The Mighty Queens of Freeville

When Amy Dickinson’s marriage fell apart, she returned home to Freeville in rural upstate New York, where the strong women in her family raised her. As she says all roads lead to home, her internal compass always pointed north. This non-fiction memoir is really a story about strong women and the ties they have to one another, their daily interaction that keeps them emotionally and mentally sound. It is also about the multi- generational love of mothers and daughters in a family where the men seem to walk out too easily. Amy’s own father had left her mother when Amy was young. Her mother was an incredible role model, working hard just to survive. Eventually , in her fifties, she went to college and became a professor .

Amy seemed to drift a lot more, managing to get by. Her main focus was in raising her daughter, Emily. Amy struck me as never really having that much ambition, she did just what was necessary, no more. Eventually she got the job as Ask Amy for The Chicago Tribune and did become quite successful, but it seemed more of being in the right place at the right time. The story is more of rambling retrospection of the years preceding while raising Emily and living part time in Freeville.

I didn’t really get a sense of a lot of emotion in this story, particularly on Amy’s part. It seemed she let the divorce and life in general just happen. Occasionally, there were glimpses of humor, but mostly it seemed blasé. I think I admired Amy’s mother the most as she seemed to have more gumption and ambition. It was an okay book, a quick fast read, but not one I would highly recommend. It needed a little more in depth feeling to it, less meanderings. 3***