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Any Place I Hang My Hat by Susan Isaacs
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(Paperback - Bargain)
- Pub. Date: April 2006
- 382pp
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: April 2006
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
- Format: Paperback, 382pp
- ISBN-13: 9780641801983
- ISBN: 064180198X
- Edition Description: Bargain
Synopsis
No matter which side of the nature/nurture debate you're on, Amy Lincoln's prospects do not look good. Her mother abandoned her when she was ten months old (just a couple of months after Amy's father went off to serve his first prison term), leaving her in the care of Grandma Lil, who shoplifts dinner on the way home from her job as a leg waxer to the rich and refined.
When Amy is fourteen, she gets a scholarship to a New England boarding school -- her exposure to the moneyed class. After Harvard and the Columbia School of Journalism, Amy becomes a political reporter for the prestigious weekly In Depth. While covering a political fund-raiser, Amy meets a college student who claims to be the son of one of the presidential candidates. It's precisely the sort of story that In Depth wouldn't deign to cover, but the idea of tracking down a lost parent and demanding recognition intrigues Amy. As she begins a search of her own past as well as the candidate's, she discovers a new and unimpeachable grandmother and a mother who is much more than she bargained for. Most important, she finally comes to understand the stuff she's made of and finds the perfect place to hang her hat in the world.
Bold, insightful, witty, and exhilarating, Any Place I Hang My Hat is a novel about one extraordinary young woman looking for a place to belong -- by one of the most compelling and beloved voices in contemporary fiction.
The Washington Post - Maureen Corrigan
Any Place I Hang My Hat testifies to the importance of family in an uncertain, sometimes terrifying world. Refreshingly, the novel expands its understanding of family to include those bound together by affinity as well as blood.
More Reviews and RecommendationsBiography
"I can think of no other novelist -- popular or highbrow -- who consistently celebrates female gutsiness, brains, and sexuality. She's Jane Austen with a schmear," said National Public Radio's Fresh Air of Susan Isaacs.
More About the AuthorCustomer Reviews
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Any Place I Hang My Hatby Anonymous
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June 01, 2006: I just fell in love with this book. It moved me to have a self-knowledge, that I too haven't recieved closure with my mother. I laughed, I cried, & I couldn't put it down! This book is great if you just want an easy read with a smart, witty, well-written environment. I recommend this book! It is a book that I will always keep & read again and again over the years. Hope you love it as much as I did.
Any Place I Hang My Hatby Anonymous
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April 05, 2005: I have read all of Susan Isaacs' novels, and two are on my all time favorite list. This book will not be joining that list. There were more adjectives than plot development; for example, we know exactly what Amy's boss looks and smells like, but I never quite caught on why Amy is in fear of being fired. The meeting with her mother was, as one of the reviews indicates, disappointing, and the many of the characters were either annoying or uninteresting. I wanted to like this book, and kept waiting...and waiting.
Fact File
Name:
Susan Isaacs
Current Home:
Sands Point, New York
Date of Birth:
December 07, 1943
Place of Birth:
Brooklyn, New York
Education:
Honorary Doctorate, Queens College
Awards:
John Steinbeck Award, 1999
Biography
Susan Isaacs, novelist, essayist and screenwriter, was born in Brooklyn and educated at Queens College. After leaving school, she worked as an editorial assistant at Seventeen magazine. In 1968, Susan married Elkan Abramowitz, a then a federal prosecutor. She became a senior editor at Seventeen but left in 1970 to stay home with her newborn son, Andrew. Three years later, she gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth. During this time she freelanced, writing political speeches as well as magazine articles. Elkan became a criminal defense lawyer.
In the mid-seventies, Susan got the urge to write a novel. A year later she began working on what was to become Compromising Positions, a whodunit set on suburban Long Island. It was published in 1978 by Times Books and was chosen a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. Her second novel, Close Relations, a love story set against a background of ethnic, sexual and New York Democratic politics (thus a comedy), was published in 1980 by Lippincott and Crowell and was a selection of the Literary Guild. Her third, Almost Paradise, was published by Harper & Row in 1984, and was a Literary Guild main selection; in this work Susan used the saga form to show how the people are molded not only by their histories, but also by family fictions that supplant truth. All of Susan's novels have been New York Times bestsellers. Her fiction has been translated into thirty languages.
