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Jaylia3

Reflections

Eager reader of history, mystery, classics, biographies, steampunk, lit fic, science, scifi, and etc. My reviews are mostly positive--I rarely finish or write about books I don't enjoy. My TBR is too high for that.

Hilariously funny, while still managing to be moving and insightful

Amy Falls Down: A Novel - Jincy Willett

This book is so funny I kept losing my place because I was laughing so hard, and I almost never laugh out loud while reading. Amy Gallup is an aging, has-been novelist, who never really broke through to the big time anyway, but that’s fine with her. Amy embraces her uncompromising lack of ambition and, far from seeking fame, she arranges her life for complete anonymity, even burying links to her out of print novels behind a series of obscure questions on her website. She has her opinionated Basset Hound Alphonse, her devoted writing students--not that she craves anyone’s admiration, but she does need an income and a little company--and a nice quiet life. Then she’s interviewed while still not quite in her right mind after falling and hitting her head and the world begins to take notice. One thing leads to another until,  horror of horrors, she becomes  a sought after celebrity expected to fly around the country to do media appearances and conference speeches.

 

Though the story sounds like it might be just absurd, it has more substance than that. It’s elevated by  Amy’s piercingly apt and intelligent (and usually, yes, hilarious) observations about the world and people around her, and by Amy’s need to confront past issues she had years ago chosen to avoid.

 

Amy Falls Down is the second book Jincy Willett has written featuring Amy Gallup, but while I now can’t wait to get my hands on the first it was fine to read them out of order.  The other Amy novel is a murder mystery, which has really piqued my interest because, at least on the surface, that’s very different from this second book and I want to see how the author handles it.

 

Source: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/687523707