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My New American Life

3.18 of 5 stars 3.18 · rating details · 762 ratings · 195 reviews

Lula, a twenty-six-year-old Albanian woman living surreptitiously in New York City on an expiring tourist visa, hopes to make a better life for herself in America. When she lands a job as caretaker to Zeke, a rebellious high school senior in suburban New Jersey, it seems that the security, comfort, and happiness of the American dream may finally be within reach. Her new bo...more

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published April 26th 2011 by Harper

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New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2011

27th out of 100 books — 41 voters

Mémoires D'immortels by Christelle Verhoest

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Apr 18, 2011 Kristin rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I really don't like giving books bad reviews, mostly because I usually try to chose ones that I think I'll like and won't be a waste of time, and I especially hate having to give bad reviews to a book I win on Goodreads, but despite sounding good in the synopsis there really wasn’t anything I liked about this book.

In a nutshell, this is the story of Lula, a twenty-six-year-old immigrant from Albania working as a caregiver in New Jersey for a Wall Street executive whose wife developed a mental il...more I really don't like giving books bad reviews, mostly because I usually try to chose ones that I think I'll like and won't be a waste of time, and I especially hate having to give bad reviews to a book I win on Goodreads, but despite sounding good in the synopsis there really wasn’t anything I liked about this book.

In a nutshell, this is the story of Lula, a twenty-six-year-old immigrant from Albania working as a caregiver in New Jersey for a Wall Street executive whose wife developed a mental illness and deserted the family within the last year or so. Since Zeke, the son that Lula is watching, is a senior in high school, she’s basically there to make sure he eats his vegetables, even though she mostly just feeds him frozen food, and doesn’t burn down the house since his father, Mister Stanley, as Lula calls him, works very long hours in Manhattan. Lula, therefore, has a lot of free time.

Very early on we find out that Lula has been visited by three young Albanian guys who call her little sister (all Albanians are related, they say) and ask her to hide a gun for them. The story follows Lula as she tries to get a green card; find Dunia, her missing friend from Albania with whom she came to America; find a new job after Zeke graduates and goes to college; and deal with the three Albanian guys who continue to visit Lula out of the blue, among other things.

I understand that there are differences between Americans and people from other countries and that anyone who has lived through a war or poverty and their aftermaths will have a different view of the world and what they need to do to survive. While I’ve read reviews that describe this book as being caustically funny, charming and exuberantly optimistic, I just didn’t see it. The main character makes mojitos (yes, watered down, but still, alcoholic) for a seventeen-year-old, tells us that she sounds British because her teacher was British but that she was also tutored by an Australian and that she paid for those lessons with blow jobs, lies to her boss and the lawyer who fights for her to get her green card as well as just about anyone else she talks to.

She immediately, and I mean before he even gets to the door, becomes infatuated with one of the Albanians, Alvo, and fantasizes about being with him all through the book, even after she finds out what type of person he really is, which, truthfully, she has to have known all along. Also, longish hair, a mustache and a gold tooth. What’s not to like?!

The stuff that happens in this book just seems so unrealistic and, often, random. You let three shady men you’ve never met before into your boss’ house and agree to hide a gun for them just because they’re the same nationality? I’m sure that wouldn’t hurt your chance to become and American citizen at all! And how did they even find her? Her “love” for Alvo was also ridiculous. People complain about characters falling in love in YA novels and chick-lit too quickly but this makes the lead-up to all of those romances look like a marathon. And I’m not even going to go into what was going on with Dunia or what happens with Ginger, Stanley’s wife. I suppose the ending was meant to be the start of what could potentially be a happily ever after, and was, again, unrealistic, but to be honest I don’t think she deserved it. I know this is a work of fiction, but in real life there are so many good and honest people who come to America and work hard to become citizens and establish a life for themselves that her apparent lack of a moral compass was a complete turn-off.

