Description
Book SynopsisMeghan Daum''s unforgettable debut novel brings her sharp wit and courageous social commentary to the story of Lucinda Trout, a New York television reporter in search of greener pastures. Moving to the slower-paced, friendly, and vastly more affordable Midwestern town of Prairie City, Lucinda zealously creates a series of televised reports for her New York audience about her newfound quality of life. But when Lucinda falls for eccentric local Mason Clay, her naïveté about the real world leads her down an unexpected path, where she encounters, among other things, a drafty old farmhouse filled with children, an ever-growing menagerie of farm animals, and the harshest winter the region has seen in twenty years. In other words, simplicity just isn''t as simple as it is cracked up to be, and 'quality of life,' Lucinda learns, is much more complicated than she ever imagined.
Trade ReviewDaum’s enormous comic gift—and her ability to use it in the service of fundamentally serious issues—is an unexpected delight. * New York Times Book Review *
A crisp, wisecracking voice . . . an admirably nuanced view of the American heartland. * New Yorker *
Funny, literate . . . this is a surprising, entertaining, and often touching story of a single woman lurching into her thirties looking for love and fulfillment, but mostly just finding herself. Top quality. * People *
Daum has a charming, breezy style and a pretty wicked sense of humor. . . .
The Quality of Life Report is great fun. * USA Today *
The simple life never looked so complicated. * Time *
Table of Contents
- Foreword
- Open Arms, Open Minds
- Alternative Lifestyle Alert
- A Serious, More Humanitarian Direction
- The Lay of the Land
- A Sociocultural Analysis of the Margin of Error
- Rode Hard and Put Away Wet
- How to Throw a Barn Dance for Under $300
- The Hidden Benefits of Tanning
- Today’s Word Is Glamoricious
- The Guy in the Clouds
- Embrace, Empathize, Empower
- The Margin Widens
- One Year Later
- Acknowledgments
- An Interview with Meghan Daum
- A Note on the Author