In 1985, she wrote the screenplay for Paramount's Compromising Positions, which starred Susan Sarandon and Raul Julia. She also wrote and co-produced Touchstone Pictures' Hello Again. The 1987 comedy starred Shelley Long and Judith Ivey.
Her fourth novel, Shining Through, set during World War II, was published by Harper & Row in 1988. Twentieth-Century Fox's film adaptation starred Michael Douglas and Melanie Griffith. Her fifth book, Magic Hour, a coming-of-middle-age novel as well as a mystery, was published in January 1991. After All These Years was published in 1993; critics lauded it for its strong and witty protagonist. Lily White came out in 1996 and Red, White and Blue in 1998. All the novels were published by HarperCollins and were main selections of the Literary Guild. In 1999, Susan's first work of nonfiction, Brave Dames and Wimpettes: What Women Are Really Doing on Page and Screen, was published by Ballantine's Library of Contemporary Thought. During 2000, she wrote a series of columns on the presidential campaign for Newsday. Long Time No See, a Book of the Month Club main selection, was published in September 2001; it was a sequel to Compromising Positions. Susan's tenth novel is Any Place I Hang My Hat (2004).
Susan Isaacs is a recipient of the Writers for Writers Award and the John Steinbeck Award. She serves as chairman of the board of Poets & Writers and is a past president of Mystery Writers of America. She is also a member of the National Book Critics Circle, The Creative Coalition, PEN, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the International Association of Crime Writers, and the Adams Round Table. She sits on the boards of the Queens College Foundation, the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association, the North Shore Child and Family Guidance Association, the Nassau County Coalition Against Domestic Violence and is an active member of her synagogue. She has worked to gather support for the National Endowment of the Arts' Literature Program and has been involved in several anti-censorship campaigns. In addition to writing books, essays and films, Susan has reviewed books for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and Newsday and written about politics, film and First Amendment issues. She lives on Long Island with her husband.
Biography courtesy of the author's official web site.
Good to Know
Some outtakes from our interview with Isaacs:
"My first job was wrapping shoes in a shoe store in the low-rent district of Fifth Avenue and saying ‘Thank you!' with a cheery smile. I got canned within three days for not wrapping fast enough, although I suspect that often my vague, future-novelist stare into space while thinking about sex or lunch did not give me a smile that would ring the bell on the shoe store's cheer-o-meter."
"I constantly have to fight against the New York Effect, an overwhelming urge to wear black clothes so everyone will think, Egad, isn't she chic and understated! I'm not, by nature, a black-wearing person. (I'm not, by nature, a chic person either.) I like primary colors as well as bright purple, loud chartreuse, and shocking pink. And that's just my shoes."
"I'm not a great fan of writing classes. Yes, they do help people sometimes, especially with making them write regularly. But the aspiring writer can be a delicate creature, sensitive or even oversensitive to criticism. I was that way: I still am. The problem begins with most people's natural desire to please. In a classroom situation, especially one in which the work will be read aloud or critiqued in class, the urge to write something likable or merely critic-proof can dam up your natural talent. Also, it keeps you from developing the only thing you have is a writer -- your own voice. Finally, you don't know the people in a class well enough to figure out where their criticism is coming from. A great knowledge of literature? Veiled hostility? The talent is too precious a commodity to risk handing it over to strangers."
"Writing is sometimes an art, and it certainly is a craft. But it's also a job. I go to work five or six days a week (depending how far along I am with my work-in-progress). Like most other people, there are days I would rather be lying in a hammock reading or going to a movie with a friend. But whether you're an artist or an accountant, you still have to show up at work. Otherwise, it is unlikely to get done."
Feature Interview
In the fall of 2004, Susan Isaacs took some time out to answer our questions about her favorite books, authors, and interests: What was the book that most influenced your life or your career as a writer?
