The Great Husband Hunt [Paperback]

Laurie Graham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003

From the author of The Future Homemakers of America comes the hilarious and moving story of one unstoppable woman's unforgettable ride through an ever-changing century.... What hope is there for Poppy Minkel? She has kinky hair, big ears, skin that's too sallow, and an appetite for fun. Poppy's mother, Dora, despairs of ever finding her a husband, despite the lure of the family fortune offered by Minkel's Mighty Fine Mustard. Correctness, duty, and Dora Minkel Ear Correcting Bandages are the weapons in this husband hunt-and they serve as torture to a girl who has her own hazy ideas about beauty, love, and marriage. After the sudden death of her father, Poppy's rebelliousness bursts into full bloom. From one World War to the next, from New York to Paris, she'll invent her own extraordinary life with never a moment of self-doubt...as acclaimed author Laurie Graham treats us to a rollicking, exhilarating celebration of passion over prudence.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Graham's humorous fictional autobiography of Poppy Minkel, the tart-tongued heiress ("Jewish, to just the right degree") of Minkel's Mighty Fine Mustard, is a Zelig-like romp through the 20th century. Poppy's irrepressible voice recreates her world with a disarming bluntness that often abandons propriety for a good laugh ("education is a greatly overrated thing") while never sidestepping the essential truths of any well-lived life (e.g., "No one can be expected to look at difficult art without a glass in one's hand"). Graham's enjoyable The Future Homemakers of America toasted the delights of long-term friendship between women and exhibited the author's flair for nostalgic historical fiction. Her new novel views history through Poppy's wide, self-obsessed eyes, painting a lyrically linear portrait of a flawed, believable character who never abandons her quest to be a "heroine." Poppy's "memoir" begins with her grief over losing her father on the Titanic, barrels along at a great pace through WWI, the 1920s, the 1930s, WWII, the 1960s and ends with a sanguine widow's observations in the late 1970s. Poppy's evolution through heiress/shop girl, fashion "originator"/wife, aviatrix/seductress, mother/art gallery owner/widow proceeds at a dizzying clip. Married first to a rake she meets while selling ties at Macy's, Poppy divorces him after their first child is born and takes up with a Brit distantly related to the Royals. Their affair results in a surprise pregnancy and leads to a second, happier marriage. Poppy weathers many losses, but her friendship with her stepbrother Murray-most beloved of her family members-teaches her a great lesson: "In life you have to look ahead and not behind." Graham's protagonist is much less conventional than the book's title leads readers to expect; those looking for ordinary historical romance will get more than they bargained for.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Poppy Minkel-Minton Catchings Merrick is every bit as eccentric as her name. Heiress to the Minkel Mighty Fine Mustard fortune, she's a fey flibbertigibbet living in the shadow of her pampered sister and under the glare of her domineering mother and aunt. Though the dynamic may be pure Cinderella, there's no fairy godmother, glass slipper, or Prince Charming coming to her rescue. Poppy manages to make her own way in life, despite a disastrous first marriage and the death of her second husband. Indeed, from the sinking of the Titanic to the 1929 stock market crash to the Nazi terrors of World War II, Poppy has always found herself in the thick of things, yet armed with an indomitable spirit and a rebellious nature, she manages to survive and thrive where lesser women would fail. Charting the course of Poppy's life against such a historically rich backdrop, Graham takes a sometimes silly, sometimes serious tone in this capricious exploration of one memorable woman's life. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446691321
• ISBN-13: 978-0446691321
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,562,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't be misled by the cover, January 16, 2004

By 

dikybabe "admeyer" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Husband Hunt (Paperback)

This is not a romance! The title and photo on the cover could mislead you. But this is a clever book, a marvelous character read. And I loved it. I think Laurie Graham has captured the ultimate eccentric spirit in Poppy, who is modeled somewhat on Peggy Guggenheim, according to Graham's interview at the end of the novel. (By-the-way, author Graham now resides in Venice, the home of the Peggy Guggenheim Museum.)

I am reminded of the Mitford novels and biographies, not Jan Karon, but Nancy Mitford, i. e. Love in a Cold Climate, The Pursuit of Love, Don't Tell Alfred. And of the Five Sisters: The Langhornes of Virginia. There is even a taste of the absurditiy of AbFab of BBC TV.

For certainly Poppy has genuine feelings, as expressed by her loss of her father and the confusion over his double life, and she belabors her having been controlled by her mother and her aunt. But she is a strong and willful rich woman, a mustard heiress who seems to have no sense of conventional behavior at all, especially as it concerns her daughters, or husbands. She buys her way through life, but it isn't all despicable. In fact, her ways as an avant garde originator/fashion designer, and discover and seller of art, are not so foreign to those who actually fill that world even today. Witness the emergence of design of all kinds in the world of cable TV channels and realize what entertainment value it must provide to not only stay on the air but multiply and clone itself into more and more programming.

