Her aunt was a nun who popped pills and did time in Narcotics Anonymous. Her father grew up during the Depression, believed he'd be the next Frank Sinatra, and ended up working in the mills. His daughter, Lori Jakiela, spent her suburban Pittsburgh childhood watching Marlo Thomas in That Girl and dreaming of New York City.Instead, she got bad talent shows, a Junior Miss contest, and college in Erie, PA, where the big attraction was chicken wings. But years later, her Big Apple dreams were still going strong. With her twenties becoming a distant memory, Jakiela answered an airline ad promising a NYC home base, high-flying glamour, and three-day layovers in Paris. The reality was a roach-filled apartment in Queens, a polyester uniform cut like a sack, and a life that wasn't quite what she imagined.
Miss New York Has Everything
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From Publishers Weekly
Don't let the smiling stewardess on the cover fool you: Jakiela's memoir has more in common with Chuck Klosterman than Coffee, Tea or Me? The early story focuses on the author's 1970s childhood in a working-class Pennsylvania town, especially on her father, a factory worker who considered other people "cockroaches," but doted on his pet miniature poodle. She dwells on her love of '70s pop idols like Shaun Cassidy and explains that her decision to abandon a career as a journalist and writing teacher to become a flight attendant was inspired by a childhood admiration for Marlo Thomas and That Girl. Unsurprisingly, Jakiela discovers life in the skies isn't really glamorous, and the job quickly takes an emotional toll. "My world started to shrink down to small spaces," Jakiela writes, an endless chain of jet cabins and hotel rooms. But there are also poignant moments in brief portraits of colleagues and passengers, and more than enough proof that Jakiela's decision to pursue a writing career was the right move. (Jan. 23)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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More About the Author
My last name rhymes with tequila.
I worked as a flight attendant at a major airline for six years. Now I teach writing at The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg.
As a native Pittsburgher, I have a weakness for gigantic deep-fried fish sandwiches. I think slippy is a real word, and sometimes drink Iron City Beer for sentimental reasons. My hometown, Trafford, is famous for two things: it's the birthplace of both the chocolate-covered pickle and Lauren Tewes, better known as Julie the cruise director from "The Love Boat."
In addition to my first full-length book, Miss New York Has Everything: A Memoir (Warner Books), my essays and poems have appeared in The New York Times, DoubleTake, Creative Nonfiction, River Styx, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, The Chicago Review, 5 AM, Nerve Cowboy, Tears in the Fence, Chiron Review, Slipstream, and elsewhere. My chapbook, The Regulars -- a collection of poems and essays -- was published by Liquid Paper Press and was awarded first prize in Nerve Cowboy's 2001 chapbook contest.
I worked as a flight attendant at a major airline for six years. Now I teach writing at The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg.
As a native Pittsburgher, I have a weakness for gigantic deep-fried fish sandwiches. I think slippy is a real word, and sometimes drink Iron City Beer for sentimental reasons. My hometown, Trafford, is famous for two things: it's the birthplace of both the chocolate-covered pickle and Lauren Tewes, better known as Julie the cruise director from "The Love Boat."
In addition to my first full-length book, Miss New York Has Everything: A Memoir (Warner Books), my essays and poems have appeared in The New York Times, DoubleTake, Creative Nonfiction, River Styx, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, The Chicago Review, 5 AM, Nerve Cowboy, Tears in the Fence, Chiron Review, Slipstream, and elsewhere. My chapbook, The Regulars -- a collection of poems and essays -- was published by Liquid Paper Press and was awarded first prize in Nerve Cowboy's 2001 chapbook contest.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Melancholy, But Powerful,
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This review is from: Miss New York Has Everything (Paperback)
I realized this wasn't going to be a "pick-me-up" book when I saw that the common thread to each chapter is the disappointment that comes when one realizes a dream, only to find that the dream wasn't as great as one first imagined. Sure enough, the melancholy in Miss New York Has Everything is as thick as peanut butter. Some may be unable to get past this sadness and thus find the book unappealing. But, I found three factors which offset the melancholy enough to make the book entertaining. First, Jakiela knows how to put a sentence together. Her writing style is accessible and powerful, thus making the book a quick read. Second, she sprinkles just enough humor in the story to take the edge off the moroseness. Finally, the emotion behind the story is genuine, thereby making it easy to relate to Jakiela and her travails. Because of these factors, I actually felt a little bit hopeful for Jakiela by the end of Miss New York Has Everything. I also felt good for having spent time reading this painfully honest, yet emotionally rewarding, memoir.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First Class Seating,
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This review is from: Miss New York Has Everything (Paperback)
This is one of the best memoirs I have ever read. From start to finish, I was deeply impressed-often to the point of visibly shaking my head and/or making vocal noises loud enough to attract my wife's attention-by Jakiela's skills at understated humor, and tenderness without sappiness, and her ability to blend those two qualities with exquisite and devastating effectiveness. Moreover, Jakiela offers a unique perspective on commercial air travel: I will never again board an airplane without remembering Jakiela and endeavoring to behave in a manner that will not leave me skewered on the end of her pen.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Surprising,
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This review is from: Miss New York Has Everything (Paperback)
After reading a few chapters of this book, I was a little disappointed. "Miss New York Has Everything" is promoted as the story of a small-town girl who becomes a flight attendant in order to live in New York--but the first half of the book is devoted to Jakiela's childhood and upbringing in a quirky American family in Trafford, Pennsylvania. Don't get me wrong: there's nothing wrong with the first part. It's funny and quite lovely. It's just not what I expected when I bought the book.I had to wait approximately 130 pages for Jakiela to move to New York, where she finds a life that's absolutely lacking in the glamour she envisioned while watching Marlo Thomas in "That Girl." While traveling around the world, sleeping in horrible hotels, cleaning after rude passengers or looking for love in all the wrong places, Jakiela is someone you like, someone you find yourself rooting for. The end of the book was touching and moving without ever being maudlin. And it's nice to know that even though she no longer lives here, Lori Jakiela still loves New York as much as I do.
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