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Any Place I Hang My Hat (2007)

Any Place I Hang My Hat (2007)

Book Info

Author
Rating
3.21 of 5 Votes: 5
Your rating
ISBN
0743463137 (ISBN13: 9780743463133)
Language
English
Publisher
pocket star

About book Any Place I Hang My Hat (2007)

I have become very fond of Susan Isaacs because of her saucy heroines, who seem to live the good life that I missed out on by being born before the sexual revolution really took hold. This one is about an interesting character, Amy Lincoln (no relation) whose mother abandoned her as an infant, after her father was sent to jail. Amy managed to climb out of poverty because of an inherent high intelligence and now is a writer for a very posh NYC magazine, enjoying strange friends and very much in love with the boyfriend she is about to break up with, when she gets caught up in a real news story about a politician who is denying his love child, who has been searching to find him ... all of which gets Amy to wondering about her own roots, making her start a search to find her mother. The interesting thing is that I enjoyed reading this book, with its snappy repartee and portrayal of an intelligent woman finding herself ... but a week later, as I write this report before returning the book to the library because they sent me an E-mail asking for it, I found that I have completely forgotten the plot, to the point that I had to skim through it again in order to write the preceding. I give it a "3" as a fun read, but it certainly is not the "funny scary" type of novel that attracted me to Susan Isaacs in the first place. Probably it should really be a "2"--but I hate these numbering systems, anyway.

I have always liked Susan Isaacs. She is witty & funny & writes great dialogue. Most of her humor is wonderful sarcasm - a personal favorite. But she overdoes it to the extreme in this book - she's just not content to write one witty, sarcastic remark at a time. Even the smallest observation that has nothing whatsoever to do with the story merits sometimes 5 or 6 comments - each good in its own right but it gets annoying. The story itself is a good one but it too is overdone. Almost every time she encounters a character after a short time apart (sometimes only hours) she writes of their personal traits, their family background, their education, employment, childhood .......... and then she tells how her background relates to that of the character - every time she meets them no matter how insignificant the scene. I found myself wanting to skip ahead to the end (which was sadly predictable). So, yes, I will read another of her books because this is the first big disappointment.

Do You like book Any Place I Hang My Hat (2007)?

The writing style is witty and engaging, and there's a mystery to solve, and a romance, all very skillfully tied together. But don't look for complexity or depth here. Just do what you're told and root for the plucky, virtuous heroine, whose few endearing "flaws" are the result of having had a rough childhood, whose success in life is entirely due to her own wonderfulness, and whose suffering has always been caused by other people: other, lesser, people whose flaws are not easily attributable to their life experiences, but are apparently congenital, and whose fashion choices, such as cheap necklaces and unfashionably curly hair, reveal their inner badness. Enjoy feeling morally superior, and don't wonder how the villain got that way, or what it's like to be them. And if you're left at the end with the nagging feeling that something important has been left unexplored, well, clearly there's something wrong with you.
—Rose Kelleher

I found this 382 page book by Susan Isaacs to be very entertaining. The main protagonist, Amy Lincoln, is an almost-thirty-something who had a rough start to life--a mother who abandoned her, a father in and out of jail and a grandmother who had her own peculiarities. At age 14 she received a scholarship to a New England boarding school, went on to Harvard and finished up at the Columbia School of Jouralism. The book begins with her employed as a reporter for a prestigious magazine in New York.Susan Isaacs has created a strong female character with wit and compassion. Amy begins a search for her mother as a way of finding herself and where she belongs. There is substance and plot filled with witty comebacks and well-developed characters.I recommend this as a good read.
—Barbara

The protagonist, Amy Lincoln, comes from poor circumstances...mother abandoned her before her first birthday, father was in and out of jail, raised by her paternal grandmother who was less than an ideal role model. At age fourteen, she gets herself a scholarship to a boarding school, then eventually goes to Harvard and Columbia and now works as a Journalist for a prestigious magazine. Although she has "made" something of herself, she finds she is having a hard time connecting with people, always distancing herself when they get too close. She goes on a search for her mother in hopes for some answers. This book is very contemporary, often humorous. Took me a little bit to get into it, but once I got used to the style, it was entertaining. I'd say it is one level above a beach read.
—Amy

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