By the last forty pages I was just skimming the paragraphs because I just didn’t want to have to read every word anymore. If any character in this book had been even remotely likeable and not completely depressing, I might’ve had a different view of the book but, unfortunately that was not the case.
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Aug 03, 2011 Rafi Bloch added it

This book is funny and cleverly written. Both my wife and I read it, and loved it. The character Lula, an Albanian immigrant comes to America with all the hopes and dreams of the cliche. She finds herself working at a Mexian restaurant in the East Village with fellow Albian and friend, Dunia. However, she ends up working as a nanny for a boy, Zeke who doesn't really need looking after and an overprotective father, Mr. Stanley. She has a boring but quaint life, that is, until three Albanian gangs...more

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May 22, 2013 Talia Carner rated it 2 of 5 stars

Out of reverence for a successful author, I am reluctant to share how disappointed I feel as I put down a novel and ask, "Is this it? Is that all?" I would not have written this review if I didn't take a page from the author herself, Francine Prose, whose sharp critical pen had once smashed Maya Angelou's metaphors to pieces in a 1999 article in Harper's Magazine.

Lula, an Albanian refugee, is living with Mister Stanley and his high-school senior son whose wife and mother respectively had left th...more Out of reverence for a successful author, I am reluctant to share how disappointed I feel as I put down a novel and ask, "Is this it? Is that all?" I would not have written this review if I didn't take a page from the author herself, Francine Prose, whose sharp critical pen had once smashed Maya Angelou's metaphors to pieces in a 1999 article in Harper's Magazine.

Lula, an Albanian refugee, is living with Mister Stanley and his high-school senior son whose wife and mother respectively had left them abruptly last Christmas. Lula's role is just to keep the lonely, friendless Zeke company after school until his father comes home and the two of them can engage in their painfully awkward relationship, dancing around the void left by the woman of the house. With a lot of time on her hands, Lula, who conveniently speaks perfect English with a vocabulary that only the top 1% of American master, is content to mark time while Mister Stanley's friend, Don, arranges for her work visa. In time, hopefully, there would be the Green Card that would allow her to make USA her home. She is comfortable in the house and other than some vague worry about her friend who might have disappeared into a trafficking ring but shows up as living the rich life only twenty miles away, there is no worry. Neither does Lula, at twenty-seven, possess a vision of a future and shows no ambition for a career or love.

There is little that is not American about Lula other than she doesn't know how to drive, a fact made poignant because her parents were killed in Albania as a result of her father's reckless driving--and not in an act of war as her listeners prefer to hear when she regales the small circle with her stories, told both orally and in writing. She produces stories as distraction, to prove to Mister Stanley and Don that she is using her ample free time wisely.

If staying in America is her motivation, and if Lula is as intelligent and educated as Prose makes her to be, it is doubly surprising that when some strange Albanian thugs appear at her door, she not only immediately invites them in, but agrees to keep their gun. There is much at stake for her, yet the reader sees no hesitation on her part nor any motivation to risk it all, including the trust of Mister Stanley and Zeke. Her infatuation with one of the thugs comes as an afterthought, as is her sense of camaraderie with these fellow ex-pats, and none is particularly strong to suggest that it can make up for what she stands to lose.

Who more than Francine Prose, who also teaches creative writing, knows Chekhov's suggestion if you show a gun in the first act, it better be fired later. Yet, like the rest of this undramatic story, when the gun reappears, it has no real affect on the events. It doesn't drive the action of that scene--just as there is no dramatic action anywhere in the novel. (e.g., Zeke driver's permit and his father allow him to drive to the nearest supermarket every afternoon with Lula in the passenger seat. The reader is often in the car during these boring excursions. Yet one day when they find the supermarket closed for renovations and Lula agrees to continue to a more distant supermarket, there are no consequences. The author simply dropped the ball on one more event that could have become interesting. Otherwise, why bother telling us about the closed supermarket?)

In another tool that Prose would have frowned upon had it appeared in her students' work or in a book she reviewed, Prose uses coincidence to divert the story into another path. The meeting of Don's former girlfriend when Lula visits Zeke's college gives Lula a new career path as an Albanian-English court interpreter, but that too, is not milked for all its worth because she only visits the court to learn that the subject of her infatuation is a criminal, a fact that both the reader and she had known from the moment he showed up at Mister Stanley's door. She doesn't even become his court interpreter, which might have revived this otherwise lethargic story.

Lula keeps throwing "Little known facts about Albania," and adds that all facts about Albania are little known. That humor is one of the brighter sayings of Lula as Prose introduces the reader to some of the realities of life in Albania, not much different from any other former communist regime.

As the novel droned on, holding my attention only because of Prose's prose and reputation, I was certain that there would be a payoff at the end with some huge revelation or some twist that would make this long, boring story worth the time. That did not happen, as the ending, like the rest of the book is not believable and left me cold.

