CJ Hauser

Not every book feels like a conversation with your best friend, but this one does. It’s focused on the act of creating family, from the people who birthed you and the people you’ve picked up on your journeys and misadventures. This is a book that said so many things so well that I had to stop for a moment and think, “Oh, wow, I’ve thought that so many times, but she said it just right!”

These are modern meditations on letting people be who they need to be even if they don’t fill the role you want them to, the power and humility it takes to begin seeking people who can meet you where you’re at and accept your needs, and the wonderousness of queer beginnings and multiple heartbreaks in the same home and a good cry in therapy!

Everyone would benefit from reading this book, but it’s especially for the girls, gays, and the theys who ask themselves, “Why can’t you imagine someone accommodating your whole self the way you imagine accommodating someone else?” (A particularly wonderful quote that comes from the essay “Uncoupling”—one of the best parts of the book and one totally worth jumping straight into if you especially need it).… (mere)

Fresh talent CJ Hauser makes her literary debut with The From-Aways, an irreverent story of family, love, friendship, and lobsters, in the tradition of J. Courtney Sullivan’s Maine and Richard Russo’s Empire Falls.Two women come to Maine in search of family, and find more love, heartbreak, and friendship, than they’d ever imagined one little fishing town could hold.When Leah, a young New York reporter, meets Henry, she falls in love with everything about him: his freckles, green thumb, and tales of a Maine childhood. They marry quickly and Leah convinces Henry to move back to Menamon. As Leah builds a life there, reporting for The Menamon Star and vowing to be less of an emotional screw-up, the newlyweds are shocked to discover that they don’t know each other nearly so well as they thought they did.When Quinn’s mother dies, she tracks down the famous folk-singer father she’s never known, in Menamon. Scrappy and smart-mouthed, Quinn gets a job at the local paper, an apartment above the town diner, and tries to shore up the courage to meet her father. But falling in love with her roommate, Rosie, was never part of the plan.These two unruly women’s work relationship at The Star deepens into best-friendship when they stumble onto a story that shakes sleepy Menamon—and holds damaging repercussions for Leah’s husband and Quinn’s roommate both. As the town descends into turmoil, both women must decide what kind of lives they are willing to fight for.… (mere)

This book was advertised as "A Memoir in Essays" and I suppose that that is true, but the first part of the book is very unlike a series of structured essays. Observations about the world, yes, but essays?
I was not in the mood for this book so I didn't finish. My reaction was colored by the similarities in form between this book and My Name is Lucy Barton, which I had just finished. These books were published at roughly the same time but I have no interest in digging around to see if the authors acknowledge each other's influence. In any case, I found the fictional Lucy Barton to be a more sparkling narrator than CJ Hauser.… (mere)