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Mimi
Bach, sculpture, plastic surgery, public speaking and a New York love story like no other - this is Lucy Ellmann's most extraordinary work of art to date
It’s Christmas Eve in Manhattan. Harrison Hanafan, noted plastic surgeon, falls on his ass. So far, so good. ‘Ya can’t sit there all day, buddy, looking up people’s skirts!’ chides a weird gal in a coat like a duvet - Mimi! She kindly conjures for him the miracle of a taxi. Recuperating in his apartment with Schubert, Bette Davis, and a foundling cat, Harrison adds items to his life’s work, a List of Melancholy Things (Walmart, puppetry, Velcro, whale eyes, shrimp-eating contests...). But when he receives a dreaded invitation to address his old school, Mimi reappears, with all her curves and chaos. She and Harrison fall emphatically in love. And, as their love-making reaches a whole new kind of climax, the sweet smell of revolution is in the air.
It’s Christmas Eve in Manhattan. Harrison Hanafan, noted plastic surgeon, falls on his ass. So far, so good. ‘Ya can’t sit there all day, buddy, looking up people’s skirts!’ chides a weird gal in a coat like a duvet - Mimi! She kindly conjures for him the miracle of a taxi. Recuperating in his apartment with Schubert, Bette Davis, and a foundling cat, Harrison adds items to his life’s work, a List of Melancholy Things (Walmart, puppetry, Velcro, whale eyes, shrimp-eating contests...). But when he receives a dreaded invitation to address his old school, Mimi reappears, with all her curves and chaos. She and Harrison fall emphatically in love. And, as their love-making reaches a whole new kind of climax, the sweet smell of revolution is in the air.
341 pages, Paperback
First published February 14, 2013
30 people are currently reading
992 people want to read
About the author
Lucy Ellmann
18 books392 followersLucy Ellmann was born in Evanston, Illinois, the daughter of biographer Richard Ellmann and writer Mary Ellmann (née Donahue). She moved to England at the age of 13 and was educated at Falmouth School of Art (Foundation degree, 1975), Essex University (BA, 1980), and the Courtauld Institute of Art (MA, 1981).
Her highly-praised autobiographical first novel, Sweet Desserts, was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize. Both her second book, Varying Degrees of Hoplessness, and her third, Man or Mango?, were shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, while her fourth, Dot in the Universe, was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Believer Book Award.
Lucy Ellmann is a regular contributor of articles on art and fiction to Artforum, Modern Painters, the Guardian, the Listener, the New Statesman, and the Times Literary Supplement. She is also a screenwriter and was a Hawthornden Fellow in 1992.
Her highly-praised autobiographical first novel, Sweet Desserts, was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize. Both her second book, Varying Degrees of Hoplessness, and her third, Man or Mango?, were shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, while her fourth, Dot in the Universe, was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Believer Book Award.
Lucy Ellmann is a regular contributor of articles on art and fiction to Artforum, Modern Painters, the Guardian, the Listener, the New Statesman, and the Times Literary Supplement. She is also a screenwriter and was a Hawthornden Fellow in 1992.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 103 reviews
June 28, 2020
Praised be the goddess of reading and writing for bringing this book to my attention. It's "only" taken half a year for me to get that special kind of giddiness that comes along when I read something that enchants me, surprises and/or delights me. Lucy Ellmann's Mimi is that kind of book. Had I not read and loved Ellmann's epic Ducks, Newsburyport, I probably wouldn't have considered this book. After all, it's not very popular or highly rated. Such a shame because it's on another level. Plot-wise, this is relatively simple. But it's the writing, the tone, the strong female characters that just make this novel a stand-out.
Harrison Hanafan is the narrator of this novel. He's a fifty-year-old, affluent, plastic surgeon. He's a bachelor, who lives in a very nice apartment in the Garment District, New York. He's just gotten out of a five-year relationship with a pretentious, preposterous New York socialite. It's New Year's Eve, he is home alone with a sprained ankle and feels terribly lonely. He's got too much time on his hands, too much thinking going on. His only living relative, his sculptress sister, Bee, lives in England. Their relationship is very warm and loving, although they're very different people.
Unexpectedly, Harrison falls in love with a woman who's not his type. She's a formidable woman, quite the feminist. She's far from perfect physically speaking. She's close to his age, again, not really his type. I was bemused and perplexed by their relationship, if I'm being honest, I thought it was wishful thinking on Ellmann's part, but it's fiction, one can dream, right?
A few lists, music scores, letters, manifestos and other interesting tidbits appear in this novel, especially in the Appendix. Lots of little things and details delighted me. The language is playful and extremely clever. Also, this is an unapologetically feminist novel. In this case, it didn't bother me in the least that it was so obvious and it preached to my convictions, things that bugged me in other novels. I guess the devil is in the detail.
I'm not doing this novel justice with my quickly penned review. I just wanted to proclaim that I loved this novel.
Hats off to Lucy Ellmann.
Harrison Hanafan is the narrator of this novel. He's a fifty-year-old, affluent, plastic surgeon. He's a bachelor, who lives in a very nice apartment in the Garment District, New York. He's just gotten out of a five-year relationship with a pretentious, preposterous New York socialite. It's New Year's Eve, he is home alone with a sprained ankle and feels terribly lonely. He's got too much time on his hands, too much thinking going on. His only living relative, his sculptress sister, Bee, lives in England. Their relationship is very warm and loving, although they're very different people.
Unexpectedly, Harrison falls in love with a woman who's not his type. She's a formidable woman, quite the feminist. She's far from perfect physically speaking. She's close to his age, again, not really his type. I was bemused and perplexed by their relationship, if I'm being honest, I thought it was wishful thinking on Ellmann's part, but it's fiction, one can dream, right?
A few lists, music scores, letters, manifestos and other interesting tidbits appear in this novel, especially in the Appendix. Lots of little things and details delighted me. The language is playful and extremely clever. Also, this is an unapologetically feminist novel. In this case, it didn't bother me in the least that it was so obvious and it preached to my convictions, things that bugged me in other novels. I guess the devil is in the detail.
I'm not doing this novel justice with my quickly penned review. I just wanted to proclaim that I loved this novel.
Hats off to Lucy Ellmann.
December 29, 2019
Mimi is not Lucy Ellmann's best work, but this book was still intelligent and more entertaining than 99% of inanimate objects on this planet.
Ellmann's acerbic brand of feminism doesn't really work with the goofy male narrator, as other reviewers have pointed out. You most certainly won't like this plastic surgeon guy, but again, entertainment is the name of the game. If I can be intellectually engaged with and laugh at a novel, it has done its job. I don't ask it to be balanced, tonally perfect, or unbiased in order to earn 4 stars. Lucy Ellmann knows how to write well. Every book of hers I've tried so far has been good to stellar.