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May 08, 2013 Ellen rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is great satire, and I'd give it a 3.5 for its writing. Lula is a young woman from Albania who is working in NJ (metro NYC area)as a companion to a rebellious teenager. His mother has taken off and is likely mentally ill and his father is a sad sack who can't seem to find happiness. The father's best friend is a successful immigration attorney so he's enlisted to help Lula get her green card. Meanwhile, the attorney decides to take on the seemingly lost causes of innocent people who have en...more

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Oct 02, 2011 Bronte rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well, it took me a few days to finish the book since it was a pretty straightforward read. The preview was intriguing; an immigrant named Lula encounters three Albanian men who know her heritage and location, and ask her to hold onto a gun. She's staying with a single father and his teenage son Zeke, babysitting him while working for her citizenship. It sounds like an insane story just waiting to be exciting and mind-blowing... But I was disappointed when I turned the last page.

Lula is complete...more Well, it took me a few days to finish the book since it was a pretty straightforward read. The preview was intriguing; an immigrant named Lula encounters three Albanian men who know her heritage and location, and ask her to hold onto a gun. She's staying with a single father and his teenage son Zeke, babysitting him while working for her citizenship. It sounds like an insane story just waiting to be exciting and mind-blowing... But I was disappointed when I turned the last page.

Lula is completely consumed with Alvo, one of the three Albanian men who come to the Stanley residence. Yet all I know about this stud's appearance is his mane of red hair and his gold tooth. I understand the human mind is very repetitive, shown as Lula occasionally thinking about successful women and fancy underwear. But it felt like I could skip chapters and still understand what was happening; the narration was too tedious. It also irked me that Lula yearned for citizenship and the high class lifestyle when she threw common sense out the window. She allowed three strangers into the house of the people allowing her to stay there. She fixed "watered down" Mojitos for Zeke when Mr. Stanley hired her to prevent mishaps like that. She lied through her teeth every chance she got, taking Albanian stories and attaching her family to them. It seemed almost wrong to cheer for a character who disregarded the rules.

And everything just sort of... happened. For a good portion of the book Lula feared for her best friend Dunia's life when she suddenly disappears without a trace. Then Dunia reappears, safe and sound - and rich! - which was really anti-climactic. There were surprises but it was buried under the constant repetition of the events. Not to mention I was told what to feel and toward who the entire time. Pity Mr. Stanley, pity Zeke, admire and cringe at Don, but lie to them all frequently.

But there were a few parts where the descriptions were just enough, such as, "Don's round bald head and belly reminded Lula of a bowling pin for giants." Where the repetition was non-existent I did get a feel for the characters through their actions and words. When Mr. Stanley spoke of how all the nasty memories of his wife crowded out the fond ones, it gave more impact than Lula again reiterating him as pitiful. And at the very end when Lula drives away in her new car, finally living the American Dream the themes of patience, happiness, and being truthful really shine though. There are truths to this book that people really are expendable in "Corporate America" and the legal system isn't always fair; these were the few highlights of this book. Overall, this book was much too redundant and randomized, but the parts that did work ended up tacking on the extra star for me.
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Aug 24, 2011 Kat rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a very sad book. Lula, the Albanian immigrant heroine is reduced to lying all the time, sometimes for no real reason, but sometimes with good reasons (hiding the fact that she is half-Muslim on her visa app.). The Americans we get to know are all wounded somehow. The America she inhabits is a wasteland: the New Jersey suburb where she has no human contact with anyone except for the family she works for (a very damaged family), and where every place smells of death or mold (so many refer...more

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May 11, 2011 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars

