The Hard Way [Paperback]

Julie Luongo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 27, 2008

Lucy Venier changes careers and boyfriends as often as she changes her socks. Although gifted with wit and creativity, the one thing Lucy lacks is focus. While being someone she’s not, be it crime reporter or sleep-deprived law student, Lucy’s one constant is art. Her insatiable desire to create is fueled by her offbeat life experiences. But unfortunately by day Lucy must hide her creativity under her business suit.

As if figuring out her life isn’t hard enough, all of Lucy’s friends are getting married. But Lucy’s not sure if she’s capable of living happily ever after. With a string of loser former flames, giving up seems to be the best option. But then there’s Ben—Lucy’s Mr. Right who comes at completely the wrong time. But is he truly The One? Did Lucy miss her chance?

In the tradition of The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing, The Hard Way is a scrapbook of stories from Lucy’s life. As she discovers more about the people around her, will she finally begin to understand herself?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After college, Lucy Venier's search for happiness takes her on a bumpy but ultimately fulfilling ride in Luongo's witty debut. Should Lucy be a Philly crime reporter, a Web content writer, an advertising whiz, or should she follow in her sister's footsteps and go to law school? Or should she embrace her gifted inner artist? Although Lucy's amazingly adjusted in some ways, she's woefully behind in others. Sometimes her boyfriends—an older newspaperman who uses her for sex; an abusive recovering alcoholic and a boorish store manager who talks like a wasted rapper—lead her down some unfortunate paths. But Lucy's irrepressible spirit helps her survive, while surprise reconnections with her sister and a former fiancé support her realization that life is an act of art-in-progress. Though it has the trappings of chick lit, this is much wiser and frequently funnier; it reads like a novel-in-stories, each piece contributing to the overall effect of a young woman coming—often roughly—into her own. (June)
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From Booklist

Like the novels of Melissa Bank, Luongo’s first offering is a novel-in-stories. Her protagonist, Lucy Venier, spends her twenties floundering in careers and relationships that are wrong for her. Lucy tries her hand at journalism, advertising, sales, and even law school, but none of the professions feel like the right fit for the artistic Lucy, who is most at home when painting or filling her surroundings with her creations. Her taste in men is even more misguided: she dates a feckless, unfaithful newspaper editor; an arrogant cad who magnifies her self-loathing; and an incomprehensible loser who gambles away $800 on her credit card.  The only winner of the bunch is Ben, who is both charming and funny and believes in Lucy, but his proposal and their subsequent engagement feel suffocating. Though Lucy’s boyfriends aside from Ben are almost unrealistically unappealing, her sharp observations (“I’ve stopped reading women’s magazines, so I feel less and less trivial everyday”) make her a heroine worth rooting for. --Kristine Huntley

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (May 27, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765316676
• ISBN-13: 978-0765316677
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #948,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Julie Luongo is an American novelist (1970-) and former university writing instructor who left the profession because she was sick of hearing herself enthuse about word economy. She spent some years in Philadelphia writing short-short plays that everyone clapped at the end of, which made her feel conflicted. So, she went to a cabin in the woods with no running water and wrote her first novel The Hard Way, which got some really nice reviews in Publisher's Weekly and Booklist. It also received a Reviewers' Choice nomination from Romantic Times Book Reviews. Luongo now lives in the Poconos, in a house in the woods with running water where she is writing her next novel. She can always be found online at www.julieluongo.com, where she blogs about bad song lyrics, commercials, and pop culture.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A triumph of character development and genre-bending, May 28, 2008

By 

L. peterson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hard Way (Paperback)

Let's hope that this is just the beginning of a long line of Luongo's books... and don't pigeonhole this book as chick lit -- it speaks far more to the human condition. Lucy Venier (the protagonist) is the equivalent of a modern day Everywoman -- forever searching, enlightening, living, growing, loving.

And like Lucy the emerging artist, Luongo has create an artwork, no an art gallery, of her own -- No longer confined to the traditional structure of a novel, Luongo has created a fascinating new genre yet to be named... how about `Collage in Vignettes' or `Braided Shorts'? But, no it's more than those...this new genre perfectly compliments the journey of the protagonist, from scene to scene, job to job, relationship to relationship, artwork to artwork.

A great read!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You need this book, May 28, 2008

By 

Jennifer (Pottstown, PA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Hard Way (Paperback)

Funny, smart, touching, and superbly well written. You'll love this book, your friends will love this book. Julie has done an amazing job with Lucy - we all know a Lucy in our own lives, and you can't help but love her. I can't wait for the next book!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You've Got A Friend, June 4, 2008

By 

Peg Smith "MamaPeg Is Watching You" (Cinnaminson, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hard Way (Paperback)

Lucy Venier is a good friend! Her story parallels the lives we live every day, lives that take such twists and turns with people weaving in and out and then becoming a part of us in such a subtle way.

Julie Luongo weaves a tale of the ups and downs of relationships. Lucy's family and friends, oh, and Lucy, herself, are characters that we've all known and loved. As Lucy struggles to find her truth, we laugh out loud and occasionally cringe at the choices she makes. But the development of Lucy and her relationships is a triumph and a true example of living life with gusto!

Philadelphia color looms large in this narrative. Well structured and fun to read, I plan to take the book "down the shore" and read it again.