This, like her upcoming Ducks, Newburyport, will likely polarize readers. I would not call this vintage Ellmann, but it is welcome padding to her modest body of work. Calling her work modest is completely inaccurate though. There always seems to be one person, male or female, at a party or event - think of your wedding - who just cannot behave themselves. Ellmann relishes these moments of misbehavior and delves deeply into the troubling psyches of her characters at the same time. The plots are typically simple, where they exist at all, because her focus is internal monologue, which she could write a whole book using - oh wait, DUCKS, NEWBURYPORT!
Don't begin your foray into her oeuvre with Mimi. Likely, you'll laugh, but the literary experiments toward the back of the book (extra padding on an already padded book) will just confuse you. Her use of musical sheets and pictures doesn't get on my nerves. It's a little distracting but I'm there for the writing. I'm not averse to long lists and tables, if used in service of character, though I wish the overt comments were kept to the sidelines, or used more subtly.
Subtlety is used more effectively in her other works, and it is a poignant spice missing from this particular concoction.
Ellmann's acerbic brand of feminism doesn't really work with the goofy male narrator, as other reviewers have pointed out. You most certainly won't like this plastic surgeon guy, but again, entertainment is the name of the game. If I can be intellectually engaged with and laugh at a novel, it has done its job. I don't ask it to be balanced, tonally perfect, or unbiased in order to earn 4 stars. Lucy Ellmann knows how to write well. Every book of hers I've tried so far has been good to stellar.
This, like her upcoming Ducks, Newburyport, will likely polarize readers. I would not call this vintage Ellmann, but it is welcome padding to her modest body of work. Calling her work modest is completely inaccurate though. There always seems to be one person, male or female, at a party or event - think of your wedding - who just cannot behave themselves. Ellmann relishes these moments of misbehavior and delves deeply into the troubling psyches of her characters at the same time. The plots are typically simple, where they exist at all, because her focus is internal monologue, which she could write a whole book using - oh wait, DUCKS, NEWBURYPORT!
Don't begin your foray into her oeuvre with Mimi. Likely, you'll laugh, but the literary experiments toward the back of the book (extra padding on an already padded book) will just confuse you. Her use of musical sheets and pictures doesn't get on my nerves. It's a little distracting but I'm there for the writing. I'm not averse to long lists and tables, if used in service of character, though I wish the overt comments were kept to the sidelines, or used more subtly.
Subtlety is used more effectively in her other works, and it is a poignant spice missing from this particular concoction.
February 25, 2013
For a while there, Ellmann was the best womanist word-wielder I had ever read. I was tied to a patriarchal literary agenda that barely encompassed a non-comedic novel by a single woman. I liked Ellmann the most because she wrote unlike a woman—all righteous undainty bile-stirring and alarmist CAPS—and in her sixth novel she writes a man flawlessly like a woman. The title, and titular character, is an allusion to Puccini’s La Bohème, mentioned frequently and exhaustively throughout, and the novel is a camp paean to female emancipation that whips itself up into such a froth of comedic indignation it seems to start taking itself seriously, albeit in a trickily unserious way. Harrison is the narrator—an unmale male and plastic surgeon whose conscience about the male’s millennia upon millennia of female subjugation is awoken by a fast-talking funster who disappears halfway through the novel but leaves such an imprint on his male mind he dreams up the ‘Odalisque Manifesto,’ whose central thesis is to make women richer so they might run the world without the wars and hate and those things—all properties of the patriarchy formed post-prehistoric times after women were on their way to being the ascendant sex. Mimi falters since it is difficult to equate the voice of her protagonist to that of a male—Ellmann calls this a “wish-fulfilment” novel—but also since the comedy, plotting and pace are extremely uneven. Simply, the novel seems uncertain whether to take itself almost-seriously or whimsically-seriously, unlike her previous novels where the barbed and madcap antics helped strengthen the strong feminist subtext screeching below (and on) the surface. Dot means it. Mimi might.
December 3, 2020
Since reading Ellmann's extraordinary Ducks, Newburyport last year, I have been planning to read more of her back catalogue. This book goes some way towards explaining how that book's style developed, but it is written in normal sentences and paragraphs, and is much shorter and a little less ambitious, though there is plenty of innovation here and no shortage of ideas (or lists).
The structure of this one is loosely a romcom, but one which has been given a radical feminist spin and is full of subversive ideas. This story is narrated by Harrison Hanafan, a plastic surgeon who is far from heroic until he meets the Mimi of the title, a bold woman who conforms to none of his preconception.
Harrison initially meets her while trying to elicit help on his public speaking in preparation for an address to his old school. As in most romcoms, their affair is derailed when his ex appears, and his life is upset further when his artist sister Bee (Bridget) becomes the victim of a random shooting in Canterbury (yes, the one in Kent, which is clearly not one of Ellmann's favourite places).
The book's climax is the speech to the school, in which he abandons his own half-formed plans and borrows and embellishes Mimi's feminist manifesto.
The last 60 pages or so are an eccentric collection of appendices, including Harrison and Mimi's manifesto, various recipes, songs, a catalogue of Bee's work and a long list of crime headlines, mostly real ones perpetrated by men against women.
The structure of this one is loosely a romcom, but one which has been given a radical feminist spin and is full of subversive ideas. This story is narrated by Harrison Hanafan, a plastic surgeon who is far from heroic until he meets the Mimi of the title, a bold woman who conforms to none of his preconception.
Harrison initially meets her while trying to elicit help on his public speaking in preparation for an address to his old school. As in most romcoms, their affair is derailed when his ex appears, and his life is upset further when his artist sister Bee (Bridget) becomes the victim of a random shooting in Canterbury (yes, the one in Kent, which is clearly not one of Ellmann's favourite places).
The book's climax is the speech to the school, in which he abandons his own half-formed plans and borrows and embellishes Mimi's feminist manifesto.
The last 60 pages or so are an eccentric collection of appendices, including Harrison and Mimi's manifesto, various recipes, songs, a catalogue of Bee's work and a long list of crime headlines, mostly real ones perpetrated by men against women.
November 24, 2020
A delightful, sophisticated, patriarchy-smashing reading experience.
October 11, 2019
3.5, rounded down.
My enamored fascination with Ellmann's justifiably Booker shortlisted Ducks, Newburyport, has lead me to investigate her back catalogue, and while this shares a preponderance of the things that made that recent work great - there are also some ... problems here. The good things that this shares are the humour, the clever wordplay, the life affirmation, the crazy characters and situations depicted. For most of the novel I was charmed and entranced by main character Harrison Hanafan and all the subsidiary characters, and marveled at how well Ellmann captures a male persona and thoughts/speech. And for Ducks fans, there is both a similar depiction of horrible gun violence and the damage that causes, as well as an entire chapter devoted to the care of an injured duck!
