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3.24 AVERAGE
3.24 AVERAGE
“No human being can be a mother and save the world at the same time. Our expectations of women are, as always, absurd.”
I’ve been reading more memoirs lately and so the concept of a book told from a ghostwriter’s perspective was fascinating to me. Unfortunately I had a hard time with Allie. She was a chameleon who gets into the heads of her clients in order to write as them. But it feels as if because she’s done this so many times, she no longer has a clear voice and can’t seem to stand up for herself at all. It wasn’t that I didn’t like her, I just felt indifferent at times. Also she doesn’t like dogs....
However, the book is set in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the year following it really anchored the story. The author did an excellent job of bringing back first the hope, joy and optimism that many women felt thinking that finally we’d have our first female president and then the pain, frustration, and sickening feeling when we realized we still live in a misogynistic world that belittles us. I felt those emotions so strongly while reading and remembering my experiences during that time.
The mental gymnastics that Allie would do to defend Lana’s actions felt so familiar. I think most women probably do this at some time or another for a family member, boss, friend, or politician. Overall, it’s a book that I will need to continue to think about and digest in the coming days.
Thank you to Algonquin Books and Heidi Pitlor for the #gifted ARC of IMPERSONATION in exchange for an honest review.
I’ve been reading more memoirs lately and so the concept of a book told from a ghostwriter’s perspective was fascinating to me. Unfortunately I had a hard time with Allie. She was a chameleon who gets into the heads of her clients in order to write as them. But it feels as if because she’s done this so many times, she no longer has a clear voice and can’t seem to stand up for herself at all. It wasn’t that I didn’t like her, I just felt indifferent at times. Also she doesn’t like dogs....
However, the book is set in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the year following it really anchored the story. The author did an excellent job of bringing back first the hope, joy and optimism that many women felt thinking that finally we’d have our first female president and then the pain, frustration, and sickening feeling when we realized we still live in a misogynistic world that belittles us. I felt those emotions so strongly while reading and remembering my experiences during that time.
The mental gymnastics that Allie would do to defend Lana’s actions felt so familiar. I think most women probably do this at some time or another for a family member, boss, friend, or politician. Overall, it’s a book that I will need to continue to think about and digest in the coming days.
Thank you to Algonquin Books and Heidi Pitlor for the #gifted ARC of IMPERSONATION in exchange for an honest review.
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I thought the book was OK. None of the events that happened were that shocking or drew me in. However, there were a good amount of one liners or small sections that made you think, and the book covered a lot of important and relevant social Justice and political topics.
It also focused more on the main characters struggles as a mom and individual problems opposed to the book she was writing. Overall 3 stars.
It also focused more on the main characters struggles as a mom and individual problems opposed to the book she was writing. Overall 3 stars.
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
Not giving this one a rating just yet, because this is a book I have to sit with for awhile. I stayed up late on Election Night 2020 to finish it because I felt it’s pull during another emotional election. Still fighting the same fight from 2016 that is referenced over and over in Impersonation, and not sure if I can go through the wringer again.
Yet I don’t know if I liked this book or not, I don’t know if I should have been rooting for Lana and Allie or not.
Update 1/4/2021: added 4 star rating because this is a book I haven’t forgotten about and has a strong point of view and garnered a strong reaction from me.
Yet I don’t know if I liked this book or not, I don’t know if I should have been rooting for Lana and Allie or not.
Update 1/4/2021: added 4 star rating because this is a book I haven’t forgotten about and has a strong point of view and garnered a strong reaction from me.
Impersonation by Heidi Pitlor is a quick, clever novel about a Allie Lang, single mom and professional ghostwriter hired to write the memoir of a high-powered lawyer thinking of running for office. The lawyer wants to soften her image with a memoir about what a great mother she is, but has little time for mothering or memoir-writing. The book hits on timely subjects like the 2016 election, the Me Too movement, class issues, and motherhood.
