Impersonation

(Paperback)

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Description

By turns revealing, hilarious, dishy, and razor-sharp, Impersonation lives in that rarest of sweet spots: the propulsive page-turner for people with high literary standards. Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers

Allie Lang is a professional ghostwriter and a perpetually broke single mother to a young boy. Years of navigating her own and Americas cultural definitions of motherhood have left her a lapsed idealist. Lana Breban is a powerhouse lawyer, economist, and advocate for womens rights with designs on elected office. She also has a son. Lana and her staff have decided she needs help softening her public image and that a memoir about her life as a mother will help.

When Allie lands the job as Lanas ghostwriter, it seems as if things will finally go Allies way. At last, she thinks, there will be enough money not just to pay her bills but to actually buy a house. After years of working as a ghostwriter for other celebrities, Allie believes she knows the drill: she has learned how to inhabit the lives of others and tell their stories better than they can.

But this time, everything becomes more complicated. Allies childcare arrangements unravel; she falls behind on her rent; her subject, Lana, is better at critiquing than actually providing material; and Allies boyfriend decides to go ona road trip toward self-discovery. But as a writer for hire, Allie has gotten too used to being accommodating. At what point will she speak up for all that she deserves

A satirical, incisive snapshot of how so many of us now live, Impersonationtells a timely, insightful, and bitingly funny story of ambition, motherhood, and class.

Reviews

Looking for a book that fires up the synapses Check out Heidi Pitlors Impersonation . . . Pitlors voice is witty and brisk, bringing warmth and light to questions of identity, independence and, yes, intellectual property. Who owns your stories How much are they worth Allie Langs answers are complicated. Watching her reach them is like sitting down with a refreshingly honest friend who skips the part about how great her life is and dives right into the real stuff. We need more friends like this. Authors, too.
The New York Times Book Review

Both the story and its resourceful heroine are fresh, intelligent, and charming."
Kirkus Reviews, starred review

In a novel thats smart, surprising, thought provoking . . . Pitlor offers an astute study of what it means to be a woman today."
Library Journal

[A] searing and nuanced exploration of identity."
Booklist

Pitlors smart and thought-provoking latest explores the complexities of feminism, privilege, and the telling of ones life story . . . The sharply observed depictions of how lives are shaped by financial status ring all too true. Fans of Meg WolitzersThe Female Persuasionwill want to take a look.
Publishers Weekly

By turns revealing, hilarious, dishy, and razor-sharp, Impersonation lives in that rarest of sweet spots: the propulsive page-turner for people with high literary standards.
Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers

Smart, funny, and provocative,Impersonationtunnels through our current politically-charged American landscape with humor and empathy. It's a story of parentingand survivingin a time when the messy realities of everyday life often clash with ideology. As page-turningly readable as it is relatable. Ill be recommending to my book group.
Jessica Shattuck, author of The Women in the Castle

Heidi Pitlor has written a wonderfully rare thing: a comedy of manners set in the 21st century that brilliantly grapples with some of the more thorny issues of class, privilege, and parenting of our day. Smart, funny, and generous in spirit,Impersonationis an engaging meditation on who controls the narrative and why it matters.A terrific read that will have youhooked from page one.
Kate Walbert, author ofA Short History of Women

Impersonationis the book we need now: an unflinching look at our current moment, and at questions few of us dare to ask. If our personas do good in the world, does it matter what we did to create them How much hypocrisy are liberals willing to tolerate Can women raise good men Provocative, heartfelt, and often hilarious,this is a novel Ill be thinking about for a long time to come.
Anna Solomon, author ofThe Book of V

"With refreshing humor and an endearing charm all her own, Heidi Pitlor channels the narrative slyness of Rachel Cusk and the political acumen of Rebecca Solnit to deliver this zeitgeisty novel about the struggles of anonymity, accountability, modern-day mothering, and making ends meet in the gig economy. As both loss and possibility swirl around our lost but scrappy heroine, you cant help but root for her to claim her own voice and personhood. A smart behind-the-scenes tour of the murky world of publishing, politics, and the good people who get caught in the cross-fire.
Christopher Castellani, author ofLeading Men

For our heroine Allison, this is her story of survival and endurance in these maddening times. She goes to extraordinary measures for her son and her work, yet the path is not always clear, and far from easy. A gifted storyteller, Pitlor is also not afraid to ask the tough questions. What does it mean to raise good boys Good people What does it mean to be a woman, a feminist, a believer in others and, above all, in yourself
Weike Wang, author of Chemistry

Author Bio

Heidi Pitlor is the author of the novels The Birthdays and The Daylight Marriage. She has been the series editor of The Best American Short Stories since 2007 and the editorial director of Plympton, a literary studio. Her writing has been published in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Huffington Post, Ploughshares, and the anthologies It Occurs to Me That I Am America: New Storiesand Art and Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Todays Best Women Writers. She lives outside Boston.