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Summary
Summary
No matter which side of the nature/nurture debate you're on, Amy Lincoln's prospects do not look good. Her mother abandoned her when she was ten months old (just a couple of months after Amy's father went off to serve his first prison term), leaving her in the care of Grandma Lil, who shoplifts dinner on the way home from her job as a leg waxer to the rich and refined.
When Amy is fourteen, she gets a scholarship to a New England boarding school -- her exposure to the moneyed class. After Harvard and the Columbia School of Journalism, Amy becomes a political reporter for the prestigious weekly In Depth. While covering a political fund-raiser, Amy meets a college student who claims to be the son of one of the presidential candidates. It's precisely the sort of story that In Depth wouldn't deign to cover, but the idea of tracking down a lost parent and demanding recognition intrigues Amy. As she begins a search of her own past as well as the candidate's, she discovers a new and unimpeachable grandmother and a mother who is much more than she bargained for. Most important, she finally comes to understand the stuff she's made of and finds the perfect place to hang her hat in the world.
Bold, insightful, witty, and exhilarating, Any Place I Hang My Hat is a novel about one extraordinary young woman looking for a place to belong -- by one of the most compelling and beloved voices in contemporary fiction.
Author Notes
Susan Isaacs was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 7, 1943. She graduated from Queens College and began her literary career as an administrative assistant at Seventeen magazine. Freelance writing and writing political speeches for Long Island politicians filled her spare time while she was home raising her children in the 1970s. Her first novel, Compromising Positions, was published in 1978 and adapted into a movie of the same title that starred Susan Sarandon and Raul Julia. Her other novels include Almost Paradise, Magic Hour, After All These Years, and Lily White. She wrote and co-produced the movie Hello Again which starred Shelley Long, Gabriel Byrne, and Judith Ivey. Her novel, Shining Through, was adapted into a movie starring Michael Douglas, Melanie Griffith and Liam Neeson.
She covered the 2000 presidential campaign for Newsday. She also reviewed books for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Newsday. She has won numerous awards including the Writers for Writers Award, the Marymount Manhattan Writing Center Award, and the John Steinbeck Award.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
A political reporter in her late 20s goes in search of the mother who abandoned her when she was a baby in this jaunty if rather jerky 10th novel by Isaacs (Long Time No See; Red, White, and Blue; etc.). Amy Lincoln was brought up in the projects by her Grandma Lil, a leg waxer and devoted Falcon Crest viewer; her amiable father, Chicky, spent most of Amy's childhood in prison on a series of minor theft raps. A boarding school scholarship rescues Amy from lower-class oblivion; she goes on to Harvard and Columbia, then lands a job at In Depth, a highbrow weekly. Upbeat and self-deprecating, Amy spends little time bemoaning her past, but an encounter with college student Freddy Carrasco, who claims he's the illegitimate son of a Democratic presidential candidate, gets Amy wondering where her own mother might be. While advising Freddy how to approach his father, she uses her reporting skills to track down her elusive mother. The political subplot is anticlimactic Amy doesn't even get a scoop and Amy's eventual reunion with her mother, revealed to be a chilly suburban housewife, is credibly if rather disappointingly subdued. The parade of lavishly and loopishly described secondary characters and gossipy New York scene-setting give the novel its zing; Amy's rocky relationship with her documentary filmmaker boyfriend provides a jolt of romantic excitement and a happy ending. Agent, Owen Laster. (Oct. 5) Forecast: This might not do as well as Isaacs's last novel, Long Time No See, which reintroduced popular Isaacs protagonist Judith Singer, but a major marketing campaign including heavy promotion in the New York area and a seven-city author tour should help it hit some bestseller lists. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Amy Lincoln has a knack for fitting in wherever she finds herself, whether it's attending an Ivy League college, visiting inmates in the state pen, or chumming around with the elite of the eastern seaboard. Problem is, all this fitting in means Amy doesn't really belong0 anywhere. A journalist with the prestigious news journal In Depth0 , Amy is assigned to cover the campaign of Senator Thomas Bowles, who is vying to be the Democratic Party's nominee in the 2004 presidential election. During one of the typically swank fund-raising events, a Latino college kid walks in, claiming to be Bowles' son. After the security detail whisks him away, Amy's interest is piqued, even though her magazine doesn't do tabloid-style scandal. But Amy's own checkered past--which includes abandonment by her mother when she was only a baby, visitations to her father in prison, and being raised by her shoplifting grandmother--fuels her desire to help this young man reunite with his birth family. Yes, this all smells quite strongly of self-discovery, but while Isaacs' plots often drift precariously close to cliche, she usually rights the ship with her keen sense of humor and character. So it is here as Amy comes to terms with the past but does it with charm and self-deprecating wit. Women's fiction with a tangy, contemporary bite. --Mary Frances Wilkens Copyright 2004 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Superselling Isaacs (Long Time No See, 2001, etc.) makes a valiant effort to reach a younger readership and still please the faithful in her tale of a New Yorker looking for her long-lost mother. Amy Lincoln has issues--big time. Raised by her shoplifting grandma Lil while her father, a petty crook named Chicky, was doing time, she never knew her mother, Phyllis. Where is Phyllis now? Amy never had the time to figure that out, what with going to Harvard and Columbia School of Journalism. Now working for Happy Bob, a liberal slave-driver at In Depth, a newsmagazine that takes its mission seriously, Amy's gotten pretty good at finding out stuff people don't want her to know. Does a charismatic political candidate who seems to be on the side of the angels have an illegitimate son by a woman of color? Looks like it, and that assignment gets her to thinking about her own mother. Surely a little routine investigation will turn up a few clues, starting with the names of her maternal grandparents: prosperous Brooklyn businessman Selwyn Moscowitz and wife Rose. Are they dead or alive or living in Florida? Boca Raton, here I come. Along the way, Amy dithers inexplicably about whether to commit to an absolutely perfect guy who would lay down his life for her (the weakest part of the story) and reminisces about her eccentric upbringing, such as it was, by her crazy-like-a-fox grandmother and the endearingly raffish Chicky (the funniest and best part of the story). Amy's discovery of her other grandmother, a Waspy society matron, results in a face-to-face meeting that goes amazingly well; her eventual reunion with her reptilian mother does not. A heroine who really, really cares about politics and social issues and who always remembers to wear a warm coat is certainly a welcome novelty in this Age of Fluff--but this still seems like chick-lit in sensible shoes. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Best-selling author Isaacs sets her latest novel (after Long Time, No See) in her native New York City, where political reporter Amy Lincoln searches for emotional fulfillment. At a campaign party for Democratic presidential candidate Thom Bowles, Amy witnesses a young Hispanic man being taken away following his declaration that he is Thom's son. His bold attempt prompts Amy to reexamine her life and her ability to find contentment; she wonders why her mother abandoned her as a baby and whether she will ever be able to settle down with her boyfriend of two years. Amy's workaholic routine and tendency to overanalyze her rocky past counter her desperate need to find closeness and comfort. Her discussions with her socialite friend, Tatty, and the traumatic end of her relationship eventually lead to a purposeful and potentially life-changing search for her mother. Isaacs's luscious descriptions draw out each character's personality and unique contribution to Amy's journey of self-healing. Recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/04.] Laura M. Wight, South Dakota State Univ. Lib., Brookings (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
