“By turns revealing, hilarious, dishy, and razor-sharp, Impersonation lives in that rarest of sweet spots: the propulsive page-turner for people with high literary standards.” –Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers Allie Lang is a professional ghostwriter and a perpetually broke single mother to a young boy. Lana Breban is a powerhouse lawyer, economist, and advocate for women’s rights. … and advocate for women’s rights. With aspirations of running for office, Lana and her staff have decided she needs help softening her public image. That’s when Allie is hired to write Lana’s memoir about her life as a mother. Allie believes she knows the drill: she has learned how to inhabit the lives of others and tell their stories better than they can. But soon Allie’s childcare arrangements unravel; she falls behind on her rent; her subject, Lana, is frustratingly aloof; and Allie’s boyfriend decides to go on a road trip toward self-discovery. As a writer for hire and a mother, Allie has gotten too used to being accommodating. At what point will she speak up for all that she deserves?
Impersonation tells a timely, insightful, and bitingly funny story of ambition, motherhood, and class.
more
Set in the early days of the Trump presidency and the rise of #MeToo movement, Impersonation explores the intersection between what women are willing to accept and what they need and must learn to demand for themselves.
Allie Lang is the forty-year old single mother of five-year-old Cassie. Her writing career was sidelined back in Dartmouth when she resisted her advisor’s advances. She later left a good job to help her mother care for her ailing step-dad. Now, she cobbles together an income by substitute teaching, landscape work, and ghostwriting memoirs for celebrities of all calibers.
Al has a live-in boyfriend who is a great guy and a wonderful male role model for Cassie. But, he is also a recovering capitalist whose divorce spurred him to seek a more meaningful life. Between odd jobs, he travels across country. Al is afraid to demand more of his time, knowing he needs to find himself. She also resists becoming dependent on any one.
When a lucrative book deal falls through after the celebrity is named in the #MeToo movement, Al is given the job of writing a memoir about motherhood for a nationally known feminist. It should be a dream job, especially after the smarmy stories the last guy wanted to tell her. Except, Al can’t get Lana to talk about her life and has to, well, basically, make up stories.
Al struggles with the basic needs of putting a roof over their heads and raising a son and dealing with her parents and here-and-gone again lover. And, of course, trying to pin down her celebrity so she can finish the book and get paid.
The purpose of the memoir becomes apparent as Lana decides for a political career. Al’s purpose is to make an intelligent, powerful feminist appealing to Middle-American women–an anti-Hillary. As Al impersonates Lana, in the memoir Lana is impersonating the typical American mother and housewife. Al has not recourse but to plumb her own life for insights and stories.
The lesson Al must learn is that being independent does not mean a woman can’t ask for what she needs, like a better salary and a committed relationship and help in juggling job and motherhood.
I was pleased with the competent writing, the humor that had me laughing out loud, and the realistic portrayal of motherhood. Al works from home, and the challenges will resonate with many women who had to work from home with kids in the house during the pandemic. Best of all, Al is a mirror to the many ways women are more worried about taking care of other people than we are ourselves. When Al empowers herself, a happy ending ensues and she and Lana become a powerful team.
I received a free galley through NetGalley from the publisher. My review is fair and unbiased.
Impersonation touches upon many relevant issues, some of which have been going on for a long time and some even more relatable because of our world situation that is happening now. This is a story about a ghostwriter but it becomes more than just that. It is about ambition, motherhood, class, and feminism all coming together.