However, the final chapters, which depict Harrison's transformation into a rebel-rousing feminist, don't QUITE ring true, and although that does SEEM to be the whole point of the book, the author shoots herself in the foot by going overboard. Worse, the novel itself ENDS at the 75% mark, and the final quarter of the book contains fairly superfluous material (recipes, songs, random quotes, a long list of acknowledgments), including a very long and awkward feminist screed, purportedly written by Harrison, but so far afield from what ANY man would dictate, that it somewhat mitigates all the good will he's built up in the previous chapters. Not sorry I read it, as it's for the most part a very fun read ... I just wish she'd stopped while she was ahead.
My enamored fascination with Ellmann's justifiably Booker shortlisted Ducks, Newburyport, has lead me to investigate her back catalogue, and while this shares a preponderance of the things that made that recent work great - there are also some ... problems here. The good things that this shares are the humour, the clever wordplay, the life affirmation, the crazy characters and situations depicted. For most of the novel I was charmed and entranced by main character Harrison Hanafan and all the subsidiary characters, and marveled at how well Ellmann captures a male persona and thoughts/speech. And for Ducks fans, there is both a similar depiction of horrible gun violence and the damage that causes, as well as an entire chapter devoted to the care of an injured duck!
However, the final chapters, which depict Harrison's transformation into a rebel-rousing feminist, don't QUITE ring true, and although that does SEEM to be the whole point of the book, the author shoots herself in the foot by going overboard. Worse, the novel itself ENDS at the 75% mark, and the final quarter of the book contains fairly superfluous material (recipes, songs, random quotes, a long list of acknowledgments), including a very long and awkward feminist screed, purportedly written by Harrison, but so far afield from what ANY man would dictate, that it somewhat mitigates all the good will he's built up in the previous chapters. Not sorry I read it, as it's for the most part a very fun read ... I just wish she'd stopped while she was ahead.
April 13, 2024
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
February 12, 2024
I wanted something mindless and uninvolving, and I got it. Sure hope her big book is better.
February 16, 2013
See my full review here - http://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wor...
Mimi by Lucy Ellman had me laughing from the first page. Not just little smiles, but snort-laughs. I’m all for Ellman’s brand of sarcastic humour. But it’s not all laughs. There’s a serious, thoughtful side to this book and whilst the feminist theme weaves through much of the story, Ellmann delivers a shocking plot twist midway through the book that reminds the reader this is no fluff.
Mimi has been hailed the ‘feminist novel of the century (so far)’. I can see that (well actually, it’s hard to miss) but I’m going to leave the dissection of the feminist manifesto described in Mimi to the professional book reviewers. Instead, I’m focusing on what I really enjoyed about this book – the creative writing.
I’ve come across a handful of books in my adult life that are written ‘creatively’. Of course, all books are inherently ‘creative’ but I’m talking about the use of format and form as a way of giving a story something extra. A prime example is Safron Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Anyone who has read that book will know exactly what I mean. So, to Mimi – Ellmann does it. Mimi includes lists, asides about Bach and cats, a bunch of comprehensive appendices (including recipes!), not to mention the use of the CAPS LOCK. But it’s the lists that I loved.
The lists are many and varied. From a list of Gertrude’s (Harrison’s ex-girlfriend) flaws -
“REASON NO.5 Embroidery. There ain’t world enough nor time to embroider cushions, especially ineptly. Gertrude adorns handkerchiefs with mottoes, sews garish flowers on pillowcases…. She also darns, and batiks without irony.
REASON NO. 224: Gertrude’s philosophy of que sera sera. Gertrude likes to come across all scatterbrained and laid-back, just some simple country gal who leaves things to chance. Like hell. I never saw a person take fewer chances. She doesn’t even take a chance on her kind of sun cream being available in the Hamptons… She never took a chance on me either (my loyalty or love), instead imprisoned me in bookings, duties, organizations, and five-year-plans: the box at the Met, wines that won’t mature for a decade…”
to the things he finds ‘melancholy’ -
“Liszt himself – such bombast, and for what?,…master’s degrees in highway lighting – the rushed minimal morning walks of a million Manhattan mutts – puppetry – pep talks…. shrimp-eating contests – unpredictable airfares… Bach’s solo cello suites…”
There’s a fabulous list of kitchen gadgets with detail of how and why each was acquired -
“A bread-maker, that continued kneading its dough long after the girl who gave it to me walked out for good. An electric nutmeg-grater that must have cost more than a lifetime’s supply of nutmegs… Gertrude’s five-hundred-buck coffee machine, that took up half my counter space and looked like it ought to be used for printing revolutionary pamphlets.”
and then, scattered throughout the story are Mimi’s thoughts on all sorts of things -
“Mimi on Cormac McCarthy: “He writes about cowboys and the apocalypse. Enough said.”
Mimi on jobs: “Work’s bad for you. It drives everybody nuts in the end! That’s why I went freelance. If I wanna stay in bed, I stay there.” (This wasn’t exactly true—despite her fantasy of flexibility, Mimi always seemed to have to email somebody or Xerox something, frustrating all my endeavors to keep my own workload down to a minimum in order to be with her!
Mimi on parenthood: “You share your genetic defects with somebody, and then they get your crappy furniture when you die? Some deal.” We were in total agreement on procreation: its unnecessariness.
Mimi on sports: “What good’s an Olympian to me?”
Mimi on the guy who claimed to have started an extramarital affair with a complete stranger, involuntarily, while sleepwalking as a result of taking an antidepressant: “Yeah, sure.”
Mimi on bras: “Tit prisons. Who decided tits have to be this stiff and high anyway? The UN?””
And lastly, random lists, carefully woven into the text. For example, Harrison’s thoughts on why it’s worth living – “…horses’ manes and clouds, Bach, Beethoven…Mist, mint, honey, and bourbon. Saffron and sage. Eggs and nests… Pomegranates, monkeys, movies, cilantro, and jam!”
Some readers will find Ellmann’s format tedious and annoying. I thought it was enchanting.
4/5 I’ll admit, I was hovering between a three and a four on this one. Three because it all finished a little too quickly and conclusively for me – did Harrison need a tad more melancholy on his life? Perhaps. But then there were the lists. The lists that made me laugh out loud… And then think… And then go back to read again… It really is creative writing at its very best.
Mimi by Lucy Ellman had me laughing from the first page. Not just little smiles, but snort-laughs. I’m all for Ellman’s brand of sarcastic humour. But it’s not all laughs. There’s a serious, thoughtful side to this book and whilst the feminist theme weaves through much of the story, Ellmann delivers a shocking plot twist midway through the book that reminds the reader this is no fluff.