My New American Life is whip-smart funny. Satire is not always easy to pull off on the written page , and Prose does it amazingly well. Her writing, especially of Lula's thoughts, had me cracking up, like this one:
"Lula knew that some Americans cheered every time INS agents raided factories and shoved dark little chicken-packagers into the backs of trucks. She'd seen the guys on Fox News calling for every immigrant except German supermodels and Japanese baseball players to be deported, no questi...more My New American Life is whip-smart funny. Satire is not always easy to pull off on the written page , and Prose does it amazingly well. Her writing, especially of Lula's thoughts, had me cracking up, like this one:
"Lula knew that some Americans cheered every time INS agents raided factories and shoved dark little chicken-packagers into the backs of trucks. She'd seen the guys on Fox News calling for every immigrant except German supermodels and Japanese baseball players to be deported, no questions asked."
Lula wants desperately to grab a hold of the American dream, but her job as a nanny to an 17-year-old young man leaves her bored and stuck in the suburbs with no friends and nothing to do. Prose makes you feel her stifling suffocation. When the wanna-be Sopranos Albanians show up and ask her to "hold on to" a gun for them, Lula does as she's asked, even though she knows this could lead to trouble for her and her employer and her deportation. Yet, strangely, she cannot say no to them; and besides, it's a little excitement.

I usually identify with at least one of the characters in a novel that I read, but I could not identify with anyone in this book, yet that did not stop me from enjoying it. I live in New York City, a city that runs because of its immigrant population, and this book gave me a new perspective on the people who leave their families behind to start a new life elsewhere.

Lula misses her homeland; she cries
"for her once-beautiful homeland now in the hands of toxic dumpers and sex traffickers and money launderers. She cried for missing her country, for not missing it, for having nothing to miss. She cried for the loneliness and uncertainty of her life among strangers who could still change her mind and make her go home."
All of the characters are interesting: sad sacks Mister Stanley and his friend Don (both divorced and lost), young Zeke (I just wanted to hug him and tell him it will be all right), the Albanians (a riot!) and Lula's friend Dunia, who hits the immigrant lottery by finding a rich man to marry.

There are so many fantastic scenes- at the restaurant where Lula gets a celebratory citizenship dinner with Zeke, his dad, Don and his caustic daughter, Lula's date with Alvo, the college trip- all are sharp and memorable.

Prose successfully combines the comic and the tragic, and throws in some politics, like Don's work with detainees at Guantanemo. Her portrait of American life soon after 9/11 (through Lula's eyes) is vivid and thought-provoking.(less)

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Apr 18, 2011 Susan Kavanagh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

Francine Prose dazzles the reader with her finely honed satiric skills in My New American Life, in which she tells the story of Lulu, an Albanian immigrant who arrives in America during the second Bush-Cheny term. While in New York on a tourist visa, Lulu works illegally at a mojita bar where the wait staff takes bets on who will be the first to be deported. With her visa about to expire, Lulu lands a sinecure when she is hired as a companion for a high school senior whose father does not want h...more

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Apr 18, 2011 Man Martin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the final scene our heroine, who cannot drive, is stuck in traffic in an almost certainly stolen SUV, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, leaving behind a home where she cannot stay, but where they aren't ready for her to leave, towards an apartment where she'll be able to stay - at most - a few months.

Lula is an Albanian emigre during the presidency of Bush the Younger post 911, precisely at the time when America was at its most xenophobic. After working illegally as a waitress she lands work as a...more In the final scene our heroine, who cannot drive, is stuck in traffic in an almost certainly stolen SUV, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, leaving behind a home where she cannot stay, but where they aren't ready for her to leave, towards an apartment where she'll be able to stay - at most - a few months.

Lula is an Albanian emigre during the presidency of Bush the Younger post 911, precisely at the time when America was at its most xenophobic. After working illegally as a waitress she lands work as a part time nanny to the teenage son of an investment banker abandonned by his mentally ill wife. Things seem to be going well - or as well as Lula could hope - when three of her countrymen show up and ask her to hold onto a gun for them.

An immigrant perspective on the United States provides an ideal satiric vantage point, as writers have long known. Prose supplies a nice additional touch by making Lula herself a story teller. At the behest of her employer and the lawyer who's working to secure her a greencard - two liberals of the sort naively eager to hear tales of hardship - Lula writes "true stories" of Albania, fabricated patchworks of history and fairytale. It's the sort of thing that happens everyday to people of all ethnicities asked to "perform" their identities. Lula spins out improbable accounts in writing as well as conversation, withholding the real but equally improbable truth.

The novel is funny, charming, and well-written, and Prose keeps us dangling at the edges of things that don't quite happen: affairs that don't quite come off, dysfunctional families that manage to stay on just this side of functionality, guns the fire, but not fatally. And truth to tell, the experience is at times frustrating for the reader - I found myself longing for something more, something richer, something greater at stake, but then at the end - unaccountably, to me - the novel comes together in an entirely fulfilling way.

