My New American Life, Francine Prose
My New American Life, Francine Prose
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My New American Life
A Novel

Author: Francine Prose

Narrator: Ellen Archer

Unabridged: 8 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 04/26/2011

Synopsis

“Francine Prose is a world-classsatirist who’s also a world-class storyteller.”—Russell Banks
 
Francine Prose captures contemporary America at itsmost hilarious and dreadful in My New American Life, a darkly humorousnovel of mismatched aspirations, Albanian gangsters, and the ever-elusiveAmerican dream. Following her New York Times bestselling novels BlueAngel and A Changed Man, Prose delivers the darkly humorous storyof Lula, a twenty-something Albanian immigrant trying to find stability andcomfort in New York City in the charged aftermath of 9/11. Set at the frontlines of a cultural war between idealism and cynicism, inalienable rights andimplacable Homeland Security measures, My New American Life is a movingand sardonic journey alongside a cast of characters exploring what it means tobe American.

About Francine Prose

Francine Prose is the author of twenty-two works of fiction including the highly acclaimed The Vixen; Mister Monkey; the New York Times bestseller Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932; A Changed Man, which won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; and Blue Angel, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her works of nonfiction include the highly praised 1974: A Person History, Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, and the New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer, which has become a classic. The recipient of numerous grants and honors, including a Guggenheim and a Fulbright, a Director’s Fellow at the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, Prose is a former president of PEN American Center, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Cynnamon on April 05, 2020

A satirical novel about a young, female Albanian immigrant who tries with all means to gain a foothold in the US.The book comments on the American middle-class lifestyle from the perspective of an Southeastern European who doesn't really understand the mentality but tries to adapt. Considerably less......more

Goodreads review by Suzanne on July 09, 2020

Prose does a great job of presenting Americans from an immigrants' point of view. Those of us who have roots here for three or four generations tend to think life and customs here are life and customs period. The Albanian narrator, Lula sees America and Americans with a survivor's eye, tremendous wit......more

Goodreads review by Diane on May 11, 2011

My New American Life is whip-smart funny. Satire is not always easy to pull off on the written page , and Prose does it amazingly well. Her writing, especially of Lula's thoughts, had me cracking up, like this one: "Lula knew that some Americans cheered every time INS agents raided factories and shov......more

Goodreads review by Talia on May 22, 2013

Out of reverence for a successful author, I am reluctant to share how disappointed I feel as I put down a novel and ask, "Is this it? Is that all?" I would not have written this review if I didn't take a page from the author herself, Francine Prose, whose sharp critical pen had once smashed Maya Ang......more

Goodreads review by Peggy on June 27, 2014

I liked this book and the Albanian main character who is trying to figure out American life. Lula is the live-in caretaker for a high school student, a precarious job for her, since everyone she meets assumes that she is sleeping with his father, the man she calls Mister Stanley. The book describes......more

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