The Miss America Family [Paperback]

Julianna Baggott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 18, 2003

Pixie Kitchy was once Miss New Jersey. Now she's married to a dentist, an ex-quarterback in turtled golf pants. Her ten-year-old daughter, Mitzie, wears Bo-peep pincurls and twirls baton. Her sixteen-year-old son, Ezra, the person who knows her best, is caught up in his fling with the podiatrist's daughter. And Pixie is consumed by the past. She confides, "I was a housewife, and I became dangerous. Sometimes it's the only way possible to regain footing in the world." In this high-wire mixture of absurdity and pathos, hilarity and darkness, one American family finds out that there is no such thing as the perfect American family, and, for better or for worse, they come together and start anew.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With The Miss America Family, Julianna Baggott (Girl Talk) gives readers the literary equivalent of the film American Beauty. Baggott shines a light on the dark side of the American family with this quirky novel narrated in turns by a mother and son. Mother Pixie is a retired beauty queen and an almost-murderer; son Ezra is an awkward teen. Ezra's chapters are long on action: he loses his virginity, fights with his stepfather, finds out his father is gay, and keeps track of his kid sister. Pixie's chapters tend toward long, philosophical monologues about beauty and femininity. Some of these are dead-on, as when she remembers the first time she realized she was beautiful: "Everybody started acting like I had a gun, like I was armed and I could kill them if I wanted. It makes strangers awfully nice to you." Other times, her narrative slips into a simplistic, almost adolescent critique of suburban dysfunction: "I'd always really wanted to be Miss America so that I could have the perfect family." Is the failure of the American dream really news to anyone? --Claire Dederer --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Baggott takes family dysfunction to a new level in a sophomore effort (after last year's Girl Talk) full of kookiness and calamity. It's 1987, in suburban Delaware, and Pixie Stocker, Miss New Jersey of 1970, and her 16-year-old son, Ezra, take turns narrating this tale of domestic wheeling and dealing. As the novel opens, we learn that Pixie, who divorced her first husband (a handsome household cleaner salesman and Ezra's father) has shot her second (but only in the arm). Why did Pixie shoot dentist Dilworth Stocker? What is it like for intelligent Ezra to have grown up in such a bizarre family? These are some of the questions Baggott answers over the course of her highly readable narrative. Her wit is caustic, verging on mordant: sickly young Ezra, for example, can't have a cat, but he can pet his mother's fuzzy slippers while she purrs; while in the aftermath of the shooting, Pixie tells her daughter, Mitzie, that it was "something like the death of a beloved pet, bound to happen eventually to every American family." The family also includes Pixie's mother, who's convinced humans descended from fish, not Adam, and whose take on the Immaculate Conception is that Mary should have said "no" to Gabriel. Pixie's father, drunk, drowned while attempting a Houdini escape trick, and Cliff, her brother, was killed in Vietnam after the slaughter of a village. From the hilarious Ezra's seduction by the girl next door to the hideous Pixie's beauty contest mentor's self-induced abortion Baggott explores contemporary "civilized" behavior and the imperfections of a "perfect American family" with wit and grace.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press (February 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074342297X
• ISBN-13: 978-0743422970
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #514,292 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Critically acclaimed, bestselling author, Julianna Baggott -- who also writes under the pen names Bridget Asher (The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted) and N.E. Bode (The Anybodies) -- has published 17 books, including novels for adults, younger readers, and collections of poetry. Her latest novel, PURE, is the first of a trilogy; film rights have sold to Fox2000 -- www.pure-book.com. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Best American Poetry, Best Creative Nonfiction, Real Simple, on NPR.org, as well as read on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" and "Here and Now." Her novels have been book-pick selections by People Magazine's summer reading, Washington Post book-of-the-week, a Booksense selection, a Boston Herald Book Club selection, and a Kirkus Best Books of the Year list. Her novels have been published in over 50 overseas editions. She's a professor in the Creative Writing Program at Florida State University and the founder of the nonprofit Kids in Need - Books in Deed. For more, visit www.juliannabaggott.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Seemingly simple but emotionally complex story, May 18, 2002

By 

Linda Linguvic (New York City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Miss America Family : A Novel (Hardcover)

I love the quirky original characters Julianna Baggott creates. There's Pixie, a former Miss New Jersey who is now a dentist's wife. And there's Ezra, her 16-year-old web-toed son from her first marriage. Both have a keen eye for sharp observation, and view their world through a darkly comedic prism that cuts to the quick. I found myself chuckling as well as cringing as the images the author creates come fast and hard, creating a roller coaster of emotions in a seemingly simple but emotionally complex story that leaves little breathing space.

This is a coming-of-age story for both mother and son. She has to confront the demons of her past; he has to come to terms with his gay father and the act of violence that his mother perpetrates against her new husband. Her memories haunt her; his are the basis for his new awakenings. As the book goes on, we learn more and more about the family and Pixie's mother, whose eccentricities are forgiven when her own past secret act of courage is unearthed. All this is set in the wasteland of suburbia, and every detail of description is unique, offbeat and fresh.

I totally enjoyed this book and the probing insights that go way beneath the surface. Ms. Baggott has a gift of using humor and pathos with brutal honesty. It makes for good reading.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than Girl Talk!, November 5, 2002

By 

Timothy Gager "some call me Tim" (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Miss America Family : A Novel (Hardcover)

I found myself comparing this novel to the works of two of my favorite authors. The book is very well written and the scenes and situations that Ms. Baggott shows us could have been introduced to us by John Irving or Joseph Heller. The story itself, reminded me of the conflicted facade of Norman Rockwell's paintings. In his art, he gives us scenes from Main Street USA, that are no longer representitive our country today.

To do this Ms. Baggott presents us a dysfunctional woman named Pixie Kitchey, from a sad/tragic upbringing, trying to win her way, (in beauty pagents), toward the great American or shall I say, The Miss America Family. Pixie's goal is to build an all-american life and all-american family. A family with perfect smiles, perfect picket fences and perfect names. One-hundred percent white bread normal in contrast to her own upbringing. Of course, events happen, and the realization that you can't change people has to occur in Pixie's mind in order for her to come to the conclusion of what normalcy truly is.

The story is told from two points of view. One is from the perspective of the ex-beauty queen (Pixie) and the other is from the perspective of her awkward teenage son. Ms. Baggott is able to successfully speak in the son's voice and the reader is treated to her version of Boy Talk. The son, Ezra, gets to experience the great american crush/rejection that all boys go through. First love, first sexual experience and first separation from love is the most difficult. Ezra also gives the reader a nice perspective from the outside, looking into his mother's life.

Why is Miss America Family better than Girl Talk? I loved Girl Talk....I gave it four stars here at Amazon. I found myself liking Miss America Family even more. The plot successfully twists and turns, keeping the reading interested in both narratives as well as all story lines. I am not a fan of the quirky character or quirky tale which authors often use to spice a book up. In this novel the characters are quirky, but REAL, and the situations within are believably interesting and far-out, often sad and hysterical. I totally enjoyed this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rememberible, July 6, 2005

By 

Susan Henson "Summer Reader" (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Miss America Family (Paperback)

I picked this book up at work... and started reading, and it just drew me in... it was a little slow from time to time, but it was so deep, and moving, and i really enjoyed it, and the people in it. It was sad, and moving, and touching, and funny. I reccommend it...