In the last scene of Lula driving across a bridge, I realized that Prose's formless story catches the essence a New American Life, of American Life, and maybe Life in General: hopping from stone to stone, always unfinished, always provisional, making it up as we go along.
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May 18, 2011 Allyson rated it 2 of 5 stars

I had read Goldengrove and thought it peculiarly interesting, and even posted a review here on this site. But I had shied away from previous books, especially A Changed Man which had such great reviews when it first came out, but such subject matter I found distasteful and felt not even a talented writer could enliven it enough for me to waste my time. This new book only cements my previous feeling.
I really disliked the cover and what was inbetween was too humorless and flat. I cared nothing fo...more

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Mar 24, 2011 cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

My New American Life: A Novel by Francine Prose is one I might have actually picked up on my own. Actually, I'd have hesitated since I have a bias against authors with more than two or three novels under their belt so it is cool that this is one of the books that I got as an advance copy from Harper.

The book's main character is Lula, an immigrant from Albania. We find her working for a well-to-do man in the NYC suburbs as a caretaker for his son who is 17 and really doesn't need any care (Mom h...more

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Sep 29, 2012 Olga rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked this book. It kept my interest really well. But it is not autobiographical and for some reason I expected it to be. I was not sure about a certain episode. Lula's lawyer tells a story about a person who just got his green card but had to be taken to a hospital where they discovered that he did not have insurance, so they deported him. That's not probable at all. You jump through so many hoops to get a green card. There is a considerable amount of respect from the authorities once you hav...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Shirley rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The premise of the story, that of a young Albanian woman working to make her way in a new world, is interesting fodder. The reader becomes acquainted with customs, some of which carry forward in Lula's new home and influence Zeke to an extent, helping him become a more rounded individual under her tutelage. The one thing which Lula struggles with throughout the novel is her penchant for the bad boy. Such a man announces himself on her doorstep as one of three "brothers" to whom she may or may no...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Pamela rated it 4 of 5 stars

Character driven right from the start, My New American Life is an interesting book with a few shaky plot twists, but plenty of personalities to fill the pages.

The woman with the New American Life is Lula, a 26 year old Albanian transplant. She works for Mister Stanley, who is never home, taking care of a 17 year old teenager named Zeke, who is a stereotypical spoiled wayward teen. Added into this cast are the mentally-ill runaway mother, a fast-talking high-powered lawyer and a host of Albanian...more Character driven right from the start, My New American Life is an interesting book with a few shaky plot twists, but plenty of personalities to fill the pages.

The woman with the New American Life is Lula, a 26 year old Albanian transplant. She works for Mister Stanley, who is never home, taking care of a 17 year old teenager named Zeke, who is a stereotypical spoiled wayward teen. Added into this cast are the mentally-ill runaway mother, a fast-talking high-powered lawyer and a host of Albanian relatives that live on in Lula's memory.

Most of the book occurs in suburban New York, where nothing much ever really happens anyway. Actually, Lula spends a lot of her days imagining and fantasizing about her New American Life, either living with Americans or setting up a new life with her new Albanian boyfriend.

This is a current novel, mentioning computers and cell phones, but actually the setting is about 10 years ago, shortly after 9/11. The time setting of this book was perplexing to me. Perhaps the author wanted to set Lula's immigration story against a backdrop of excessive American consumerism and the post-9/11 fears, both of which have dulled a bit over the past decade.

In fact, what makes this novel really work is the underlying commentaries about American life, as told through Lula's immigrant eyes. At one time or another, most Americans have all been like Mister Stanley, who works too late in a job he hates so he can afford the lifestyle that he can't enjoy. Or perhaps we have had our Zeke moments, being so self-absorbed and cocky.

Some of the plot is really quite odd. It made no sense that Mister Stanley would hire an attractive 26 year old woman to be a live-in caretaker of his 17 year old teenage boy. Other characters, such as Lula's best friend Dunia, float inexplicably in and out of the novel. At times this story is a bit thin, but overall it is the characters in My New American Life that make this book an a entertaining read.

Book summary: After leaving everything behind in Albania (which wasn't much), Lula travels to America on an tourist visa but never leaves. After landing a job in suburbia, Lula seems to have it made until some previously unknown Albanian friends show up at her door asking for a favor and maybe a little bit more.