For a couple of months during college, I was wowed by H. L. Mencken's book of essays, Prejudices. Its influence was both positive and negative. I loved the author's iconoclastic instincts, his razzle-dazzle language, and his contemptuous take on the assorted idiocies of American politics and culture. My infatuation could not last longer than a couple of months because of Mencken's off-the-cuff racist and anti-Semitic asides: How could anyone that smart be that stupid?
In any case, while in Mencken mode, I wrote an essay for the college newspaper defending the fraternity/sorority system. (Fortunately, I can find no trace of this piece and thus can avoid confronting my younger, dopier, and more arrogant self.) The response was, to me, astounding. More pats on the back then I could count and, on the other hand, a stunning number of outraged letters to the editor protesting what I had written. A grand fuss, but it brought me little pleasure. True, I loved the attention, but it didn't take me long to realize both the applause and the fuming was not for me, but rather, for my competent imitation of H. L. Mencken.
A little more than a decade later, when I began writing my first novel, I started to realize that all I had as a writer was my own voice. Sure, I could imitate Mencken or, for that matter, Jane Austen or Oscar Wilde. But that was just a clever college-kid trick. Mencken and Austen and Wilde were far better Menckens and Austens and Wildes than I could ever be. Besides, why would any reader bother with an imitation when they could read the real thing? All I could be, for better or worse, was Susan Isaacs.
What are your ten favorite books, and what makes them special to you?
I'm an avid reader of nonfiction, too, so I have to add:
What are some of your favorite films, and what makes them unforgettable to you?
What types of music do you like? Is there any particular kind you like to listen to when you're writing?
If even a radio were playing in the house across the street, I would not be able to write. When I'm inventing characters and creating a universe, that of my novel, I can't have any distractions from the universe I'm living in.
My knowledge of orchestral music composed between Mozart and Gershwin is close to nil. As for opera, give me melody -- Puccini, Verdi, Bizet. I am a word person: The music I enjoy most has lyrics. So I love the standards, Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, and so forth. For me, they are best sung by performers with the intelligence and sensitivity to get at the meaning of the words without sacrificing the music. Give me Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, and that most underrated of singers, Louis Armstrong. And of course I love rock, although what I enjoy most is the music of my childhood and teenage years. So it's Bill Haley and the Comets through the Beatles.
If you had a book club, what would it be reading?
Well, right now I've been listening to an unabridged recording of Anna Karenina. Over the years, I started it a couple of times but for some reason always gave up. Yet here I am most afternoons, sneaking off for time alone with Tolstoy. So my book club would feature books I've given up on which everybody else says are a must-read: Even if I still hated the book, I would read it in the hope of getting elucidated by my fellow book club members. Some possibilities: Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook, Stendhal's The Red and the Black, and Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.
What are your favorite kinds of books to give -- and get -- as gifts?
Whatever strikes me. A bestselling novel, a worst-selling novel that looks intriguing, a big fat coffee-table book with photographs of bats, or French couture. A biography. A book on the development of language, or the thousand best recipes for cheesecake.
Do you have any special writing rituals? For example, what do you have on your desk when you're writing?
What I have on my desk is usually a mess. Looking down right now, I see a pair of sparkly red, blue, and aqua clip-on earings that felt too tight a few days ago, a micro drive, malachite beads I brought home from Africa and plan to give to an old family friend, an empty eyeglass case, and a folded-up copy of Chapter 7 of my current novel, Any Place I Hang My Hat, with a footer that indicates it was printed out on July 31, 2003; my shopping list and "Ann and Al's anniversary" is scribbled on it. Near the lamp, there's a CD sent to me by a pal, a Vietnam vet who has lately fallen in love with World War II love songs. It includes guaranteed tear-jerkers like "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "Something to Remember You By." And an empty Diet Coke can.
Many writers are hardly "overnight success" stories. How long did it take for you to get where you are today? Any rejection-slip horror stories or inspirational anecdotes?