Mimi has been hailed the ‘feminist novel of the century (so far)’. I can see that (well actually, it’s hard to miss) but I’m going to leave the dissection of the feminist manifesto described in Mimi to the professional book reviewers. Instead, I’m focusing on what I really enjoyed about this book – the creative writing.
I’ve come across a handful of books in my adult life that are written ‘creatively’. Of course, all books are inherently ‘creative’ but I’m talking about the use of format and form as a way of giving a story something extra. A prime example is Safron Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Anyone who has read that book will know exactly what I mean. So, to Mimi – Ellmann does it. Mimi includes lists, asides about Bach and cats, a bunch of comprehensive appendices (including recipes!), not to mention the use of the CAPS LOCK. But it’s the lists that I loved.
The lists are many and varied. From a list of Gertrude’s (Harrison’s ex-girlfriend) flaws -
“REASON NO.5 Embroidery. There ain’t world enough nor time to embroider cushions, especially ineptly. Gertrude adorns handkerchiefs with mottoes, sews garish flowers on pillowcases…. She also darns, and batiks without irony.
REASON NO. 224: Gertrude’s philosophy of que sera sera. Gertrude likes to come across all scatterbrained and laid-back, just some simple country gal who leaves things to chance. Like hell. I never saw a person take fewer chances. She doesn’t even take a chance on her kind of sun cream being available in the Hamptons… She never took a chance on me either (my loyalty or love), instead imprisoned me in bookings, duties, organizations, and five-year-plans: the box at the Met, wines that won’t mature for a decade…”
to the things he finds ‘melancholy’ -
“Liszt himself – such bombast, and for what?,…master’s degrees in highway lighting – the rushed minimal morning walks of a million Manhattan mutts – puppetry – pep talks…. shrimp-eating contests – unpredictable airfares… Bach’s solo cello suites…”
There’s a fabulous list of kitchen gadgets with detail of how and why each was acquired -
“A bread-maker, that continued kneading its dough long after the girl who gave it to me walked out for good. An electric nutmeg-grater that must have cost more than a lifetime’s supply of nutmegs… Gertrude’s five-hundred-buck coffee machine, that took up half my counter space and looked like it ought to be used for printing revolutionary pamphlets.”
and then, scattered throughout the story are Mimi’s thoughts on all sorts of things -
“Mimi on Cormac McCarthy: “He writes about cowboys and the apocalypse. Enough said.”
Mimi on jobs: “Work’s bad for you. It drives everybody nuts in the end! That’s why I went freelance. If I wanna stay in bed, I stay there.” (This wasn’t exactly true—despite her fantasy of flexibility, Mimi always seemed to have to email somebody or Xerox something, frustrating all my endeavors to keep my own workload down to a minimum in order to be with her!
Mimi on parenthood: “You share your genetic defects with somebody, and then they get your crappy furniture when you die? Some deal.” We were in total agreement on procreation: its unnecessariness.
Mimi on sports: “What good’s an Olympian to me?”
Mimi on the guy who claimed to have started an extramarital affair with a complete stranger, involuntarily, while sleepwalking as a result of taking an antidepressant: “Yeah, sure.”
Mimi on bras: “Tit prisons. Who decided tits have to be this stiff and high anyway? The UN?””
And lastly, random lists, carefully woven into the text. For example, Harrison’s thoughts on why it’s worth living – “…horses’ manes and clouds, Bach, Beethoven…Mist, mint, honey, and bourbon. Saffron and sage. Eggs and nests… Pomegranates, monkeys, movies, cilantro, and jam!”
Some readers will find Ellmann’s format tedious and annoying. I thought it was enchanting.
4/5 I’ll admit, I was hovering between a three and a four on this one. Three because it all finished a little too quickly and conclusively for me – did Harrison need a tad more melancholy on his life? Perhaps. But then there were the lists. The lists that made me laugh out loud… And then think… And then go back to read again… It really is creative writing at its very best.
June 9, 2013
I’ve never read a book by Lucy Ellmann prior to Mimi, and man, do I feel bad about it! If Mimi is anything to go by, Ellmann writes with so much emotion that I’m sure copies dance around the shelves on their own! This book is chock-a-block bursting with feelings – all feelings ranging from ecstatically, insanely happy to the shattered emptiness of loss. Mimi moved me to the point where I was starting to reflect the protagonist (Harrison Hanafan) in his feelings.
Harrison is a plastic surgeon, but different to any of the stereotypes you may link with his profession. He’s the type of man who feels everything that’s going on – a sensitive soul. He doesn’t particularly like the shallow nature of his job, but he’s the type of person to rescue a stray cat on a snowy street and take it home. He loves cartoons, music and has a Melancholy List of things that make him feel that way. Perhaps a little eccentric, but truly a nice guy.
On Christmas Eve, Harrison trips and starts sliding down the icy street. His fall is broken by a woman who picks him up and puts him in a taxi. That woman is Mimi and over the year that follows, they will meet again as life takes them on impossible journeys from love to loss and passion.
Passion is a good word to describe Mimi. Ellmann writes wholeheartedly and it’s also clear that she has done a lot of research. There must have also been a lot of planning involved in taking Harrison to the extreme emotions and situations. I certainly didn’t foresee the contents of the speech he makes to his former high school! I liked the way that Harrison was a whole person, not just his job – his love of music, fear of public speaking and completely susceptible to falling in love.
The book also covers some serious topics – incest, murder and feminism. Feminism tends to creep up and then take over the last part of the book. There’s a whole section in the appendix (how cool that a fiction book has an appendix!) covering Harrison’s thoughts on this matter. His ideas were a little too out there for me in places, but I enjoyed his passion for the subject.
Overall, I adored the way this book took me on a ride of feelings as crazy as any roller coaster. I’d definitely read more from Lucy Ellmann!
Thank you to Bloomsbury Sydney for the review copy.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
Harrison is a plastic surgeon, but different to any of the stereotypes you may link with his profession. He’s the type of man who feels everything that’s going on – a sensitive soul. He doesn’t particularly like the shallow nature of his job, but he’s the type of person to rescue a stray cat on a snowy street and take it home. He loves cartoons, music and has a Melancholy List of things that make him feel that way. Perhaps a little eccentric, but truly a nice guy.
On Christmas Eve, Harrison trips and starts sliding down the icy street. His fall is broken by a woman who picks him up and puts him in a taxi. That woman is Mimi and over the year that follows, they will meet again as life takes them on impossible journeys from love to loss and passion.
Passion is a good word to describe Mimi. Ellmann writes wholeheartedly and it’s also clear that she has done a lot of research. There must have also been a lot of planning involved in taking Harrison to the extreme emotions and situations. I certainly didn’t foresee the contents of the speech he makes to his former high school! I liked the way that Harrison was a whole person, not just his job – his love of music, fear of public speaking and completely susceptible to falling in love.
