The Miss America Family

Description

The touching and thoughtful novel from the bestselling author of Girl Talk The best day of Pixie's life was the day she won the Miss New Jersey beauty pageant. Her dreams stretched in front of her- a Miss America could go anywhere, be anyone. Fame and fortune were at her fingertips - until she fell pregnant. Now, the mother of a teenager, on her second marriage, she is beset by memories of her glittering career. Ezra, her sixteen-year-old son, notices none of this. It's the start of the long summer holiday and his main preoccupation is the girl next door and his quest to lose his virginity. Engaging and honest, he tells his own story of what it means to be the child of a woman whose American dream went nowhere. Soulful and mordantly funny in the vein of American Beauty, Pixie and Ezra unfold a story of the American family that is at once touching and fiercely honest.

Julianna Baggott has published dozens of short stories and poems and is the author of the prize winning poetry collection, This Country of Mothers and the bestselling novel Girl Talk. She teaches at Florida State University's Creative Writing Program. She lives in Florida with her husband, writer David G.W. Scott, and their three young children. Visit her website at www.juliannabaggott.com

Baggott explores contemporary "civilized" behavior and the imperfections of a "perfect American family" with wit and grace * Publishers Weekly * Julianna Baggott enjoys living on the knife edge between hilarity and heartbreak and that makes her a writer after my own heart -- Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize winning author of EMPIRE FALLS An accomplished and charmingly messy tale of love and redemption * Kirkus Reviews *