No real horror stories. I was able to find an agent fairly quickly, and Compromising Positions was sold within a couple of months. It was only later that she told me it had been turned down by four or five publishers. The reasons were as varied as the publishers: The novel was too comic for a mystery; no one wanted to read a whodunit with a Long Island housewife as the detective; it might make a good paperback original published by somebody else; it was too different.
If you could choose one new writer to be "discovered," who would it be?
What I'm interested in is any new, original voice. I was so happy for the chance to choose a novel for the Today show Book Club, because having read Matthew Sharpe's The Sleeping Father, I said to myself, "Hey, this is an extraordinary talent, someone who can interweave humor with great sadness." I felt that same "what a unique talent!" thrill when I read Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist and Jennifer Weiner's Good in Bed.
What tips or advice do you have for writers still looking to be discovered?
Most of all, keep writing. If you have finished a novel and have done everything you possibly can to make it good (no waiting around for a dream editor to work with you), then began another novel. Also, if you spent six months or four years writing, it should be worth a few weeks of your time to research finding an agent and also to work up a brilliant one-page query letter to be sent to agents.
From the Publisher
No matter which side of the nature/nurture debate you're on, Amy Lincoln's prospects do not look good. Her mother abandoned her when she was ten months old (just a couple of months after Amy's father went off to serve his first prison term), leaving her in the care of Grandma Lil, who shoplifts dinner on the way home from her job as a leg waxer to the rich and refined.
When Amy is fourteen, she gets a scholarship to a New England boarding school -- her exposure to the moneyed class. After Harvard and the Columbia School of Journalism, Amy becomes a political reporter for the prestigious weekly In Depth. While covering a political fund-raiser, Amy meets a college student who claims to be the son of one of the presidential candidates. It's precisely the sort of story that In Depth wouldn't deign to cover, but the idea of tracking down a lost parent and demanding recognition intrigues Amy. As she begins a search of her own past as well as the candidate's, she discovers a new and unimpeachable grandmother and a mother who is much more than she bargained for. Most important, she finally comes to understand the stuff she's made of and finds the perfect place to hang her hat in the world.
Bold, insightful, witty, and exhilarating, Any Place I Hang My Hat is a novel about one extraordinary young woman looking for a place to belong -- by one of the most compelling and beloved voices in contemporary fiction.
The Washington Post - Maureen Corrigan
Any Place I Hang My Hat testifies to the importance of family in an uncertain, sometimes terrifying world. Refreshingly, the novel expands its understanding of family to include those bound together by affinity as well as blood.
Publishers Weekly
A political reporter in her late 20s goes in search of the mother who abandoned her when she was a baby in this jaunty if rather jerky 10th novel by Isaacs (Long Time No See; Red, White, and Blue; etc.). Amy Lincoln was brought up in the projects by her Grandma Lil, a leg waxer and devoted Falcon Crest viewer; her amiable father, Chicky, spent most of Amy's childhood in prison on a series of minor theft raps. A boarding school scholarship rescues Amy from lower-class oblivion; she goes on to Harvard and Columbia, then lands a job at In Depth, a highbrow weekly. Upbeat and self-deprecating, Amy spends little time bemoaning her past, but an encounter with college student Freddy Carrasco, who claims he's the illegitimate son of a Democratic presidential candidate, gets Amy wondering where her own mother might be. While advising Freddy how to approach his father, she uses her reporting skills to track down her elusive mother. The political subplot is anticlimactic Amy doesn't even get a scoop and Amy's eventual reunion with her mother, revealed to be a chilly suburban housewife, is credibly if rather disappointingly subdued. The parade of lavishly and loopishly described secondary characters and gossipy New York scene-setting give the novel its zing; Amy's rocky relationship with her documentary filmmaker boyfriend provides a jolt of romantic excitement and a happy ending. Agent, Owen Laster. (Oct. 5) Forecast: This might not do as well as Isaacs's last novel, Long Time No See, which reintroduced popular Isaacs protagonist Judith Singer, but a major marketing campaign including heavy promotion in the New York area and a seven-city author tour should help it hit some bestseller lists. