First We Quit Our Jobs: How One Work Driven Couple Got on the Road to a New Life [Paperback]

Marilyn J. Abraham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 1997

What happens when two executives leave their jobs, friends, and the city behind to hit the road in a twenty-seven foot RV? America the beautiful becomes a place of sights, foods, people, memories, and a little wisdom.



After fifty-two combined years in the corporate fast lane, Marilyn Abraham and her husband, Sandy MacGregor, embarked on an adventure that every work-driven professional dreams about but hardly ever has the courage to realize. They quit their jobs and hit the road in order to retrain themselves in the art of living. For almost a year, the couple traveled nearly 20,000 miles to thirty-one states, including Washington, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Tennessee, and through seven Canadian provinces to Alaska, in the hulking RV they named Sue.



More than just a travelogue, First We Quit Our Jobs is the story of recreating one's life and discovering what is real, what is true, and what is important. Filled with visions of Americana, this personal and touching memoir traces the author's search for meaning in this modern day.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Just a few months shy of his 20th anniversary at RCA, Sandy MacGregor got his pink slip. Once the shock wore off, he and his wife, Marilyn J. Abraham, then a vice president and editor at Simon & Schuster, did what any rational couple with more than fifty-two combined years on the corporate fast track would do: they traded in the boardroom for the open road and embarked on a four-month trek across America. First We Quit Our Jobs is Abraham's account of their odyssey. Granted, a Winnebago was not their first choice when the bad news came, but after an attempt to buy a small publishing company in New England fell through, MacGregor and Abraham packed their bags and went in search of their destiny.

Part travelogue, part meditation, and part guide to "the road not taken," First We Quit Our Jobs is a charmingly written chronicle of discovery. As MacGregor and Abrahams began to depart from the way they'd always assumed their lives would go, they found the freedom to shape the way they'd like their lives to be.

From Library Journal

Abraham and her husband, Sandy, quit their New York City publishing jobs, rented a 30-foot recreational vehicle nicknamed "the Sue," and headed across the continent to Alaska and back on a four-month journey to rethink their lives. Along the way, they stopped in Edmonton (Canada), Fairbanks, Seattle, Santa Fe, and Memphis, as well as a host of scenic parks, campsites, and hot tubs. Despite warnings from friends and family, they found life on the road wonderfully successful. Lacking the humor and gentle exaggeration of Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence (LJ 4/1/90) and Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island (LJ 4/1/96), Abraham's work is marred by its uninspired description of insignificant events and people who appear two-dimensional, including Sandy. However, the narrative comes to life in Abraham's touching but brief reminiscences of her childhood (learning to cook after her mother's death, a visit to an Orthodox synagogue). For public libraries.?Linda M. Kaufmann, North Adams State Coll., Mass.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Dell (January 2, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044050757X
• ISBN-13: 978-0440507574
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,571,834 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Power vacationing, April 3, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: First We Quit Our Jobs: How One Work Driven Couple Got on the Road to a New Life (Paperback)

This book is more like a glorified vacation than a real life changing tale. Working in high stress, high paying jobs with incomes to match; I do not think these folk have much to tell the rest of us. Sure they can go buy that Class A and have a fine time for a few months. Why not, it is well within their means. Shut the house on the lake for a while; take a few months to see the US. Have a great time. For most of the population quitting jobs and traveling for several months would be a huge undertaking, Many people go entire lives, until retirement without the means to walk away, from their employment, leave their house vacant and travel. I do not think this author has much useful advice for the average person. If you want a book on an RV journey, read Barb Thacker or Sharlene Minshall or Steels on Wheels or Ray Parker. If you want a pleasant read about a rather extensive vacation, buy this book. The writing is pleasant, the story is enjoyable, and I do not regret reading the book. Nonetheless I did have a feeling I was adding to an already hefty bank account. The author is from the publishing field and knew how to turn this trip into a paying venture.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Soul searching RVer, September 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: First We Quit Our Jobs: How One Work Driven Couple Got on the Road to a New Life (Paperback)

I must say this is an entertaining read; one that gives much encouragement to making the choice to quit, sell up, and hit the road. Ms. Abraham does much soul searching and philosophizing about the choice she and her husband made, even getting down right personal sometimes. I loved her self-deprecating anecdotes of what it is like for a born 'n bred New Yorker to discover that the vast beyond isn't as deprived of culture or gourmet food as she had always believed. The only downside is that, if you are looking for the technicals of RV life, they won't be found here. That was fine for me, I can always hit the RV web pages and newsgroups for the cold, hard facts of RV life. What I found here was the spirit of an RVer.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Yuppies travel West, January 20, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: First We Quit Our Jobs: How One Work Driven Couple Got on the Road to a New Life (Paperback)

I picked this book up at Borders', intrigued by the title and happy to take an armchair vacation across the west. While I enjoyed their travels, sympathized with their need to abandon the corporate world, I must admit I was a bit nauseated by the replacement of one chic place for another (Santa Fe). It wasn't like they had exactly abandonned or developed new life styles and an appreciation of the "simpler life." Sure, they were giving up a "Manhattan high stressed life" -- after all it was killing them. Who could live that world very long? But their materialistic superficial values continued. They still live in a glossy unreal yuppie world (Santa Fe). However, on the up side, I did enjoy their travels with all the comforts of home built in.