Great quote: "By the time the Lexus had passed the house four times, Lula had progressed from being sure it had nothing to do with her to thinking it was no wonder that the car had come to punish her for lying. The Lexus stopped. Three guys got out and ambled toward Mister Stanley's. No double-checking the address. They acted like they lived here. All three wore black jeans streaked with white dust. Maybe they were in construction. Had Mister Stanley hired someone to fix the house and not told her?" Page 25

I received this book complimentary from TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review but the opinion in this review is all mine. (less)

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Apr 29, 2011 Michelle added it

What does it mean to be an immigrant to the U.S. in this post-9/11 world? What about an immigrant from a former Communist country that is rife with corruption? My New American Life sets out to show the reader just that through Lula's struggles to find her place in her new life. It is an interesting look at the need to find balance between old and new, to adapt to new customs while not quite letting go of old ones.

Stark and bleak, Ms. Prose tries to temper the darkness through humor; unfortunatel...more What does it mean to be an immigrant to the U.S. in this post-9/11 world? What about an immigrant from a former Communist country that is rife with corruption? My New American Life sets out to show the reader just that through Lula's struggles to find her place in her new life. It is an interesting look at the need to find balance between old and new, to adapt to new customs while not quite letting go of old ones.

Stark and bleak, Ms. Prose tries to temper the darkness through humor; unfortunately, this does not quite work, as the reader never feels comfortable with Lula. She is a difficult character to like, with her constant, almost pathological, lying. The reader never truly understands why she feels the need to tell so many fibs. Even when confronted with her behavior, she never truly owns up to it. While she internally recognizes the damage her lying causes, she never acknowledges it to those that try so hard to help her find acceptance in her new home. This lack of contrition is bothersome, in my opinion, and prevented me from supporting Lula wholeheartedly.

One thing Ms. Prose does capture quite well is the constant struggle between old and new. Lula wants to fit in and adopt the customs and characteristics of her new country but cannot quite let go of her old ones. Her resentment at the privilege and lack of true hardship faced by most Americans but which are so commonplace among her fellow countrymen is poignant and true. If anything, My New American Life is a great reminder of just how lucky most Americans are when it comes to freedoms and luxuries.

Conversely, Ms. Prose also shows how most Americans take their freedoms and luxuries for granted. Mister Stanley focuses on his miserable job and strained relationship with his son while neglecting to notice the privileges he does have. Zeke is too busy being a stereotypical teen, ready to lash out at any parental figure, to understand how lucky he is to have a parent who adores him. It is only through Lula's eyes that the reader can get a greater appreciation of one's own gifts and comforts in this life.

As much as I appreciate the lessons Ms. Prose is trying to share, there were too many gaps and unanswered questions for me to truly enjoy My New American Life. The Albanian "brothers" were too mysterious. How did they find Lula? Why did they target her? They play such a key part in Lula's confusion but are given only the most cursory of attention. The other characters in Lula's life - her best friend from Albania, her zealous but well-meaning lawyer, Mister Stanley, and even Zeke - are a bit too stereotypical to be truly authentic. They felt more like caricatures, and at times, I caught myself rolling my eyes or inwardly groaning at the predictability of their behaviors. Also, the story itself was rather predictable. The reader can guess Lula's path well before she ever steps on it. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it does detract from the overall lesson.

I feel that My New American Life does a great job of reminding the reader to appreciate what one has and to understand just how different life is in other countries. Unfortunately, if Lula had been a bit more sympathetic and the story less predictable, the message Ms. Prose is trying to make would have had more impact. Still, in this day and age of economic crises and political upheaval, just remembering that Americans are still much better off than a large majority of the world is something all of us need to do more often.(less)

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Mar 23, 2012 Debra Daniels-zeller rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This book is about an immigrant Lula from Albania who has just recieved word her green card is on the way. The time is the Bush-Cheney Presidential term and the book weaves in themes of immigrants and deportation laws. I had high hopes in the beginning but the main problem I had with this book was not even the main character was even remotely likeable. The American men in the book were all disappointly paternalistic and Lula's relationship to the Albanian thugs and why she chose let them smoke i...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'd heard wonderful things about Prose's work, so thought I'd try her latest novel. The cover image works perfectly with the title, I have to say. Her writing is top-notch and I came to feel empathy for each character as the story of Lula's new American life began. We see America through the eyes of this 20-something Albanian, who lied her way into this country to escape the horrors of her native land; this is America soon after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, its citizens suddenly experiencing t...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Victor Carson rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: new-york