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Best-selling author Isaacs sets her latest novel (after Long Time, No See) in her native New York City, where political reporter Amy Lincoln searches for emotional fulfillment. At a campaign party for Democratic presidential candidate Thom Bowles, Amy witnesses a young Hispanic man being taken away following his declaration that he is Thom's son. His bold attempt prompts Amy to reexamine her life and her ability to find contentment; she wonders why her mother abandoned her as a baby and whether she will ever be able to settle down with her boyfriend of two years. Amy's workaholic routine and tendency to overanalyze her rocky past counter her desperate need to find closeness and comfort. Her discussions with her socialite friend, Tatty, and the traumatic end of her relationship eventually lead to a purposeful and potentially life-changing search for her mother. Isaacs's luscious descriptions draw out each character's personality and unique contribution to Amy's journey of self-healing. Recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/04.] Laura M. Wight, South Dakota State Univ. Lib., Brookings Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Superselling Isaacs (Long Time No See, 2001, etc.) makes a valiant effort to reach a younger readership and still please the faithful in her tale of a New Yorker looking for her long-lost mother. Amy Lincoln has issues-big time. Raised by her shoplifting grandma Lil while her father, a petty crook named Chicky, was doing time, she never knew her mother, Phyllis. Where is Phyllis now? Amy never had the time to figure that out, what with going to Harvard and Columbia School of Journalism. Now working for Happy Bob, a liberal slave-driver at In Depth, a newsmagazine that takes its mission seriously, Amy's gotten pretty good at finding out stuff people don't want her to know. Does a charismatic political candidate who seems to be on the side of the angels have an illegitimate son by a woman of color? Looks like it, and that assignment gets her to thinking about her own mother. Surely a little routine investigation will turn up a few clues, starting with the names of her maternal grandparents: prosperous Brooklyn businessman Selwyn Moscowitz and wife Rose. Are they dead or alive or living in Florida? Boca Raton, here I come. Along the way, Amy dithers inexplicably about whether to commit to an absolutely perfect guy who would lay down his life for her (the weakest part of the story) and reminisces about her eccentric upbringing, such as it was, by her crazy-like-a-fox grandmother and the endearingly raffish Chicky (the funniest and best part of the story). Amy's discovery of her other grandmother, a Waspy society matron, results in a face-to-face meeting that goes amazingly well; her eventual reunion with her reptilian mother does not. A heroine who really, really cares about politics andsocial issues and who always remembers to wear a warm coat is certainly a welcome novelty in this Age of Fluff-but this still seems like chick-lit in sensible shoes. Agent: Owen Laster/William Morris
Loading...Product Details
- Pub. Date: April 2006
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
- Format: Paperback, 382pp
- ISBN-13: 9780641801983
- ISBN: 064180198X
- Edition Description: Bargain
Reading Group Guide
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION1. It has been nearly three decades since Amy's mother left her with Grandma Lil. What is it about Freddy Carrasco's story that makes Amy seriously consider looking for her mother after all this time? Why does she go out of her way to help Freddy, even referring him to a lawyer?
2. Amy spent her childhood in a low-income housing project, and in her teens she attended an elite private boarding school. How has each of these experiences contributed to shaping who she is? Has being a part of these two very different social classes actually been an asset to her?
3. What makes Amy and Tatty's friendship so strong? They are different in many ways-both in lifestyle and personality-but is there anything they have in common?
4. In one instance Amy reveals, "For the five thousandth time in my career I wished that instead of being a writer at In Depth, I could be something else, something with emotion" (pg 190). Why do you suppose Amy chose a career as a journalist? Does it have anything to do with its emphasis on fact and not on emotion, as she seems to indicate? How important is professional achievement to Amy?
5. As a reporter, part of Amy's job is to interview, evaluate, and observe other people and then depict them accurately in print. How does Amy see herself? How do others see her, including Tatty, John, Gloria, Chicky, Rose, and Aunt Linda? Compare Amy's public persona with the private person.
