Angie, I Says

by Avra Wing

The widely acclaimed debut novel, now a major motion picture starring Geena Davis and Stephen Rea. "Spirited . . . an engaging, entertaining novel that is propelled by the energy of the narrator's voice".--New York Times Book Review.

Genres: Fiction, Adult

Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1991

About the author

After Isaac, my new young adult novel, won a gold medal for YA fiction in the 2013 Moonbeam Awards for Children's Books. Publishers Weekly called it "an emotionally complex story of life, love, grief, and recovery." My first novel, Angie, I Says, a New York Times notable book, was made into the movie Angie starring Geena Davis and James Gandolfini. I have also published essays in the Times. My collection of poems, Recurring Dream, won the 2011 Pecan Grove Press chapbook competition, and I have published poems in several journals, including Hanging Loose and Michigan Quarterly Review. For 10 years I was an adjunct professor of English at Kingsborough Community College, and for the past four years I have been a writing workshop leader for the New York Writers Coalition.

Reviews

[Dree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1992, this novel takes place during the time when working women (aka "working girls" aka "the office pool" aka "secretaries") were constantly looked down upon by the men they worked with, the few women in their offices with higher standing, and their families if they were married. Times were changing though, and Tina, this books narrator, was part of the change. Women no longer had to quit/be fired if they were pregnant (like my mom was back in the day), they could return to their jobs (if they could work out child care), and single unmarried moms were at least tolerated.

Narrator Tina is 30 years old, working as a secretary. She lives in NY, is half Italian and half Jewish. She has a boyfriend, and her close friends are her sister and co-workers. Should she get married? She sees her best fiend, Angie's, marriage, and is not impressed. She sees what her sister has given up by getting married, having kids, moving to a house. Does she want to go that route, or should she forge her own route?

This novel is also about family--Tina is a huge believer in family, and has always tried to deal with her mentally ill mother (her sister ignores her), her mean grandmother, and her dad's 2nd wife. She feels a duty to all of these people, and is very hurt about those that don't share this feeling.

This book feels very dated to me, but I think that is because in the last 25 years things (socially, technologically) have changed A LOT. Are secretaries still looked down on? Probably, thought the places I have worked they actually ran the place. I'm sure it depends on industry/company culture. I think in the future this book will feel more like a snapshot in time. Or maybe it does now to those that did not work in 1992 when it was published.

[Megan Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this story. It had some twists and turns that felt like it fit. It made sense in the context that followed. There were a few times that I couldn't put this book down, wanting to know what was going to happen, how the characters were going to react.
The only disappointment I had was the ending. Everything that had come before made me want to continue reading to find out how the story ends but when I got to the end, I found myself looking to see if I had lost pages. I felt like the author didn't know how to end it so just stopped writing. Not that there is anything wrong with leaving things vague, letting the reader come up with how things work out for the characters in the future. But at the end,when the main character is having a moment of crisis waiting for the subway, I didn't feel like there was any resolution. It felt like a schizophrenic moment that suddenly passes and everything is alright again. It didn't feel in line with the rest of the book and in that I felt let down. I would have been happy if that hadn't been a part of it, or that she was dealing the best she could and looked to the future favorably the supporting group she had built up around her.
Overall, it was a great read and I hated to put it down.

[Katherine Coble · Rating 1 out of 5]

Literally one of the five worst books I ever read in my life.

[Johanna Juntunen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Olihan tuo ihan hyvä kirja. Kapinointi ja oman pään pitäminen on sallittua. Avoin loppu.

[Marne Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very strange little book. I read it after watching the movie with Geena Davis and having some unanswered questions. As is so often the case when I decide to do that, the book ended up being very different from the movie. It's much darker and more serious.