I was disappointed by this author, whose novel was listed on the New York Times list of 100 Notable Books of 2011. The book might have impressed me if it had been written by a recent immigrant from Albania, whose comparisons of life in Albania to life in America would have been fresh. In fact, Francine Prose is a well-established American writer. Some of Lula's (the immigrant's) comments are amusing and ironic and her comparison of relations between men and women is also funny, but Lula seems ju...more

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Jul 10, 2011 Billpilgrim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lula is an immigrant from Albania living in NYC, who takes a job in New Jersey as the live-in nanny for a high school senior. The job is not that demanding. The boy drives her to a health food store every day after school, where they buy frozen hamburgers and pizza which she then microwaves for his dinner. The father is a wall-street trader whose mentally-ill wife left on Christmas eve, apparently moving to Sweden. Lula is home alone during the day, and one fateful day just after she gets her im...more

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May 09, 2011 Jessica at Book Sake rated it 4 of 5 stars

In this novel the author describes the life of an Albanian immigrant to the United States, not long after 9/11. Lula, the main character is written very well, having witty commentary with herself, as well as with the family who takes her in as an Au-Pair when she loses her tourist visa. Not long after getting her greencard, Lula is visited by "cousins" of hers, other Albanians living in New Jersey, who need her to hide a gun. Feeling obligated Lula hides the gun, and falls for the man who asked...more

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Dec 05, 2012 Kelsey rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was decent, but I was really sick of the protagonist's ditzy and foolish ways by the end. Basically, Lula is an Albanian immigrant who looks after Zeke, a 17-year-old high school student whose mentally ill mother has recently abandoned him and his father. Mister Stanley, the father, is a morose man who believes all of Lula's lies about her past experiences. Lula inexplicably embellishes everything, presumambly to "win" the contest of whose life is worse. Frankly, it's tedious. Out of n...more

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Jun 25, 2011 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's funny. I've never read any of Francine Prose's books, and yet I had this image of her work as rather more challenging than My New American Life ultimately proved to be. This is a light, fast read, a biting satirical look at one immigrant's life in Bush-Cheney America (and not recommended for supporters of our previous President and his policies). Our Albanian heroine Lula, despite her near-constant lies to her employer, her friends and herself, is totally sympathetic; thanks to her observat...more

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Apr 21, 2011 treva rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

Since I've heard Francine Prose's name bandied about quite a bit, I was excited to see this as a First Reads give away and really curious to check out her work. Now I'm wondering what the big deal is.

I could almost look past the fact that the writing was predictable to the extent that when Lula asks Dunia, "Tell me about Steve," I thought in my head, "What's to tell?", turned the page, and SURE ENOUGH right at the top of page 182: "Dunia said, 'What's to tell?'" Seriously? If your very name is P...more

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Apr 30, 2011 Sara Weather rated it 1 of 5 stars

I want to thank goodreads and Francine Prose for letting me win this book.

This book had so much potential. Or maybe i had hopes of what it would be.A foreigner coming to america and doing embrassingly, funny weird things because of culture shock. But i did not find that.I found a story about a girl who is a compulsve liar who is supposed to be funny.It tried so hard to shock and make you laugh. Trust me to write i had mybe one or two laught at the beginning when my laughs are out of newness. The...more

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Jul 21, 2011 Melanie Storie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book! Lula, an Albanian immigrant, lies a lot and mostly doesn't even know why she's doing it. Maybe out of habit, to keep her guard up, a learned behavior from living under Communism. Whatever the reason, when she does lie, it is funny and sad all at the same time. And despite her lies and her strange situation (she is the nanny for a high school senior and writes down Albanian folktales as if they really happened to her family - oh, and she's holding a gun for some shady...more

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Apr 25, 2011 Tami rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: goodreads-giveaways, 2011

Haven't received yet, just notice I had won. 4/4/11
Received my copy but have 2 in front. Hope to start soon. 4/18/11
Just started today, 4/21/11