6. "I was quite young, sixteen or so, when I decided I wanted a child no matter what. Even back then, I understood I might not be anyone's idea of a prize in the marriage sweepstakes. So husband or no, I would have a baby. Be in afamily" (pg 84). Are you surprised that Amy wants a child of her own? Why or why not? What do you think of her motivations for wanting a child? How does she reconcile her desire for a family with her fear that she might abandon her child, as her mother did?
7. How would you describe Amy's meeting with Rose? Did anything about their visit surprise you? What similarities do Amy and Rose share?
8. Tatty says to Amy, "Compare [Rose] to Grandma Lil and Chicky?. Lil was responsible. She probably even loved you in her own self-centered, clueless way. Even if she didn't, she did what was right. She stuck by you. And look at Chicky. He got out of jail and what was the first thing he did? Took care of you?. Both of them had good character" (pg 233). What does Amy come to realize about Grandma Lil that she might have misjudged? How about Chicky?
9. How come it took Amy until her 29th year to begin the search for her mother?
10. The first thing Véronique says to Amy when she sees her in the parking lot is, "Get away from me!" What does this reaction to Amy's appearance say about Véronique? When they sit down to talk, how does she justify leaving Amy? Do you have any feelings of empathy for Véronique?
11. Did Amy's conversation with her mother unfold as you expected it would? Why or why not? Does it unfold as Amy thought it would? Does Amy's conversation with her mother give her the closure she seeks?
12. In the beginning of the story Amy is intending to break off her relationship with John. What makes her realize that he is the man she wants to spend the rest of her life with? Do you think she and John are right for each other? Are the ups and downs Susan Isaacs portrays in their relationship realistic?
13. Who is more responsible for their breakup, Amy or John?
14. Susan Isaacs has said that "dialogue has always been the easiest for me. I hear it whether they're a fishwife in Brooklyn or like Tatty." What do you think about the dialogue in this book? Is this where the characters show their characters? Is it what makes the book vivid and lively?
15. Amy could easily have lived the life of "victim." What is there in her character and background that make her so resilient?
16. What does Amy learn about family during her search for her mother? Along the way, how do her relationships with the people around her change? What is the greatest change that happens to Amy? In the end, does she find a place to hang her hat?
Forewords & Introductions
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
1. It has been nearly three decades since Amy's mother left her with Grandma Lil. What is it about Freddy Carrasco's story that makes Amy seriously consider looking for her mother after all this time? Why does she go out of her way to help Freddy, even referring him to a lawyer?
2. Amy spent her childhood in a low-income housing project, and in her teens she attended an elite private boarding school. How has each of these experiences contributed to shaping who she is? Has being a part of these two very different social classes actually been an asset to her?
3. What makes Amy and Tatty's friendship so strong? They are different in many ways-both in lifestyle and personality-but is there anything they have in common?
4. In one instance Amy reveals, "For the five thousandth time in my career I wished that instead of being a writer at In Depth, I could be something else, something with emotion" (pg 190). Why do you suppose Amy chose a career as a journalist? Does it have anything to do with its emphasis on fact and not on emotion, as she seems to indicate? How important is professional achievement to Amy?
5. As a reporter, part of Amy's job is to interview, evaluate, and observe other people and then depict them accurately in print. How does Amy see herself? How do others see her, including Tatty, John, Gloria, Chicky, Rose, and Aunt Linda? Compare Amy's public persona with the private person.
6. "I was quite young, sixteen or so, when I decided I wanted a child no matter what. Even back then, I understood I might not be anyone's idea of a prize in the marriage sweepstakes. So husband or no, I would have a baby. Be in afamily" (pg 84). Are you surprised that Amy wants a child of her own? Why or why not? What do you think of her motivations for wanting a child? How does she reconcile her desire for a family with her fear that she might abandon her child, as her mother did?
7. How would you describe Amy's meeting with Rose? Did anything about their visit surprise you? What similarities do Amy and Rose share?
8. Tatty says to Amy, "Compare [Rose] to Grandma Lil and ChickyŠ. Lil was responsible. She probably even loved you in her own self-centered, clueless way. Even if she didn't, she did what was right. She stuck by you. And look at Chicky. He got out of jail and what was the first thing he did? Took care of youŠ. Both of them had good character" (pg 233). What does Amy come to realize about Grandma Lil that she might have misjudged? How about Chicky?
