Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Review: The Mightly Queens of Freeville: A Mother, A Daughter, and the People Who Raised Them

Author: Amy Dickinson
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 4/5
Grade: C - 14 and up (mild language)

The Mighty Queens of Freeville is the memoir of Amy Dickinson, who writes the syndicated advise column, "Ask Amy", which appears in more than 150 newspapers nationwide. She was chosen as a replacement to Ann Landers' advice column. Any followers of "Ask Amy" will surely enjoy this look into the life of the woman behind the column, and why her motto is "I make the mistakes so you don't have to".

In this memoir Amy tells about her marriage, divorce, and years of being a single parent. She focuses on her continual returns to her hometown of Freeville, New York, and how the clan of women relatives there have been her backbone and support through tough times.

This book seemed to lack a real cohesiveness, instead it flows more like a collection of slightly related essays. There are some really great points in the book. Especially touching are the chapters at the end of the book about her daughter leaving home. Less exceptional, at least to me, was the very long and detailed chapter about the finding and eventual death of their beloved cat, Pumpkin. But I am not really a cat lover, so maybe I lack understanding there.

Great title, great concept, the book was well written and interesting -- but I didn't feel that there was enough shown of those mighty women who are her inspiration and support.

3 comments:

Luanne January 6, 2009 at 4:09 PM  

This one's still on my TBR pile - I've heard mixed reviews. Enjoyed yours!

cindysloveofbooks January 6, 2009 at 5:30 PM  

Great Review. I agree there could have been more mention of the strong women in the book.

Kaye January 7, 2009 at 6:31 AM  

I reviewed this also and didn't feel like there was that much depth to it. Life altering events happened and it seemed to be an oh ho hum sort of response from Amy. I thought the strongest woman in the whole book was her mother. Now she is someone who should write her memoir.

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