The book also covers some serious topics – incest, murder and feminism. Feminism tends to creep up and then take over the last part of the book. There’s a whole section in the appendix (how cool that a fiction book has an appendix!) covering Harrison’s thoughts on this matter. His ideas were a little too out there for me in places, but I enjoyed his passion for the subject.
Overall, I adored the way this book took me on a ride of feelings as crazy as any roller coaster. I’d definitely read more from Lucy Ellmann!
Thank you to Bloomsbury Sydney for the review copy.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
February 6, 2020
This most definitely qualifies as the strangest book I read in 2019. Parts of it were funny, more parts were cringeworthy and there is very weird screed that takes place during a high school graduation.
I really wish the characters were less stereotypical.
I really wish the characters were less stereotypical.
January 3, 2016
By chance I think I've found an angrier, female version of John Irving. I should pick up random library book more often!
January 5, 2013
Harrison Hanafan is not having a merry Christmas Eve. He hasn't come up with a good excuse to skip out on his rich, self-absorbed girlfriend Gertrude's holiday party yet and now, out on Manhattan's Madison and 34th, he takes a spectacular fall on the icy sidewalk, sprains his ankle and is helpless. Busy New Yorkers just walk past his prostrate form until a woman appears, pulls him up and bundles him into a taxi that she seems to have summoned by sheer force of will.
The sprained ankle is a blessing in disguise, since it lets Harrison hang out in his luxurious loft apartment, enjoying music and movies, and Bubbles, the cat he rescues. It also provides an excellent excuse to blow off Gertrude and not go do his job as a plastic surgeon, tweaking body parts that were perfectly fine to start with.
Harrison's unplanned sabbatical leads to a whole lot of introspection––particularly about his mother and his sister Bee––then another meeting with Mimi, his Christmas Eve rescuer, and a life-changing year.
This description probably makes the book sound like a straightforward, earnest story. Well, forget that. It's a crazy-quilt of narrative, musical scores, recipes, newspaper articles (fictional), and lists––lots and lots of lists. Harrison has a list of Melancholy Things, for example, that he adds to regularly.
The book is exuberant, romantic, heartbreaking, comic, political and clever. But it's one of those books that will divide readers, I suspect. So much of it is Harrison's musings or conversations with Mimi, and much is a feminist diatribe––which Ellmann has a (fictional) newspaper describe as bizarre, confused and eccentric. Some will see it as wacky ranting, but I was completely charmed and carried away. Ellmann's one-and-a-half page sentence about Bubbles, for example, ended entirely highlighted on my e-reader so that I can easily find it to re-read. Even at its low moments, there was something joyous about this story; a celebration of all the things that make life worth living (yes, complete with lists).
Ellmann's list-making got to me, I guess. I made my own list of adjectives about the book:
quirky
absurd
angry
darkly comedic
misanthropic
smart-alecky
life affirming
feminist
fantastical
revolutionary
ribald
uxorious
riotous
loving
I recommend Mimi to anyone who enjoys oddball characters and eccentric storytelling––and who isn't averse to some feminist ranting (not that there's anything wrong with that––the feminist ranting, I mean).
Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book.
The sprained ankle is a blessing in disguise, since it lets Harrison hang out in his luxurious loft apartment, enjoying music and movies, and Bubbles, the cat he rescues. It also provides an excellent excuse to blow off Gertrude and not go do his job as a plastic surgeon, tweaking body parts that were perfectly fine to start with.
Harrison's unplanned sabbatical leads to a whole lot of introspection––particularly about his mother and his sister Bee––then another meeting with Mimi, his Christmas Eve rescuer, and a life-changing year.
This description probably makes the book sound like a straightforward, earnest story. Well, forget that. It's a crazy-quilt of narrative, musical scores, recipes, newspaper articles (fictional), and lists––lots and lots of lists. Harrison has a list of Melancholy Things, for example, that he adds to regularly.
The book is exuberant, romantic, heartbreaking, comic, political and clever. But it's one of those books that will divide readers, I suspect. So much of it is Harrison's musings or conversations with Mimi, and much is a feminist diatribe––which Ellmann has a (fictional) newspaper describe as bizarre, confused and eccentric. Some will see it as wacky ranting, but I was completely charmed and carried away. Ellmann's one-and-a-half page sentence about Bubbles, for example, ended entirely highlighted on my e-reader so that I can easily find it to re-read. Even at its low moments, there was something joyous about this story; a celebration of all the things that make life worth living (yes, complete with lists).
Ellmann's list-making got to me, I guess. I made my own list of adjectives about the book:
quirky
absurd
angry
darkly comedic
misanthropic
smart-alecky
life affirming
feminist
fantastical
revolutionary
ribald
uxorious
riotous
loving
I recommend Mimi to anyone who enjoys oddball characters and eccentric storytelling––and who isn't averse to some feminist ranting (not that there's anything wrong with that––the feminist ranting, I mean).
Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book.
January 21, 2013
Received this via the publishers in exchange for my honest, unbiased review.
I had a hard time getting into this book at first. It seemed like I was in for a book full of rambling rants from this plastic surgeon. Harrison is so melancholic that I wanted to smack him. He seriously needs a dose of sunshine.
And he gets it with Mimi. Mimi is a bright, vibrant spot in this man's bleak, unhappy life. He is so disenchanted with life and routine, he needs the chaos of Mimi. And she is the catalyst that opens his mind towards how he viewed women his entire life. His entire life is nothing BUT women: his sister, his horrid ex-lover Gertrude, his newly adopted cat, his mother, his other ex girlfriends, his plastic surgery patients, etc.
I liked the characters and how they complimented one another. I liked watching Harrison slowly unfurl. It felt like a slow release of tension. And I loved his 'revolution' inspired by Mimi, about taking away the societal repression of women. There are so many little underlying messages here that anyone can relate to. A solid 3.5/5 stars on the good read scale. Somewhere between "I liked it" and "I really liked it". I couldn't fully give it 4 stars because Harrison's ramblings annoyed me. While it demonstrated his melancholia and then his awakening self, sometimes I felt it just went on and on and on.
It was a bit surprising at first that the title is Mimi when she's really an ancillary to Harrison. With everything from Harrison's point of view, you figured it would be titled his name. But the more I think of it, the more appropriate it is. It's MIMI who changes Harrison and opens his eyes, Mimi who teaches him about passion (not sexual, but for life!), Mimi who has such a joie de vivre approach to everything.