Lula is an illegal immigrant from Albania. She came over on a visa saying she wanted to see relatives before her return to marry her sweetheart. She worked as a waitress and had the typical immigrant life you would think of, but then she answered a want-ad for a nanny. She is 26 and is basically a warm body to be home when a teenage boy gets home from sch...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Kristina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, library-book, literary-fiction

My New American Life is the story of Lula, an Albanian immigrant, trying to make her way in America. After working for several months in a Mexican restaurant, Lula is in danger of losing her tourist visa. She takes a job working for Mr. Stanley, an economics professor turned Wall Street investment banker, as a nanny/baby-sitter/guardian for Zeke, Mr. Stanley's teenage son. Luckily for her, Mr. Stanley (whom she thinks of as "Mister Stanley") is childhood friends with Don Settebello, a powerful i...more My New American Life is the story of Lula, an Albanian immigrant, trying to make her way in America. After working for several months in a Mexican restaurant, Lula is in danger of losing her tourist visa. She takes a job working for Mr. Stanley, an economics professor turned Wall Street investment banker, as a nanny/baby-sitter/guardian for Zeke, Mr. Stanley's teenage son. Luckily for her, Mr. Stanley (whom she thinks of as "Mister Stanley") is childhood friends with Don Settebello, a powerful immigration lawyer. Don gets her a work visa and is promising to get her a green card. She is bemused by Mister Stanley and Don's enjoyment of hearing about her former Albanian life and they want her to write her memoirs. To make them happy, she re-writes Albanian folk tales and spins them as her own creation, tales she heard from her granny. Just when she is danger of sinking into a dull American suburbia life, a trio of Albanian young men show up, call her "Little Sister," and ask her to hide a gun for them. Thus begins Lula's struggle to keep her quiet American life (which will hopefully lead to a green card) separate from her Albanian roots.

Raki, the drink of good-bye and hello, of congratulation and consolation. Lula didn't think of herself as a nationalistic person. Mostly, in her experience, country was like religion, an excuse to hate other people and feel righteous about it. But then there was raki. Raki wasAlbania, it had that special taste. Even Albanians with no sentimental attachment to their home country brightened and got teary-eyed when the talk turned to raki. They got high just hearing the word (206).

I liked this book. It took me a little while to really warm up to it, but I enjoyed it. It is very well-written and I liked the political satire. Lula wants to be American, but she wants to be American on her terms. She also tries to be a good person and the type of person Don and Mister Stanley thinks she is, but can't be because they want the immigrant they've heard about in fairy tales, the hardworking, honest, humble, eternally grateful immigrant. Lula is not that. She is hardworking and reasonably honest, but she sees America through the critical eyes of someone who has come from a Communist country in which honesty and good will can get you killed.

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Aug 07, 2011 Alex Templeton rated it 2 of 5 stars

Maybe it's my subconscious exacting revenge for the fact that every time I've heard Prose speak, she disparages Sarah Lawrence, but I finished this novel with the feeling of "OK, so what?" It's about the journey of an Albanian immigrant named Lula towards American citizenship. She is working for a rich man (Mister Stanley) taking care of his teenage son (Zeke), and along the way getting mixed up with other Albanian immigrants and their shady dealings. It's not that I didn't enjoy the book--Prose...more

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Dec 17, 2011 Ali rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

I loved the premise of this book -- immigrants, folk tales, NYC -- and although I really enjoyed it for the first half or so, by the time I finished I was disappointed. There's not much of a plot (and the only way I think a writer can pull that off is if the prose style or the ideas in it are outstanding, neither of which was true in this case) and the ending was just somewhat disheartening.

Lula started out as a compelling character, but nothing much happens with her. There were a few places tha...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Catherine Woodman added it

This is a four star novel with a three star ending==which may be very represnetative of what the endings in real life hold, but hey, this is fiction, and I expect such a well written book to have a good ending, and this disappointed--but only ther. The depiction of Lula, an Albanian illegal immigrant, taking care of a spoiled American teenager that she is very fond of and knows quite well, is the story of the best that immigrants who are uneducated and undocumented can expect. The rise to a resp...more

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About Francine Prose

Francine Prose (born in 1947 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American novelist. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1968, and received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1991. She has sat on the board of judges for the PEN/Newman's Own Award, and her novel Blue Angel, a satire about sexual harassment on college campuses, was a finalist for the National Book Award. She is now teaching at Bard College.

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