Saturday, January 7, 2017

The Clancys of Queens: A MemoirThe Clancys of Queens: A Memoir by Tara Clancy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[actual rating: 4.5 stars]

I just finished this insightful coming-of-age memoir this morning in one sitting. The writing style felt like rambling anecdotes, which I thought that it was very realistic and extremely funny. Snippets of her life, we don't go chronologically but we see these memories and moments of time that were important to her upbringing. There were so many moments where I was just laughing out loud at the quirky things that her Irish-Italian family displayed.

Tara Clancy grew up in diverse Queens, but split her time between three households. She fondly describes herself as a chameleon and I could appreciate her idea of "undeterred", moving around all the time and social strata hopping, but saying that the people in her life kept her "tethered".That whole concept I felt like was one of the key ideas to this book, although the most important part in my opinion was the portrayal of middle-class working women in NYC. I know that may sound pretty typical, right? but I personally don't read many memoirs that are celebrity memoirs talking about their career and late life.

One thing that just made this book for me was the authentic and diverse cast of character. I loved getting to know her grandma who was a non-sense tough Italian lady. I loved seeing Tara's relationship with her mother grow and develop as the years when on, and what an accepting mother-daughter relationship could do to it. She has 40 first cousins, so because her family is huge it was always extremely amusing to see how their family celebrated various holidays.

After reading this, I really respect her as a person. She got so much love and acceptance from her family, that helped shape her to be the strong and confident women that she is today. I would highly recommend this memoir to biography/memoir lovers, because you will feel yourself be immersed and connected to her story. At least I know that I did.

**Thanks you to Blogging for Books and Penguin Random House for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange of my honest review. All opinions are my own.**

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