9. How come it took Amy until her 29th year to begin the search for her mother?
10. The first thing Véronique says to Amy when she sees her in the parking lot is, "Get away from me!" What does this reaction to Amy's appearance say about Véronique? When they sit down to talk, how does she justify leaving Amy? Do you have any feelings of empathy for Véronique?
11. Did Amy's conversation with her mother unfold as you expected it would? Why or why not? Does it unfold as Amy thought it would? Does Amy's conversation with her mother give her the closure she seeks?
12. In the beginning of the story Amy is intending to break off her relationship with John. What makes her realize that he is the man she wants to spend the rest of her life with? Do you think she and John are right for each other? Are the ups and downs Susan Isaacs portrays in their relationship realistic?
13. Who is more responsible for their breakup, Amy or John?
14. Susan Isaacs has said that "dialogue has always been the easiest for me. I hear it whether they're a fishwife in Brooklyn or like Tatty." What do you think about the dialogue in this book? Is this where the characters show their characters? Is it what makes the book vivid and lively?
15. Amy could easily have lived the life of "victim." What is there in her character and background that make her so resilient?
16. What does Amy learn about family during her search for her mother? Along the way, how do her relationships with the people around her change? What is the greatest change that happens to Amy? In the end, does she find a place to hang her hat?
Read an Excerpt
I stepped off the elevator right into the entrance gallery of the co-op. Wow. It was oval. White marble floor, black lacquered walls, ringed with eight or ten white columns topped with marble busts, like a hall of fame for some minor sport. The hostess of the fund-raiser eyed my photo ID, which hung from a metal bead chain. "Well," she said, "In Depth magazine. I absolutely adore it.""Tha -- " I replied.
I didn't get out nk you because she cut me off: "Is the photographer meeting you here?"
"Sorry, we don't use them. No photos, no illustrations." She'd had her eyes done, so they couldn't open wider than they already were. Still, I sensed she was surprised. "Only text," I explained. "We're the serious, boring weekly."
"Right. Of course no photos. I don't know what I was thinking. But don't call In Depth boring. I think people are feeling desperate for depth these days. Well, enjoy. Feel free to help yourself to hors d'oeuvres." Her dress, I noticed, was the 2003 New York noncolor, white. Ivory silk bands were sewn horizontally, making her look as if she'd stopped her own mummification to join the party.
Although the words In Depth on my press credentials were clear enough to her, I could see she couldn't quite make out my name. I helped her. "Amy Lincoln." A microsecond of hostess uncertainty: Lincoln? Her upper lip twitched. Should her first smile have been warmer? Her heretofore unlined forehead furrowed as she pondered asking: Any relation to the -- ?
If she could have seen the rest of the fruit on our family tree, she wouldn't have pondered. Any relation to the -- ? Please! So where did the name come from? Though highly unlikely, it's conceivable that Grandma Lillian Lincoln's explanation of the family surname was a misconception, not her usual flagrant lie: something to the effect that in the penultimate year of the nineteenth century, some Protestant clerk on Ellis Island with an antic sense of humor wrote down "Samuel Lincoln" when my great-grandfather -- full of beard, dark of eye, and large of nose -- stepped before him.
More likely, Great-grandpa Schmuel Weinreb heard the names Washington and Lincoln while hanging out around the pickle barrel in downtown Nizhni Novgorod listening to stories about the Golden Land. Flipping a kopek, he got tails. Could he truly have believed that by being a Lincoln, he could keep anyone in New York from noticing his six extant teeth and ten words of English? Probably. My family tended to prefer fantasy to actual thought.
Take Grandma Lil. She took the subway uptown a day or two or three a week to fill in as a substitute waxer, ripping the hair off the lips, legs, and random chins of the famous and the merely rich at Beauté, an uptown, upscale salon.
