Happy Trails to You: Stories [Hardcover]

Julie Hecht (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Returning from the story collection Do the Windows Open? (1996) and novel, The Unprofessionals (2003), Hecht's married, childless photographer is still stuck in her mid-40s. Diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and counting the Nantucket days until she can see her psychiatrist again, she quietly frets the summer away over the course of seven expertly heartbreaking tales. The narrator has mastered her issues, but only to the point that her horror—of other people's meat eating, of their bodily flaws and of almost everything else about them—surfaces in only the mildest passive-aggressive forms; what goes on beneath that surface is what comprises the book. Over There chronicles two visits to an elderly hard-of-hearing neighbor: its tacit comparison of the narrator's ways of accommodating her illness with her neighbor's accommodations of old age is exquisite. Being and Nothingness records the narrator's use of an Emerson biography and of taking the flag down as an antidote to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Elsewhere, she intervenes in a gay actor-waiter acquaintance's health regimen, and instructs her intractable Jamaican cleaner helper Norma on the dangers of radiation—and on how to dress for her job. A life that consists entirely of neurotic avoidance produces a peculiar pathos, and Hecht nails it unfailingly. (May)
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Review

"Julie Hecht's new collection is funny, acerbic, angry, intelligent, and totally original. Her writing mixes horror and hilarity. I love her voice." - Roz Chast

"But as times have changed, so has [the book's] character -- wonderfully, bracingly so. Hecht's latest story collection, Happy Trails to You, is piloted by the same half-babbling, half-deadpan voice, now with larger, more political concerns...These aren't merely the worries of an eccentric middle-aged East Coast vegetarian; they're the all-too-common concerns of the mainstream liberal consciousness. In the new century, Hecht's narrator is suddenly less alone in her alarm and alienation, finding more kindred spirits than ever before...But Hecht plays with this stereotype on many levels, and the collection's strongest moments describe a frustration with civilization that can't be blamed solely on psychosis." -- Katherine Hill, Bookforum

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1 edition (May 6, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 141656425X
• ISBN-13: 978-1416564256
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,075,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended!, May 15, 2008

By	Diane St John (Mission Viejo, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Happy Trails to You: Stories (Hardcover)

I have avidly awaited this sequel to Hecht's wonderful first story collection (Do the Windows Open?), and was thrilled to find that this collection is deeper, wiser, more mature, and a joy to read. I have just finished it and want to immediately re-read it. The writing is delicate and elegant, with sudden hilarious moments, and although the narrator could be described as rigid, neurotic and judgmental, she also comes across as deeply sensitive, intelligent and caring - i.e., very human - a wonderful sleight of hand for an author. Many of the stories are almost perfectly crafted and all are subtly understated. I love this author and I love this book.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicacy, July 20, 2008

By	Eileen Pollock (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Happy Trails to You: Stories (Hardcover)

Julie Hecht writes rarely, but when she does it is with a rare delicacy. She describes the everyday, but with a special sensitivity, and always, absurdity, though not of the obvious sort. She describes the gift of a pair of mittens, an encounter with an actor-waiter, her relationship with her cleaning lady, with a mixture of bemusement and outright bewilderment. I feel Julie Hecht is a stranger on her home turf, and especially, a stranger in 21st century America, or what this country has become. I wish we could be friends, but that would be impossible, since I live in New York City and my food choices would deeply offend her sensibilities. In fact, her intolerance in a hyper-tolerant culture is one of her most attractive qualities. Her doctrinaire insistence on standards, albeit standards that are politically liberal and nutritionally vegan, is again, charming, because it is deeply rooted in an at-times off-kilter humanity. I was disappointed, though, in the last story, where a bizarre interview leads to poignant reflections on the state of the culture and the ignorance of young people. It was to me too much, it veered off the atmosphere of hothouse sensibility that Julie Hecht's narrator previously had inhabited. But the story that culminates in her taking down the American flag, and particularly, the reason why she takes it down, is deeply patriotic, albeit in an offbeat, quirky way. A fine follow up to her brilliant Do the Windows Open?

5.0 out of 5 stars saves the best for last, February 7, 2010

By	MKB - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Happy Trails to You: Stories (Paperback)

Reading this book was an interesting experience. The author is playing around with different things. The writing is very clear and distinct but what she's communicating is subtle. Like Hemmingway, but more satirical. Sometimes the stories in this book seemed to be concerned with emptiness, but I couldn't really say for sure what's in the author's mind. The last story in the book made the whole book worth putting up with the annoying, self-absorbed snobby narrator.