Hoopi Shoopi Donna

by Suzanne Strempek Shea

Growing up in a small New England town, 14 year-old Donna Milewski had all she a grandmother, Babci, whose fragrant cooking filled their home...her mother, Helen, who lovingly stitched outfits...and Adam, the most wonderful father a daughter could imagine, who dreamed she could one day lead an all-girl polka band.
Then came Betty, a tiny and adorable five-year-old, sent from Poland by Adam's destitute brother. Bringing with her only a rubber doll's leg and her old-world charm, Betty became the little sister Donna never had -- and a threat to her father's love. During a long and painful rift, a dance of betrayal and hurt, Donna must look to her beloved polka music for the key to healing.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Historical Fiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Suzanne Strempek Shea is the author of five novels: Selling the Lite of Heaven, Hoopi Shoopi Donna, Lily of the Valley, Around Again, and Becoming Finola, published by Washington Square Press. She has also written three memoirs, Songs From a Lead-lined Room: Notes - High and Low - From My Journey Through Breast Cancer and Radiation; Shelf Life: Romance, Mystery, Drama and Other Page-Turning Adventures From a Year in a Bookstore; and Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith, all published by Beacon Press.

She co-wrote 140 Years of Providential Care: The Sisters of Providence of Holyoke, Massachusetts with her husband, Tom Shea, and with author/historian Michele P. Barker. This is Paradise, a book about Mags Riordan, founder of the Billy Riordan Memorial Clinic in the African nation of Malawi, was published in April by PFP Publishing.

Her sixth novel, Make a Wish But Not for Money, about a palm reader in a dead mall, will be published by PFP Publishing on Oct. 5, 2014.

Suzanne’s essay Crafty Critters, about her lifelong love of knitting, a craft she learned in the “Crafty Critters” 4-H club of Palmer, Mass., back in childhood, is included in the recently released anthology Knitting Yarns, Writers on Knitting, edited by Ann Hood.

Winner of the 2000 New England Book Award, which recognizes a literary body of work's contribution to the region, Suzanne began writing fiction in her spare time while working as reporter for the Springfield (Massachusetts) Newspapers and The Providence (Rhode Island) Journal.

Her freelance journalism and fiction has appeared in magazines and newspapers including Yankee, The Bark, Golf World, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Organic Style and ESPN the Magazine. She was a regular contributor to Obit magazine.

Suzanne is a member of the faculty at the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast MFA program in creative writing and is writer-in-residence and director of the creative writing program at Bay Path College in Longmeadow, Mass. She has taught in the MFA program at Emerson College and in the creative writing program at the University of South Florida. She also has taught in Ireland, at the Curlew Writers Conferences in Howth and Dingle, and in Dingle via the Stonecoast Ireland residency.

She lives in Bondsville, Mass., with Tommy Shea, most recently the senior foreign editor at The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi, and their dogs Tiny and Bisquick

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book makes me wish i was Polish! Terrific fun and intelligent read. Very lovable characters. How people who have every reason to love can turn bitter and what it can do to a person to let this happen. Redemption is always possible.

[Cheryl Suchors · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so enjoyed this book. The character is a willful woman, a tendency I like. Just like other young women I know, including myself at her age, she tended to get stuck for a while and that was hard to watch, because I was by then quite attached to Donna. Also, I loved getting a front row seat to what a large extended family of Polish-Americans can be like, not to mention the descriptions of food! All in all, an uplifting and, without being pedantic, educational and illuminating read.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book tremendously. The author has a great sense of humor. I grew up hearing about Polish culture and immigrant life. I found the description cumbersome sometimes but more so because it was lots of polish names which were hard to read not knowing how to pronounce them. Also I think it reminded me a lot of how my mind works, constant stream of thought and analysis.

I think to a certain degree we all have aspects of Donna, bitter and resentful, self-sabotaging and Betty, amazingly positive, triumphs over all obstacles, and kind to everyone.

Reading about Donna and her lifelong resentment of Betty made me realize that to some people I am probably a Betty. I do a lot of amazing things, have a good attitude and am nice to everyone. Negative people have a hard time with that. And that's okay. I can't expect everyone to like me no matter how nice I am.

It also made me think of Bettys I've known that made me feel very jealous and resentful during my life, especially when I was younger and didn't have as much control over my emotions.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to like a book when you don't really care for the characters. I didn't not like Donna but she just frustrated me beyond belief. I value my family too much to just turn them off. I don't think she should have talked to her dad but she should have made an effort to keep with her mother. And her mother definitely should have told her dad to go jump in the lake and she should have visited Donna. I'm glad she finally did what she wanted to but basically she wasted her life because relationships are pretty much what life is about.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really loved this book - a sweet (without being cloying or overly sentimental), painful and honest portrait of family life. Made me want to call my Mom. I loved the details of the book, the author has a great way of setting a scene with just a few utterly precise details. As a bonus, I learned some new Polish words. Took one star off because the ending was unbelievable compared to the stark reality of the rest of the story.

