Miss American Pie: A Diary of Love, Secrets, and Growing Up in the 1970s [Hardcover]

Margaret Sartor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2006

A spellbinding and authentic document of American adolescence.

Set against the backdrop of the deep South in the 1970s, Miss American Pie is the unforgettable account of Margaret Sartor's life from age twelve to eighteen. A raw document crafted from diaries, notebooks, and letters, this deeply personal yet universally appealing story astonishes with its candor. Young Margaret moves with ease between the seemingly trivial concerns of hairstyles and boys to more profound questions of faith and meaning. By turns funny and poignant, heartbreaking and profound, she tackles all of the decade's issues--desegregation, drugs, the sexual revolution, the rise of feminism, and the spread of charismatic evangelical Christianity--with humor, frankness, and unexpected insight.

Miss American Pie reminds us what it feels like to grow up, offering a true and honest look at a teenager grappling with the timeless questions of sex, friendship, God, love, loss, and the meaning of family. The introduction and epilogue, written by Sartor from an older perspective, reflect on those turbulent and life-shaping years, revealing how the girl in the diary turned out after all, and demonstrating that childhood--both its joys and traumas--reverberate deeply in our adult lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Beginning in 1972, at age 13, Sartor records the highlights and low points of her formative years in Montgomery, Ala. Through succinct diary entries (Mar. 1, 1973: "I hate my buck teeth. I love Edgar Napoleon") that grow more insightful as she ages, the author, who teaches documentary studies at Duke, reveals her insecurities, spiritual awakening and early sexual encounters. Hers is a very normal American childhood, though a few things stand out: she experiences desegregation firsthand (she's white, but witnesses racism toward black kids) and is torn between her evangelical Christian community and her sectarian household. There are moments of impressive maturity and self-awareness, such as the May 18, 1977, entry: "I'm giving the invocation at the graduation ceremony. I'm sure they asked me because I'm the only kid willing to pray out loud who doesn't hand out pamphlets on the Second Coming"; or June 1, 1977: "Can you be alone when you are physically with someone?" Sartor's reproduction of her diaries differs from traditional memoirs in its lack of adult interpretation of events, told through the distance of time and wisdom. That may make it unusual, but publishing such generally mediocre diaries feels self-indulgent.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up–Sartor's diary entries begin in 1972, the year of her 13th birthday, and continue until she is 18. All around her, in her rural Louisiana town, things were changing. Girls and boys were dating, the local high schools were becoming integrated, and new Evangelical Christian churches were forming. Despite the turbulent times, the author's writing reflects the typical concerns and crises of a teenage girl, from shopping for bras with her mother to taking placement tests at school to trying to figure out how to kiss without bumping noses. An introduction and epilogue provide some historical context, but the bulk of the text consists of the diary entries without further comment. Black-and-white photographs (presumably of the author, though no identifying information is provided) are placed at the beginning of each calendar year. The entries gradually reveal Sartor's growth over the years, but the book's format forces a tight focus on whatever events were most important at the time they were recorded. While some teens might be intrigued by this peek into someone else's life, this title may have difficulty finding an audience.–Beth Gallego, Los Angeles Public Library, North Hollywood
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; First Edition edition (June 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596912006
• ISBN-13: 978-1596912007
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,357,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll see yourself and someone else, July 8, 2006

By 

Douglas J. Meffert "Doug Meffert" (New Orleans, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Miss American Pie: A Diary of Love, Secrets, and Growing Up in the 1970s (Hardcover)

In the pages of Miss American Pie, Margaret Sartor allows the reader to craw inside her head and feel the comical, quixotic and paradoxically, angst-filled, and analytical reflections of her life and her richly-described family and friends. Growing up in the same era with a simlar family, I was transported back to my own adolescence. However, growing up in a very different environment, many of Margaret's experiences were as surreal to me as life on Mars. Through this book, I re-evaluated my priorities, my belief systems, and my notions on what is right and wrong. Just as importantly, I had a heck of an enjoyable ride all the way through. So, when is the movie coming out?

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Home Sweet Home, July 9, 2006

By 

doris day (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Miss American Pie: A Diary of Love, Secrets, and Growing Up in the 1970s (Hardcover)

As a New York transplant who grew up in the deep south I find myself transfixed and a little heartbroken by this absolutely wonderful book. Margaret Sartor's account of her teenage years spent in the town of Montgomery, Louisiana made me miss something I thought I had escaped... home.

Sartor's descriptions of romance and family are alternatly hilarious and heartbreaking. Miss American Pie ALMOST makes me want to relive my adolescence! But, as Sartor seems to have done, I would pay more attention the second time around. Read this book!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Ordinary Life, an Extraordinary Woman, July 5, 2006

By 

A Reader from Monroe - See all my reviews

This review is from: Miss American Pie: A Diary of Love, Secrets, and Growing Up in the 1970s (Hardcover)

Margaret Sartor is a native of Monroe, Louisiana, who graduated from high school in 1977 and then went off into the world. She is a respected photographer who teaches at Duke University. Now Sartor has published a memoir of an unusual sort. MISS AMERICAN PIE consists of Sartor's diaries from ages 12 to 18. In the midst of the kind of teenage angst that is common to most of us, Sartor was able to turn her budding artist's eye on herself and those around her. The result is a memoir that takes us beyond the everyday, into a mind that is bright and intelligent, questioning the world around her even as she tries to fit in. Full of self-awareness and keen observation, MISS AMERICAN PIE is the story of one girl's journey into adulthood, but in some ways it is the story of us all.