Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

Your favorite bathrobe, your Birkenstocks, a bowl of Tapioca, whatever your favorite comfort is that is what I felt I was getting as I read more and more of Amy Dickinson's, The Mighty Queens of Freeville.

I read a lot of books of varying genre and topics, literary fiction, lots of memoirs, mysteries, and on and on. It seems that the subject matter can be more and more dramatic and touch lots of raw nerve these days. It seems the more dicey the subject matter, the more attention the press gives it, and it becomes the latest syndrome that everyone pulls up from their or their own family's past.

What I realized early on as I read Amy's memoir, was there were still everyday people out there that may have had the regular ups and downs in their lives but not the heavy, heavy, earth-shattering kind of drama that seems to be coming up on a regular basis. They weren't completely free of pain or grief but the majority of their life was committed just sharing and learning from one another the value of family, of supporting the ones you love and caring about them to the best of your ability.

It was refreshing, and reaffirming to read about "normal" people across this land. And I don't mean that in a negative way. Maybe because "reality" TV tries to make us think we are "not normal", it was time for this book to come along and remind us what normal family life can be like. Thank you Amy, for bringing back some normalcy to my reading life.

How disappointing. I really wanted to like this; I live in Chicago and always read Amy's column so I thought it would be interesting to see how she got to where she is today. I found no insights here - just someone still bitter about her ex-husband leaving her (get over it please) and who lucked into a great gig after many years of half-hearted attempts to get meaningful work. It's nice that her daughter seems to have turned out so well, but that's about the only nice thing about this book.

Let me correct a misunderstanding about this book. If you, like me, thought it was a book about women and sisters and mothers and daughters, all sharing bonding moments together ... it's not. This is why it has a three star rating instead of a four or even a five. The writing is good and conversational. It's quick and easy, but I still came away from the book knowing less about the author than I did when I picked it up. It was more about her and her daughter, living alone after Amy's divorce.

There are comical moments and funny writing in this book. You can hear the author telling the story in a wry voice which makes it even funnier. Amy Dickinson steps in to fill Ann Lander's shoes and while I don't get the "Ask Amy" column in my newspaper, my parents do, I think. We get "Annie's Mailbox" and "Dear Abby" in our newspapers, but I don't think I have read "Ask Amy." I'd like to because if she's funny in this book, I imagine she's funny in her columns. Anyhow, this book is more about the relationship she has with her daughter after the divorce. Her sisters and mother and aunts all were huge help in salving the wounds she suffered in the divorce. But the stories were light on them.

I am not a single mother by any means but my husband works a lot of hours and strange hours, so there have been times when I do feel like a single mother. This memoir touches a lot on that issue of raising a child on your own. What tickles me is how "nerdy" she is with Emily. Instead of signing her up for every single sports/ballerina/dance classes, she takes her to musuems and zoos and travels across the country to home in Freeville, NY. That child is blessed in spite of the fact that she may not have the traditional family structure. Dickinson was a very involved mother and it shows in her book. Between cats and school, Halloween, idyllic summers at home, it sounds very peaceful, though I am sure it wasn't at times.

If you like to read about mother/daughter relationships, this is an easy one to read. Just don't expect all the family ties as the title suggested. They're there, but just in scant details. This book would make a perfect mother's day present for your mom if she's into reading. It's sweet, cute and sassy. Perfect for the upcoming summer vacation!

3/17/09

My book club read this book, and not a single person enjoyed it. Amy Dickinson should stick to writing her column because she can't find the momentum for a full-length book. She didn't take any risks with her storytelling. What could have had potential just came across as bland and pointless. This book was a disappointment.

I was very disappointed in this book. Our book club reviewed it and there was no positive response. The consensus was that it was very difficult to follow and had very little substance. The woman who recommended it apologized as she had not read it prior to all of us reading it. I have the book and nobody to give it to as it is so poor.

Family relationships, values and friendships have always been important to Amy. While growing up she had especially strong bonds with the females in her life. Now that she is older she wonders if it is a curse or a blessing that all of the important people in her life are women. Even the women in her life, (her mother, most of her sisters, and her friends) can' t seem to hold onto the men in their lives at all. Her father just up and left when she was young, her brother doesn't speak to them, and her aunts (all but one) are divorced. Amy, seeing the doom is decidedly going to break the mold, determined that her marriage will be a success, it will be but not in the way she expects. The fruit of her attempt at marriage gives her a beautiful daughter, which she now gets to raise amongst the Mighty Queens of Freeville.

This is a memoir by Amy Dickinson, the author of the syndicated advice column ASK AMY and also an NPR contributor. The Mighty Queens of Freeville: A Mother, A Daughter and the People Who Raised Them is an interesting read, and I did like it, however I didn't love it. I think if I could have related more I would have enjoyed it more. I grew up with the stronger relationships in my family being male, I have a loving mother, but we just didn't have much in common. My brother was my ultimate soccer buddy, and we always had guy friends, now that I am older I see the value in female friendships, but for a long time I would have chosen a guy over a gal any day. Guys just made more sense to me, they fought it out, played it out and didn't play any manipulation games or talk about their feelings all the time (at least the ones I knew).

Yet, I did enjoy the community in this memoir, I loved reading of their weekly gatherings for breakfast at the same little diner, and their random spur of the moment gatherings which occurred almost daily. I love strong family ties, I think they keep people out of trouble, those who are most connected to loving families seem to know that they are loved and are secure. I found this in the Mighty Queens of Freeville. No matter what happened she had a sense of security that was beyond herself, it was the bonds of the mighty queens, who were always strong enough for the weakest link.

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"The Mighty Queens of Freeville" is Amy Dickinson's humorous memoir, describing her childhood and life thus far, and in particular focusing on her experiences as a single mother raising her daughter, Emily. There are also hilarious stories about the colorful members of her extended family, who have managed to remain close over the years.

This was a very fast and easy read for me. I enjoyed the way Amy recounted tales from her youth with vivid detail and always with a humorous slant. I especially liked the chapter about the 'dorkiness' that runs through her family's genes, highlighting her talent for self-deprecating humor.

Beyond the humor in the book though, what I liked most is the way Amy conveys her love for her family. Is is so evident how much she respects and admires them, despite their occasional mockery and overhwelming quirkiness. While I originally expected that there would more written about Amy's experiences on the job as the replacement for Anne Landers, I think it was the right choice to include more content about her family and it made my reading experience more fulfilling.

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