From the jet-set and celebrity clientele, Grandma learned about the finer things of life, information she felt obliged to pass on to me, mainly because no one else would listen. Inadvertently, she also taught me what not to do. Early on, I sensed that pointing out that one shouldn't wear white shoes before Memorial Day was not the way to endear oneself to one's neighbors in one's low-income housing project.
Anyhow, a hundred and five years after Great-grandpa Schmuel, there I was, Amy Lincoln, at a political fund-raiser hosted by some men's footwear magnate in his ten-room co-op on Central Park West. His wife, now high on the abracadabra combo of In Depth and Lincoln, murmured to me: "If you want something more than hors d'oeuvres, I can have our chef, Jean-Pierre, whip up a light supper." This time she aspirated the hors hard enough for me to get a whiff of the garlic in Jean-Pierre's boudin blanc terrine. I said no thanks.
Listen, I was there to do my job, to observe the most recently declared Democratic candidate for the presidential nomination, Senator Thomas Bowles of Oregon. Originally the scion of an old and still-monied New York family, Bowles had gone west and made a larger, eco-friendly fortune for himself by finding some new way to recycle tires.
Normally, reporters were not allowed into private homes for events like these, probably on the theory that they'd pick up a disparaging remark and use it as their lead. Or they'd glom a thousand bucks' worth of Beluga, leaving seventy-five potential contributors with two hundred pygmy buckwheat blinis and a surfeit of lemon wedges. The senator's campaign manager, normally a human piranha, had made an exception for me because In Depth was so dignified it never published bitchy observations regarding a candidate's dyed hair or ferocious temper. And naturally, any insinuations about unconventional sexual predilections, even really sick and/or fantastically interesting ones, were left to lesser periodicals.
Anyhow, I'd been traveling with Senator Bowles's campaign for a few days now. I'd watched him avoid probably thirty thousand empty calories by sipping bottled water, and was awed by his willpower and robust bladder. Politically, he was a little to the left of where I stood; the word evil -- à la Reagan's evil empire and W's axis of evil -- wasn't in his vocabulary, and corporation was consistently a pejorative. Still, going on this campaign swing had been a plus for me. I was impressed by the thoughtful way Thom Bowles spoke about his big issues. With eagerness, too, as though complex ideas were not to be recoiled from but enjoyed. I admired his I-dare-you-to-call-me-liberal American flag pin as well as his clarity: Two days earlier, in Story City, Iowa, his explanation of the social and psychological underpinnings of global terrorism had turned an audience of small business owners from thinking "pinko weenie tree-hugger" to "Hey, he really knows his stuff."
Bowles was in his second term in the Senate, and from the start of his political career, he'd been a frequent talking head on news shows. His depth of knowledge, aw-shucks persona, and seeming lack of self-righteousness combined with a bit of humor made his the perfect response to all those ranting right-wing babes with Alice-in-Wonderland hair and Jewish neo-cons so low-key they appeared anesthetized. Also, he could make ordinary voters comprehend the gravity of issues -- the greenhouse effect, the crises in Social Security funding and in the penal system -- that usually left them snoring.
Alas, his campaign had gotten off to a bumpy start. During his announcement of his candidacy, the senator proclaimed: "Our penile system is in atrocious shape!" A single, nervous fluff in a career remarkably free of bloopers and gaffes. After cruel and hilarious coverage on The Daily Show, the other late-night talk show hosts kept it alive for two weeks. This had been Thomas Bowles's first penile-free week, but his usual fluency and light touch had diminished; he actually seemed rattled. Day after day, sprinkles of sweat covered his forehead. He couldn't seem to stop inserting uhs as if they were commas, so on guard was he against a "pubic policy" suddenly bursting forth.
I glanced toward the living room. I figured the senator must be in the center of the herd of Manhattanites standing between the marble-covered Italian console that was serving as a bar and a Louis-probably-XV chair so commodious that at least three Bourbons could have sat side by side by side on its gold-damask-covered seat. However, Thom Bowles was not easy to spot. While he photographed as Strapping Western Outdoor Man, with rectilinear jaw and skin the color of a sun-dried tomato, he was not much more than five foot seven and built along the lines of a gazelle.
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