This one is a good pick for the Millennial moms on your lists who enjoy smart chick lit with a feminist bent.
This one is a good pick for the Millennial moms on your lists who enjoy smart chick lit with a feminist bent.
I wanted to like this book. However, too many ideas and characters were thrown in and never developed. The book wanted to be a lot of things but instead was about someone writing about a lot of things.
This novel is definitely of the moment and that might be to its detriment. It's about a woman in her early forties raising a son alone and working as a ghost writer for prominent personalities, though that work is not lucrative enough to pay the rent and childcare. So it's about economic instability and has a lot of other social issues packed into the story. How to raise empathetic sons, the me-too movement, the deep grief of seeing DJT elected into office, conflicts between mothers and daughters, and more. It did at times have a lecturing quality that rankled me even though I agree with about 90% of the lessons. All in all, it was an easy read. But the book's topicality and social critique somehow overpowered the things I like in novels like strong characters and real emotion coming through.
As I struggled to find time to read and review this book, I was struck with the parallels between it and my life, of raising my children while making time for work in this day and age. Having been a single mother for a time, the personalization of this novel and its message was rife and thought provoking.
Despite my outside distractions, within the span of the first page, I was hooked. Equal parts frustrating and fascinating, "Impersonation" is achingly relatable, and not much of a literary “escape” as it is highly relevant, magnifying some of today’s most acute concerns.
Personal lives and politics intertwine in a complicated braid that often lies in territory where I heavily disagree or is out of my comfort zone, but is impactful and valuable, nevertheless. The main character, Allie, and I could be friends in real life, trade parenting tips and tribulations, hash out the current state of our government over drinks and Happy Meals. We would enjoy swapping grammar jokes and lament about rent prices. I might joke with her about where the landlord can stick his recycling bin next time he comes around to complain about where it was in his yard.
As I write this review, I am simultaneously nursing my youngest, typing one-handed (a practice I’ve perfected over the years), and reflecting on my own path and career. I think of all the women who I will recommend this book to, how I will talk it up and share it with enthusiasm. This book is a timely piece of prose, so important now, and necessary for change in the forthcoming years.
Despite my outside distractions, within the span of the first page, I was hooked. Equal parts frustrating and fascinating, "Impersonation" is achingly relatable, and not much of a literary “escape” as it is highly relevant, magnifying some of today’s most acute concerns.
Personal lives and politics intertwine in a complicated braid that often lies in territory where I heavily disagree or is out of my comfort zone, but is impactful and valuable, nevertheless. The main character, Allie, and I could be friends in real life, trade parenting tips and tribulations, hash out the current state of our government over drinks and Happy Meals. We would enjoy swapping grammar jokes and lament about rent prices. I might joke with her about where the landlord can stick his recycling bin next time he comes around to complain about where it was in his yard.
As I write this review, I am simultaneously nursing my youngest, typing one-handed (a practice I’ve perfected over the years), and reflecting on my own path and career. I think of all the women who I will recommend this book to, how I will talk it up and share it with enthusiasm. This book is a timely piece of prose, so important now, and necessary for change in the forthcoming years.
Impersonation is a very self-aware age of the #metoo feminist novel.
The plot follows a ghostwriter for a celebrity activist and hyper focuses on what economic status emotionally and physically allots for in regard to parenting.
I picture the ideal reader being an earnest baby feminist teen who gets a thrill from seeing in their memory political headlines referenced. Some valid points are made, but nothing new, nothing mind blowing, and nothing that goes too deep.
The plot follows a ghostwriter for a celebrity activist and hyper focuses on what economic status emotionally and physically allots for in regard to parenting.
I picture the ideal reader being an earnest baby feminist teen who gets a thrill from seeing in their memory political headlines referenced. Some valid points are made, but nothing new, nothing mind blowing, and nothing that goes too deep.
I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. You can read my full review here: https://www.jasbeingjas.com/post/impersonation