I think we have all met the Gertrudes and Guses and Harrison pre-Mimi in our lives. We need to be open to more of the "crackpots" as Harrison calls Mimi in the beginning. The ones that are impassioned over the little things. The ones who change your life in a moment. As she said, she DID push him that Christmas Eve. :)
I had a hard time getting into this book at first. It seemed like I was in for a book full of rambling rants from this plastic surgeon. Harrison is so melancholic that I wanted to smack him. He seriously needs a dose of sunshine.
And he gets it with Mimi. Mimi is a bright, vibrant spot in this man's bleak, unhappy life. He is so disenchanted with life and routine, he needs the chaos of Mimi. And she is the catalyst that opens his mind towards how he viewed women his entire life. His entire life is nothing BUT women: his sister, his horrid ex-lover Gertrude, his newly adopted cat, his mother, his other ex girlfriends, his plastic surgery patients, etc.
I liked the characters and how they complimented one another. I liked watching Harrison slowly unfurl. It felt like a slow release of tension. And I loved his 'revolution' inspired by Mimi, about taking away the societal repression of women. There are so many little underlying messages here that anyone can relate to. A solid 3.5/5 stars on the good read scale. Somewhere between "I liked it" and "I really liked it". I couldn't fully give it 4 stars because Harrison's ramblings annoyed me. While it demonstrated his melancholia and then his awakening self, sometimes I felt it just went on and on and on.
It was a bit surprising at first that the title is Mimi when she's really an ancillary to Harrison. With everything from Harrison's point of view, you figured it would be titled his name. But the more I think of it, the more appropriate it is. It's MIMI who changes Harrison and opens his eyes, Mimi who teaches him about passion (not sexual, but for life!), Mimi who has such a joie de vivre approach to everything.
I think we have all met the Gertrudes and Guses and Harrison pre-Mimi in our lives. We need to be open to more of the "crackpots" as Harrison calls Mimi in the beginning. The ones that are impassioned over the little things. The ones who change your life in a moment. As she said, she DID push him that Christmas Eve. :)
January 10, 2013
I was intrigued when I read the description of this book, and excited when Bloomsbury USA allowed me access to it via Netgalley, but I'm sad to say that Mimi never lived up to my hopes. I can't say expectations, because I'd never before read anything by Ms. Ellmann, so I didn't know what I'd get in this book. I did think this was an interesting little story about two strange people, but to call this the feminist novel of the century so far? I think not.
It took me a while to get into the book, because Harrison Hanafan was too manic a character for me to get a handle on initially. I had trouble reconciling this person who bounced from subject to subject and thought to thought with little apparent purpose with the steadiness of mind and hand required to be a top plastic surgeon in New York City. Mimi, too, was so unbearably precious that she never seemed like a realistic character to me. The conversation during their meet cute grated on me and felt fake. Likewise, everything about Gertrude, including her name, struck me as too awful to be believed. If such a woman was real, I find it hard to believe that anybody would put up with her for as long as Harrison did.
I feel that it took Mimi about 20 or 30 pages to settle into what I'd consider a readable rhythm. I've given up on books sooner than this, but I wanted to stick it out, and I'm glad I did. Over the course of the book, Mimi and Harrison came to feel less like caricatures and more like representations of actual, functioning people. I don't think that Mimi was a bad book; in fact, at some points it was laugh-out-loud funny. I just found it ever so twee. I'm fairly certain that if an infinite number of hipster monkeys from Brooklyn sat typing on their restored vintage typewriters for an infinite amount of time, one of them would eventually produce Mimi.
It took me a while to get into the book, because Harrison Hanafan was too manic a character for me to get a handle on initially. I had trouble reconciling this person who bounced from subject to subject and thought to thought with little apparent purpose with the steadiness of mind and hand required to be a top plastic surgeon in New York City. Mimi, too, was so unbearably precious that she never seemed like a realistic character to me. The conversation during their meet cute grated on me and felt fake. Likewise, everything about Gertrude, including her name, struck me as too awful to be believed. If such a woman was real, I find it hard to believe that anybody would put up with her for as long as Harrison did.
I feel that it took Mimi about 20 or 30 pages to settle into what I'd consider a readable rhythm. I've given up on books sooner than this, but I wanted to stick it out, and I'm glad I did. Over the course of the book, Mimi and Harrison came to feel less like caricatures and more like representations of actual, functioning people. I don't think that Mimi was a bad book; in fact, at some points it was laugh-out-loud funny. I just found it ever so twee. I'm fairly certain that if an infinite number of hipster monkeys from Brooklyn sat typing on their restored vintage typewriters for an infinite amount of time, one of them would eventually produce Mimi.
February 27, 2013
This book is a wild combination of a Preston Sturges comedy--maybe starring Cary Grant and Melissa McCarthy, the "Ant and Bee" series of kid's books by Angela Banner, a satire, a romance, the joys of sex and art and music, a feminist manifesto, and an appreciation of cats as pets. Its a collage, a crazy quilt, a montage, a collection, an assemblage. And its put together with lists. The story is told by one narrator, Harrison Hanafan, and how much you enjoy the book probably hinges on how much you like his voice, and his chronic, and hilarious, list-making. Harrison is a plastic surgeon whose job is to perfect women, even though he doesn't think they really need it. Mid-life crisis looms: he breaks up with his annoying girlfriend, he's asked to give a speech at his old high school-- hello unresolved childhood conflicts--, and he dreams of quitting his job. Plump, middle-aged Mimi comes to the rescue, and love is the result. This may sound like a typical romantic comedy, but, to Ellman's credit, it is not. Her writing style makes the difference. Ellman uses lists, poetry, and songs to tell the story and her words sparkle right off the page. the humor is there, and also the pathos: there is genuine tragedy and pain along with the wisecracks and slapstick, and the reader is drawn tightly in. I thought the lover's quarrel scene involving the cat and the kimono a little too much just a plot device to create trouble, and the middle of the story sags a bit because of it, but Ellman's plotting soon redeems itself and the pacing picks up again. A delightful feminist fairy tale. Thanks to the publisher for my advance copy.
September 3, 2019
This book tries too hard. I had to sometimes force myself to pick up this book and carry on. I felt no connection with the main characters Dr. Harrison Hanafan, an affected, selfish NY plastic surgeon and his paramour Mimi. I liked the cat Bubbles, I would like to HAVE a cat like Bubbles, but that was about it. My interest in the story peaked a bit when Harrison learns something tragic about his sister, but then it lost me yet again. The characters are all eccentric in mostly unhealthy ways, it was hard to feel any empathy towards any of them. I think my main beef with the book is that It is supposed to be told from a male point of view but I could not get past the niggling feeling that a woman was behind it the entire time. Just did not ring true for me unfortunately. The feminist history was all something I learned back in Women's studies classes I took back in college, so there was no new information there for me either.
It wasn't bad but it wasn't that great. It's not something I would pass on to a friend.
