Mighty Queens of Freeville, The: A Mother, a Daughter, and the Town That Raised Them (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. I didnt become an advice columnist on purpose, writes Dickinson (author of the syndicated column Ask Amy) in her chapter titled Failing Up. In the summertime of 2002, after spending months living off of her credit cards between freelance writing jobs, Dickinson sent in an audition column to the Chicago Tribune and became the papers replacement for the late Ann Landers. Here, Dickinson traces her own personal history, as well as the history of her mothers family whose members make up the Mighty Queens of Freeville, N.Y., the small town where Dickinson was raised, and where she raised her own daughter between stints in London; New York City; Washington, D.C.; and Chicago. Dickinson writes with an honesty that is at once folksy and intelligent, and brings to life all of the struggles of raising a child (Dickinson was a single mother) and the challenges and rewards of having a supportive extended family. Im surrounded by people who are not impressed with me, Dickinson humorously laments. They dont care that my syndicated column has twenty-two million readers. Dickinsons irresistible memoir reads like a letter from an upbeat best friend. (Feb.)
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From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Amy Dickinson took over Ann Landers's syndicated advice column in 2003. In "The Mighty Queens of Freeville," she comes across very much as you'd expect an advice columnist to: smart, humorous, common-sensical, not prone to deep self-analysis and -- despite having lived in London and Chicago and worked in New York as a television producer -- a passionate proponent of small-town American values. Billed as a memoir, "The Mighty Queens" reads more like a collection of essays, something with which to pass the time while you're waiting at the airport. The book hits all the right contemporary women's-lit buttons, from the title, which immediately tells you you're in Sisters of the Traveling Pants territory, to the wry, bright writing style, to the cast of characters in Dickinson's family. They may suffer from an unusually high divorce rate, but they're terrific at sharing communal pancake breakfasts and being there for each other. No one is described in much detail. Daughter Emily, no doubt well on her way to Mighty Queenhood herself, doesn't get a lot of ink. Nor does the affluent, spoiled husband whom Dickinson followed to London and eventually divorced, though you can't help finding him rather interesting. The narrative skims lightly over a lot that you'd like to hear more about: Dickinson's childhood "on a failed dairy farm in rural poverty of the ugly, muddy sort," for example. And the beloved cow, Shirley, who ended up in pieces in the freezer. There's probably a very good story somewhere beneath the swift, chatty surface of Dickinson's prose, and perhaps someday she'll tell it. -- Juliet Wittman
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; 1 edition (February 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401322859
• ISBN-13: 978-1401322854
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #38,107 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Ordinary Life, February 6, 2009

By	litaddiction (Chicago) - See all my reviews

I believe that behind every ordinary face there's an extraordinary life story. But my belief wavered while reading The Mighty Queens of Freeville: A Mother, a Daughter, and the People Who Raised Them, a memoir by Amy Dickinson (of the syndicated advice column, "Ask Amy").

The life that Amy presents seems quite ordinary (motherhood, divorce, an extended family), but the narrative voice does little to make the familiar circumstances feel universal or engaging. Chapters are organized by topic (e.g. divorce; motherhood; buying a house; pets; moving away from family; career) rather than by time, and most begin by bumping the reader back to when Amy was married, with a baby. Over time, the structure feels like a loop that prevents forward movement.

A truly distinctive aspect of Amy's life -- that her extended family is almost exclusively women -- resides mostly in the memoir's title and is not developed within. Nor are many words devoted to the truly extraordinary aspect -- Amy being named successor to Ann Landers. Readers who bear through the ordinary in this memoir will likely be disappointed by the exclusion of the other.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest and hilarious memoir you should share with your mom, February 3, 2009

By	D. Quinn (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This memoir was wonderful - once I started reading I couldn't put it down. Dickinson's candid, no-nonsense prose is at once honest, touching and punctuated with hilarity, and her stories of female resilience are achingly real.

The story follows Dickinson from her divorce (when her daughter Emily is a toddler) to Emily's freshman year of college and catalogues the wide and varied lessons they learned together along the way. It's not a memoir about her rise to fame but rather about the extraordinarily ordinary women in her family who gave her skills to become a successful advice columnist and at the same time raise a child.

I highly recommend this book - read it, then give a copy to your mom!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nice set of anecdotes, February 3, 2009

By	M. Jacobsen "Stop the Spelling and Grammatica... (Southeast of Disorder) - See all my reviews

These are the loose memoirs of Amy Dickinson, the woman chosen to replace advice columnist extraordinaire Ann Landers. Her childhood, failed marriage, single motherhood and wayward pets are all fair game for this humorous look-back at her life before and after Ask Amy.

Billed as a memoir, Dickinson's book is perhaps better described as a loose collection of cute anecdotes about her family, her divorce, her pets, or anything else that comes to mind. Pieced together a bit haphazardly, Dickinson nonetheless has a sharp, witty voice that shines through no matter the seriousness of the subject matter.

The ex-husband gets repeatedly skewered throughout the book (apparently time, in fact, does not heal all wounds), but that's the price one pays when an ex-spouse has a national platform on which to skew as she wishes.

While the anectdotes were very enjoyable, there is a lack of focus on the original focus of the book, namely the female family members who inspire the title. The snippets of aunts, sisters and especially her mother leave you feeling it just wasn't enough. What the reader does get, however, is a snapshot of life that is easy to relate to and produces a chuckle or two.

If you love humor applied to the human condition, we're willing to bet you'd enjoy this one, as long as you don't have expectations of a thorough and introspective autobiography. Uplifting and never trite, Amy Dickinson touches on struggles common to all of us, meets those troubles head-on and shows us why we should never, ever give up.