Happy Trails to You: Stories [Hardcover]

Julie Hecht (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 6, 2008

When Julie Hecht's stories first appeared in The New Yorker, her unnamed photographer-narrator became an instant literary icon. Chronicles of her strategies for surviving civilization's decline -- herbal remedies, macrobiotics, a bit of Xanax -- have established her as one of the most captivating and eagerly read voices in modern literature.

In this new collection of stories, Julie Hecht reclaims the darkly funny, existential territory for which she is known: "People say 'Good morning,' but don't believe them. It's just something to say." The uniquely eccentric narrator reappears in Happy Trails to You and recounts her perplexed engagements with our society and the larger world -- whether she's attempting to withdraw money from a bank machine, worrying about Paul McCartney, or seeking a nonexistent place of calm on Nantucket, where nail guns and chain saws have replaced the sounds of birds singing.

Appalled by life in our times, the narrator recounts innumerable artifacts from a now vanished America (civility, idealism, Elvis Presley, well-made appliances). She is also exquisitely attuned to the absurdities of our culture; her acute observations illuminate every subject, from the dangers of microwave ovens to the disappearing ozone layer. With deadpan wit, the author reveals the truths of a new century. Happy Trails to You is a radically distinctive work of American fiction.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Returning from the story collection Do the Windows Open? (1996) and novel, The Unprofessionals (2003), Hecht's married, childless photographer is still stuck in her mid-40s. Diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and counting the Nantucket days until she can see her psychiatrist again, she quietly frets the summer away over the course of seven expertly heartbreaking tales. The narrator has mastered her issues, but only to the point that her horror—of other people's meat eating, of their bodily flaws and of almost everything else about them—surfaces in only the mildest passive-aggressive forms; what goes on beneath that surface is what comprises the book. Over There chronicles two visits to an elderly hard-of-hearing neighbor: its tacit comparison of the narrator's ways of accommodating her illness with her neighbor's accommodations of old age is exquisite. Being and Nothingness records the narrator's use of an Emerson biography and of taking the flag down as an antidote to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Elsewhere, she intervenes in a gay actor-waiter acquaintance's health regimen, and instructs her intractable Jamaican cleaner helper Norma on the dangers of radiation—and on how to dress for her job. A life that consists entirely of neurotic avoidance produces a peculiar pathos, and Hecht nails it unfailingly. (May)
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Review

"But as times have changed, so has [the book's] character -- wonderfully, bracingly so. Hecht's latest story collection, Happy Trails to You, is piloted by the same half-babbling, half-deadpan voice, now with larger, more political concerns...These aren't merely the worries of an eccentric middle-aged East Coast vegetarian; they're the all-too-common concerns of the mainstream liberal consciousness. In the new century, Hecht's narrator is suddenly less alone in her alarm and alienation, finding more kindred spirits than ever before...But Hecht plays with this stereotype on many levels, and the collection's strongest moments describe a frustration with civilization that can't be blamed solely on psychosis." -- Katherine Hill, Bookforum --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1 edition (May 6, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 141656425X
• ISBN-13: 978-1416564256
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,725,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended!, May 15, 2008

By 

Diane St John (Mission Viejo, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Happy Trails to You: Stories (Hardcover)

I have avidly awaited this sequel to Hecht's wonderful first story collection (Do the Windows Open?), and was thrilled to find that this collection is deeper, wiser, more mature, and a joy to read. I have just finished it and want to immediately re-read it. The writing is delicate and elegant, with sudden hilarious moments, and although the narrator could be described as rigid, neurotic and judgmental, she also comes across as deeply sensitive, intelligent and caring - i.e., very human - a wonderful sleight of hand for an author. Many of the stories are almost perfectly crafted and all are subtly understated. I love this author and I love this book.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicacy, July 20, 2008

By 

Eileen Pollock (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Happy Trails to You: Stories (Hardcover)

Julie Hecht writes rarely, but when she does it is with a rare delicacy. She describes the everyday, but with a special sensitivity, and always, absurdity, though not of the obvious sort. She describes the gift of a pair of mittens, an encounter with an actor-waiter, her relationship with her cleaning lady, with a mixture of bemusement and outright bewilderment. I feel Julie Hecht is a stranger on her home turf, and especially, a stranger in 21st century America, or what this country has become. I wish we could be friends, but that would be impossible, since I live in New York City and my food choices would deeply offend her sensibilities. In fact, her intolerance in a hyper-tolerant culture is one of her most attractive qualities. Her doctrinaire insistence on standards, albeit standards that are politically liberal and nutritionally vegan, is again, charming, because it is deeply rooted in an at-times off-kilter humanity. I was disappointed, though, in the last story, where a bizarre interview leads to poignant reflections on the state of the culture and the ignorance of young people. It was to me too much, it veered off the atmosphere of hothouse sensibility that Julie Hecht's narrator previously had inhabited. But the story that culminates in her taking down the American flag, and particularly, the reason why she takes it down, is deeply patriotic, albeit in an offbeat, quirky way. A fine follow up to her brilliant Do the Windows Open?

8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "Happy Trails" leads the reader down a disappointing road., March 26, 2009

By 

Readers Reader (Sayreville, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Happy Trails to You: Stories (Hardcover)

I read another book by this author and I found it amusing and touching. I also enjoyed her New Yorker stories very much. This book, however, is like the experience of having dinner with someone, however interesting, who keeps trying to force their political agenda down your throat. It really should be tagged as a political book since a large percentage of the stories are a push for liberalism and go on and on about her extreme dislike for Republicans. Every time a story stars drawing in the reader, her political views and intolerance get in the way...going overboard, ruining it. I don't want to be preached to by Democrats or Republicans unless I'm watching a political analysis show on CNN or some other news channel. She touched on political themes in her other book, but it wasn't the main focus, and you got a good feel for her politics but more so about her life as an eccentric and the way she deals with anxiety, self-centered friends, kooky people, and her feeling of being alone in the world. In this collection, most of the stories have a left leaning preachy feel (also about being a vegan), which is as boring and annoying as being accosted by a over zealous campaigner on the sidewalk. Ms. Hecht is much better when she is observing the strangeness of people and her own neurotic reactions to life in modern times.