It wasn't bad but it wasn't that great. It's not something I would pass on to a friend.
Read
October 10, 2022Lucy Ellmann is, above all else, an optimistic writer (at least in as much of her work as I have seen). Mimi is a comic but earnest plea for a full revision of gender politics and better treatment for women. If the novel were actually written by a man (the narrator is male) the embracing of revolutionary change would be, well, more revolutionary.
I'm not sure the various materials in a lengthy appendix are at all necessary.
I'm not sure the various materials in a lengthy appendix are at all necessary.
September 12, 2019
2.5 stars - Getting through this book was arduous, at times, and not in a good way.
There were some good parts to this story, but overall, heavily overshadowed by the pontification of the protagonist.
Side Note: I am not sure, I will get through Ducks, Newburyport - if it is anything like this.
There were some good parts to this story, but overall, heavily overshadowed by the pontification of the protagonist.
Side Note: I am not sure, I will get through Ducks, Newburyport - if it is anything like this.
June 6, 2023
This book is definitely a book i’ll be re reading multiple times. I understand why it’s called Mimi, it’s about his love for this women (and other things) and that’s my favorite part of this book.
i gave it four stars because of the slow beginning, but after that everything interesting.
i gave it four stars because of the slow beginning, but after that everything interesting.
November 30, 2012
This is a somewhat eccentric book about an eccentric plastic surgeon who falls for a most definitely eccentric middle aged woman called Mimi. Mimi is brash, colourful, confident, outspoken. She's not afraid to tell it like it is and she shakes up the world of Dr. Harrison Hanafan. I like her a lot. He's a plastic surgeon who started off trying to help people but is now disillusioned with all the nipping, tucking and botoxing he's required to do these days.
He meets Mimi when he falls on Christmas Eve and she helps him up. He's recently broken up with someone who seems to have been a self centred nightmare. He aquires a stray cat who delights his convalescence (sprained ankle).
He runs across Mimi several weeks later and they strike up a friendship and become lovers. She seems to give him the push that changes his life. We also meet his ex, Gertrude, and his sister, Bee and hear snippets of their childhood and family life and see how it molded the people they became.
The book is pretty good but can go on a bit too much at times. Mimi tells Harrison that repetition is good when making an effective speech. 3 or 4 pages of all the qualities of the cat before you finally find out what happened to the cat is excessive. I realize that at this point in the book, Harrison is dealing with several major losses and depression but even so....
There are other tangents like that sometimes though that was the worst one for me. Some is repetition, some is completely off topic and doesn't seem to contribute at all, but some make sense in the big picture. Overall I liked the book, liked the style and liked the characters. I liked the dialogue, it was real and it was wonderfully sardonic at times.
There is a sizeable appendix at the end containing recipes, song lyrics mentioned in the book and a manifesto that figures in the ending of the book. Interesting add-ons to include.
He meets Mimi when he falls on Christmas Eve and she helps him up. He's recently broken up with someone who seems to have been a self centred nightmare. He aquires a stray cat who delights his convalescence (sprained ankle).
He runs across Mimi several weeks later and they strike up a friendship and become lovers. She seems to give him the push that changes his life. We also meet his ex, Gertrude, and his sister, Bee and hear snippets of their childhood and family life and see how it molded the people they became.
The book is pretty good but can go on a bit too much at times. Mimi tells Harrison that repetition is good when making an effective speech. 3 or 4 pages of all the qualities of the cat before you finally find out what happened to the cat is excessive. I realize that at this point in the book, Harrison is dealing with several major losses and depression but even so....
There are other tangents like that sometimes though that was the worst one for me. Some is repetition, some is completely off topic and doesn't seem to contribute at all, but some make sense in the big picture. Overall I liked the book, liked the style and liked the characters. I liked the dialogue, it was real and it was wonderfully sardonic at times.
There is a sizeable appendix at the end containing recipes, song lyrics mentioned in the book and a manifesto that figures in the ending of the book. Interesting add-ons to include.
July 27, 2013
First, a big shout out and thank you to the Reading Room for my free review copy of Mimi. And now that the disclosure and a very sincere thank you are out of the way, I'll start by saying that when I first picked up Mimi and read the first ten or so pages, I found myself wondering what the hell is this book? Once I had read the first thirty pages, I was absolutely hooked by Lucy Ellman's eccentric prose and her massively self-centred lead character, Harrison Hanafan.
The novel opens on Christmas Eve in New York, when Harrison slips and sprains his ankle. The lovably eccentric Mimi comes to his rescue, but what follows isn't the standard My Fair Lady style romance of a stuffy old man whose life is turned upside down by a lovely eccentric. Instead, we learn more about the selfish and bitter Harrison and the things that have helped to shape him. We discover that he has recently broken up with a woman who was not his soulmate (the equally self-centred Gertrude,) that he works as a plastic surgeon and that he might not be such a terrible guy after all after he rescues a stray cat. (Even if the twit does make one very false assumption about the cat.) As the story progresses, we learn more about Harrison's childhood and watch him grow and blossom through his relationship with Mimi. The novel in itself is a feminist one and its interesting to watch some of Harrison's experiences play out and what events change his perspective on the world. The ending had me laughing out loud in places and seemed to be the perfect way to showcase the transition that the lead character had made through the story.
This one is a perfect read for when you're looking for something quirky, intelligent and just that little bit different.
This review also appeared on my blog Kathryn's Inbox
The novel opens on Christmas Eve in New York, when Harrison slips and sprains his ankle. The lovably eccentric Mimi comes to his rescue, but what follows isn't the standard My Fair Lady style romance of a stuffy old man whose life is turned upside down by a lovely eccentric. Instead, we learn more about the selfish and bitter Harrison and the things that have helped to shape him. We discover that he has recently broken up with a woman who was not his soulmate (the equally self-centred Gertrude,) that he works as a plastic surgeon and that he might not be such a terrible guy after all after he rescues a stray cat. (Even if the twit does make one very false assumption about the cat.) As the story progresses, we learn more about Harrison's childhood and watch him grow and blossom through his relationship with Mimi. The novel in itself is a feminist one and its interesting to watch some of Harrison's experiences play out and what events change his perspective on the world. The ending had me laughing out loud in places and seemed to be the perfect way to showcase the transition that the lead character had made through the story.
This one is a perfect read for when you're looking for something quirky, intelligent and just that little bit different.
This review also appeared on my blog Kathryn's Inbox
April 2, 2013
This was recommended in the Psychologies Magazine as a good read. I read the reviews on Amazon (hadn't used this app before) and apart from one, it sounded rather promising. So I purchased it and was quite excited about reading it. BIG MISTAKE!!! I tried really hard to get through this book, managed a third and it beat me. The main character Harrison was too manic for me, I couldn't relate to his upbringing, his emotions and his choice in a previous relationship. Gertrude, who on earth is called that today. I am approaching 50 and certainly, my generation had left that name behind a long time ago. Her personality just didn't fit in this book or with Harrison. Was that the point?
