you use, as a woman, to get what you want or to appease a man. When she meets Oscar, the African-American divorcee with two teenaged daughters whom she instantly connects with, she has to finally mature and stop seeing him as yet another person who just wants something from her. Oscar is a real sweetheart, and the real deal, and provides a steep learning curve from Norma - only her inner voice reminding her of what she feels for him stops her from completely screwing up the burgeoning relationship. The honesty and realism of her inner voice and all its preconceived notions and hangups was very refreshing.
Sorrentino, a lawyer herself for many years, says in her afterword that the firm in the story isn't meant to depict the real state of affairs in law firms today, which is reassuring to hear. Even when you remove the sexual harassment, the bullying, the unreasonable expectations, and the over-the-top hierarchy, Sorrentino completely strips the profession of any of the gloss lingering from those silly TV shows that made a law degree suddenly so fashionable (Ally McBeal etc.). But it's Norma's ambition, and even though I couldn't understand why she'd want to work for a company like Robertson, Levine & Shemke in the first place, I had to respect her commitment, her drive, her dedication, her incredible work ethic, especially in the face of some very real obstacles. As she tells Oscar (who would know where she's coming from, being a black man in America):
"It took me graduating from law school and taking this stupid floater job to realize that I've always been treated with disrespect. It's subtle, you know? But because I'm Hispanic, my entire life I've had to keep up my guard, trying to act extra poised and vigilant so I wouldn't say or do the wrong thing. I wanted to become a lawyer to earn the money and respect I never got as a working-class, minority woman. But after all that, the best I could do was land a secretarial job - and as a floater, no less!"
If the antics of the top lawyer are a bit exaggerated, everything else in the story has the distinct feel of realism. Norma's determination to break through the race, age, gender and class barriers form a large part of her character, while the parallel yet more uncertain, even timid exploration into a real adult relationship - as well as finally dealing with the forgotten horror of her past - edges her character with fear, insecurity and a great depth of feeling. The story is not very predictable, and that sense of uncertainty adds to the realism and the tension.
While I didn't quite connect to Norma the way I wanted to - we get her third-person perspective throughout, and it's too much of a "tell" narrative than a "show" one for me to really feel her - it was an engrossing story and not one I've ever read before. Norma is a true underdog, and her road to learning to stand up for herself - and for others suffering similar issues, in the process - is a tough one but a very real one.
A Powerful, Poignant Page-Turner
The year is 2009, but you wouldn't know it walking through the hallowed halls of prestigious New York law firm, Robertson, Levine & Shemke. A throwback to the 1950's, where white men rule and women serve up coffee--and whatever else pleases the powers that be, RLS is the primary setting for novelist Sheryl Sorrentino's third book, "The Floater."
With stunning, captivating, and powerful prose, Sheryl takes us on a nine-month journey in the life of 46-year-old Norma Reyes, an attorney and caretaker for a senile mother and drug-addicted, welfare-collecting sister. Norma finds herself painstakingly navigating a bizarre law office landscape when she is passed over for a full time associate position at RLS and instead accepts a job as a "floater." Sheryl masterfully paints a vivid portrait of a firm where adversarial attorneys treat Norma like crap under their wingtip shoes, drawing the reader into a world they'll instantly love to hate. With equal strokes of genius, Sheryl has created a complex, three-dimensional heroine of Puerto Rican descent who's doggedly determined to realize her dreams, but when faced with the demeaning and discriminatory practices at RLS, falls prey to personal insecurities and childhood issues she has yet to conquer.
Despite Norma's frequent tendency toward tears, she refuses to sit on the pity pot! Sheryl artfully weaves a tale that will have readers rooting for Norma when her suspicions are confirmed that RLS refused to hire her as a lawyer because of her ethnicity, age and background--rather than the fledging economy. But where Sheryl shines brightest is in her renderings of Norma and Oscar's intimate, day-to-day interracial romance, which is strained almost to the breaking point by external pressures from Norma's lawsuit against the firm, as well as internal ones stemming from her past.
"The Floater" is not for the faint at heart. Its subject matter is deep and thought-provoking, its characters flawed, multifaceted, and human. Yet, with all its intensity, "The Floater" is at times as hilarious as it is heart-wrenching. Sheryl pulls no punches as she bares the fragile soul of Norma for the entire world to see, inspiring us to take a look at our own lives, prejudices, and fears. Norma is as loveable as she is irresistible. Kudos to Sheryl for having to courage to write such a bold and beautiful piece of work, and for introducing us to Norma, a woman's who's resiliency gives new meaning to the derogatory term she'd been labeled--The Floater.