There is a definite message in this journey the reader takes with Poppy at the helm, and it is the importance of one's family after all. In addition there is a sense of history, as in the effect of world events on culture. But the humor and oddity in the story line keep this from being a maudlin tale. The whole set of characters is no more eccentric than any other good novel, often a Southern tale. But the mix of Jewish and Christian culture with the art world and the world of the wealthy makes for a fun read. Poppy is an addictive flower of a protagonist, both reprehensible and sympathetic.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dreck, January 5, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Great Husband Hunt (Paperback)

Okay, maybe it's because I majored in English/Literature that I'm a bit more picky about what I read than the others who have reviewed this novel, but I have to ask - did we all read the same book?

To begin, both the title and book "blurb" were tremendously misleading. The gist of both was that Poppy was a spunky, free-spirited girl trying to fight against the oppression of her mother's grand scheme to find her a husband. Instead, this is the rather self-centered ramblings of a rather uninteresting woman. Whoo - Poppy's an aviator? Whoopie! I'd have been more impressed if that part of the story was enlarged upon... what was it like for her, as a woman in the early 1920s, to take flight lessons, etc.? In fact, I would have been more impressed, period, had the author actually told a story. Instead, the reader is subjected to Poppy's constant "I'm so great, I'm so much better than everyone else is" bragging. It got extremely tiresome and this book plodded on.

It seems to me that because the "book club guide" questions are often intelligent, they lend to certain books more credibility than they actually deserve. This is one of those books. While I am the first to admit that I found Graham's "Future Homemakers of America" sadly lacking in both plot, essence and skilled writing, I was willing to give this book a try (because of the aforementioned "blurb"). What a letdown. In the author interview, Graham blatantly admits to having done "no research". This, above all, is abundantly evident in this book. For example, the sinking of the Titanic has been so deeply documented, I found it incredible that she managed to get her facts so screwed up. Tell me please, Ms. Graham, how it would be possible for people on land (and particularly a newspaper) to be aware of the collision BEFORE the Carpathia was? The comment from Poppy's aunt that the latest news is that there was a collision but the boat is being towed is ludicrous. THEN the same aunt says that the news now is that the Carpathia has picked up the survivors. Ummm... excuse me, Ms. Graham... it's not as though Titanic passengers had cell phones to call landside and give updates. Further, as someone who has read MANY books on the Titanic, I am simply amazed that she thought this would fly. Word of the Titanic disaster did not reach home until AFTER the Carpathia came along. Somehow I don't think the Marconi operators were spending their time wiring newsrooms rather than sending the SOS.

Additionally, I found the blase nature of the characters' salon visits to be a bit progressive for the times... "cancel my manicure!". In 1920? Puhleeze!!!!

There is also the superfluous characters whose introduction, indeed their mere mention, made no sense and who had no point to the book. Cousin Addie? What role did she play? What role did Stassy play? None whatsoever, so why bore the reader with more useless banalty?

Finally, Poppy's self-pitying whining about how her family always tried to run her life for her, etc. is nothing more than ridiculous. It seems to me (or, in Poppy's words, I'm sure) that she was the person who went out of her way to abuse her family and ruin their lives. Granted, her daughter's fixation on Gil was ridiculous, but Poppy's lies contributed to her state of mind. Of course, Poppy's perfect, so why take the blame?

As for the ending, I found it woefully uncharacteristic of Poppy. Suddenly the high-flying "I'm-so-much-younger-than-I-seem-and-I've-still-got-it" Poppy is content to live in Florida and eat early bird specials at a restaurant with a (gasp!) salad bar? This from the person who shuddered when her grandchildren didn't chose a four-star restaurant? Not likely. Then again, neither are the chances of me buying another book by Laurie Graham.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, even when annoying, March 5, 2004

By 

Kirstin G. Larson (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great Husband Hunt (Paperback)

The Great Husband Hunt, while the title is seriously flawed, is a fun, quick read. The main character, Poppy is a woman that you will love to hate. Uneducated, spoiled, and self-absorbed, she is also fun, impulsive, and hedonistic. Born into an affluent family in the early 1900s, she experiences all of the highlights of the 20th century; the sinking of the Titanic, 2 World Wars, Vietnam. She bounces through life with a carefree, unconcerned attitude, and, in spite of herself, everything always seems to work out in the end. There were times when I found myself disliking Poppy so much, I wondered if I wanted to finish the book. A few pages more, though, and I'd have forgotton all about how much she ticked me off and get caught up in her next adventure. Now, don't we all know people just like that??
Don't let yourself get too caught up in the historical details of this book. After all, it is just fiction! Let go a little, and, hopefully, you'll enjoy this as much as I do.