Harrison's childhood and the reference to Ant and Bee books, just irritated me and why did the author feel the need to list every DVD in his cartoon collection. The cat Bubbles was a welcomed relief in his recovery and I thought that we were approaching some normality, but the chance meeting of MIMI, was so far fetched, but not as much as going to a museum to locate a precious stolen heirloom. I got as far as them getting together and comparing childhood stories.
One piece of advice I have been given is to be careful when reading the reviews on the back of books. If they don't refer to the book in question and can be taken from a potentially negative review or talk about the author is a generic way, be suspicious. I haven't give up on reading other books by Lucy Ellmann, but unfortunately, she isn't making me run to the bookshop to find out more about what she has written.
Harrison's childhood and the reference to Ant and Bee books, just irritated me and why did the author feel the need to list every DVD in his cartoon collection. The cat Bubbles was a welcomed relief in his recovery and I thought that we were approaching some normality, but the chance meeting of MIMI, was so far fetched, but not as much as going to a museum to locate a precious stolen heirloom. I got as far as them getting together and comparing childhood stories.
One piece of advice I have been given is to be careful when reading the reviews on the back of books. If they don't refer to the book in question and can be taken from a potentially negative review or talk about the author is a generic way, be suspicious. I haven't give up on reading other books by Lucy Ellmann, but unfortunately, she isn't making me run to the bookshop to find out more about what she has written.
August 6, 2024
Disappointingly, the reader’s immediate impression’s of the novel are overpowered by the nasal tones of Harrison, the protagonist’s overtly male voice.
I remain uncertain as to whether this portrayal is a parody of Woody Allen’s whining New Yorker or a need to strike up empathy in his perpetually hopeless state.
Overall, I was struck by the expression of love not only romantically for Mimi but for Bee
I remain uncertain as to whether this portrayal is a parody of Woody Allen’s whining New Yorker or a need to strike up empathy in his perpetually hopeless state.
Overall, I was struck by the expression of love not only romantically for Mimi but for Bee
January 2, 2025
Having now read four Lucy Ellmann books (three novels and one essay collection) I can confirm that there’s a giddy sense of joy which runs through her pages: pictures, puns, witty one liners, lists. She’s one of the few authors who genuinely makes me laugh loudly and constantly.
Harrison Hanafan is a plastic surgeon who slips on some ice and is helped by a woman. Later on he has to give a speech at his old high school graduation ceremony so he enlists the help of someone who coaches people for public speaking. As things turn out it’s the same person who helped him. The titular Mimi.
From there it’s a farcical comedy. There’s Harrison’s ex, Gertrude, his sister Bea, who lives in Canterbury, an episode involving a quilt, another one involving a cat, a sojourn in the countryside and many more happenings, some tragic, some slapstick moments, all with clever wordplay.
Beneath all the jokes though, lies a strong feminist theme. Mimi makes Harrison realise the importance of gender equality and this culminates in the powerful high school speech 9no worries it’s still got laughs), and the appendix drives in all the points. There’s no subtlety to this and Lucy Ellmann lays everything clearly.
Humor is always the best way to get a message across and Lucy Ellmann definitely gets that. At times I felt that Mimi was a sort of prototype for her masterpiece Ducks, Newburyport so I found that interesting as well.
Harrison Hanafan is a plastic surgeon who slips on some ice and is helped by a woman. Later on he has to give a speech at his old high school graduation ceremony so he enlists the help of someone who coaches people for public speaking. As things turn out it’s the same person who helped him. The titular Mimi.
From there it’s a farcical comedy. There’s Harrison’s ex, Gertrude, his sister Bea, who lives in Canterbury, an episode involving a quilt, another one involving a cat, a sojourn in the countryside and many more happenings, some tragic, some slapstick moments, all with clever wordplay.
Beneath all the jokes though, lies a strong feminist theme. Mimi makes Harrison realise the importance of gender equality and this culminates in the powerful high school speech 9no worries it’s still got laughs), and the appendix drives in all the points. There’s no subtlety to this and Lucy Ellmann lays everything clearly.
Humor is always the best way to get a message across and Lucy Ellmann definitely gets that. At times I felt that Mimi was a sort of prototype for her masterpiece Ducks, Newburyport so I found that interesting as well.
June 30, 2021
Very different from anything I’ve read before, just in the style of writing. The story is simple but the way it is told is complex, jumbled, interloped with trivia then strong principals. There is woman’s rights, there is music, there is love and hate and all the self loathing people go through.
I love the fact it is almost a coming of age for a man in his 50’s, to see life and it’s meaning change, but it’s done in such N almost innocent way in the telling.
“Bradbridge’s widow, Wilson’s Wife.”
Plaster reproduction of the original two figures carved in white sandstone. By Bee.
I love the fact it is almost a coming of age for a man in his 50’s, to see life and it’s meaning change, but it’s done in such N almost innocent way in the telling.
“Bradbridge’s widow, Wilson’s Wife.”
Plaster reproduction of the original two figures carved in white sandstone. By Bee.
March 14, 2023
I can't decide whether I really liked this one or not. It's kind of funny but also a bit contrived and it's kind of a good story but also not quite credible. The characters are quirky and likeable but also not quite believable. It also reads a bit like a feminist manifesto from the 1970's which means for someone my age there's nothing new being said. On the other hand it's all stuff that still needs saying and saying and saying so good on Lucy Ellman for doing that and if just one person reads it and is influenced by it then that will be a win.
August 1, 2021
So fast, so witty, so precise. Excellent structure, unpredictable but exactly right. And it all builds to such a bonkers but perfect ending. Ellmann's got incredible range. This is so different from Ducks, Newburyport but also sort of beautifully resonant with it?
What will her next fiction be? All we can say for sure: unmissable.
What will her next fiction be? All we can say for sure: unmissable.
January 12, 2025
What can you say about a book like Mimi? Is there a book like Mimi? It’s a feminist polemic, a screwball comedy and an odd couple romance. It’s funny, melancholic, angry and so sharply written I’m not sure I’m clever enough to have really taken it all in. I just know Lucy Ellmann is so original and so herself that I would put up with any amount of lists and outlandish plot points to be in her company for a few days.
October 31, 2019
this is a really enjoyable read especially the second half. at first though i felt i was reading an extended stand-up sketch. thats a problem with first person narratives--they can easily become that sort of thing. anyway feel a little bad giving this 4 stars because by the end (of course) I *was* cheering.
final verdict--a good read and I really do wish men talked like this!
final verdict--a good read and I really do wish men talked like this!
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