[Judith Podell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny and heartbreaking in equal amounts. Redeems the accordian, for those of you who can't help thinking about Lawrence Welk. A classic. Subverts the conventions of novels about fathers and daughters. A classic.

[Anne Pinkerton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a complicated story of familial relations and traumatic baggage and persistent love. The read was an emotional rollercoaster alongside the heroine's personal journey as a daughter, sister, and accordion player. Shea's writing is so beautiful and engaging. Well-worth the read.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. A young woman tries to reconcile her feelings for her dad, her jealousy, her guilt, her love. Quirky and witty, the book flows beautifully.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful glimpse of western MA's Polish community. Second reading in 15 years & it still makes me have all the feels

[Sheila Shotwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all-time favorite novels!

[Meryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too long and boring. I skipped through the parts mentioning polka music which would be unnecessarily long again and again throughout the book. I don’t get it if Donna consciously knew she was ruining her life why did she especially with Eric. After that point I did major speed reading. I can sum up this review with one word ANNOYING!!

Not for nothing but anyone who likes polkas and accordion music has to be over 80. 😝 I should have known better.

[Marie Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I am 100% Polish I expected to enjoy this book and, in fact, did enjoy all the many references to our ethnic foods and music. It brought to mind all the nostalgia of my youth! Being a hopeless romantic, I was let down by all the times Donna could have fallen in love but instead rudely dismissed boys for no good reason, except for the chip on her shoulder. I was sometimes confused by the flashbacks, as to whether this scene was the past or present.

[Treasure Island Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great look into Polish-American culture. As a person who still watches old Lawrence Welk shows, I loved the polka references. Donna is a frustrating character. You want to reach right into the book and shake her when you read how she sabotages her chances at happiness to spite her father after a simple misunderstanding that snowballs and snowballs, entangling Donna in a life both unsatisfying and bitter. Donna is a character you won't soon forget.

[Laura Zurowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suzanne Strempek Shea is a completely under-rated writer who captures the ethnic, religious, and social bindings of working-class New England with grace, humor, and authenticity. I've enjoyed all of her stories and if you grew up in the 1970s in a Polish/Irish/Italian/... family, chances are you will too.

Compared to Selling the Lite of Heaven, Hoopi Shoopi Donna is a darker, more distraught story that reveals the secretive and dysfunctional underside of those close-knit familial neighborhoods. Donna's the underdog here, and while there are times you want to throw up your hands in exasperation at her stubbornness, you can't help but cheer her on to the very end.

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've embarked on a journey of re-reading Suzanne Strempek Shea's books. This was book is immense! Grounded in an ethnic Polish Catholic family culture it reaches out into larger themes of dreams, belonging and more. As is often the case with me as a reader, the details of setting and character enchant me. Few can construct them as Strempek Shea can. The story itself is fascinating.

[Lucie · Rating 5 out of 5]

And maybe I still will start an all-girl polka band...reading this book gave me an unshakable yearning to learn how to play the accordian. Even now, years after first cracking open its pages,everytime I pass by an accordian shop I cannot stop & think about the journey I went on with Donna.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would only recommend this to someone of Polish background as it is interesting to read something you can relate to. I don't think the book was that good but I did somewhat enjoy reading it maybe because the characters were Polish.

[Amy Gourley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main character in this book frustrated me quite a bit. All because of miscommunication with her family. Although the book was in first person, I really didn't get a sense of her character or why anyone liked her.

[Danthony74 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to make myself stick with this book and finish it. It was a gift from my sister. It is written well and has a good sense of humor, but it was just boring. It was Donna's life. That was all. Nothing earth shattering. I think Donna would have benefited from some counseling.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love anything by this author. This is one of my favorites, special for those of us in MA and CT because it takes place in this area (she's a local author from Springfield area).

[Kim Benouski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed following Donna through all of her horrible dating choices. This is a fun book. You don't know whether to laugh or reach through the book and shake some sense into the girl.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favorite book. it has everything. a polish immigrant family, mayhem, ... quirky. i like to read it every couple years

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually love SSS's books, but couldn't get into this one. Tried twice, and gave up.

[Maryann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shea paints a vivid portrait of family in this sweet novel.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm Polish! Of course I read this book. It was passed between all my cousins, and we all understood it. And laughed about it.

[Mark Greene · Rating 4 out of 5]

For people with Western Massachusetts ties

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

How can you NOT like a story about a woman who works in a tampon factory and plays in an accordion band?

[Jamilah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it, although I have to admit that at times I wanted to shake the main character/ narrator.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tried more than once to read this book. Just didn't grab me.

[Mary Lee]

Tun if you grw up in a Polish-American household.