Happy Trails to You

by Julie Hecht

A collection of short works by the author of Do the Windows Open? follows the narrator's efforts to find a place of unspoiled nature on a modern Nantucket island corrupted by development, traffic, and commercialism. 35,000 first printing.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Julie Hecht is a contemporary American fiction writer specializing in interlacing short stories. She is best known for her book "Do the Windows Open?," a series of short stories some of which first appeared independently in The New Yorker.

Reviews

[Dfunky1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This hilarious take on modern life contains stories in which a vegan, hyper-paranoid, misanthropic, anxiety-ridden woman tries and fails to come to grips with the world around her. The reader at once feels for her and wants to throttle her (our protagonist) for her holier than thou goody two shoes attitude.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long before Sedaris, there was Hecht. 'Nuff said. So delightful to read her sardonic, neurotic, slouchy prose again....

[Kasey Jueds · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have Julie Hecht's first collection of stories, Do The Windows Open?, about five times, and each time I end up laughing out loud; this volume is just as funny and quirky, though a little bit darker and sadder, since the heroine (an incredibly neurotic woman who sometimes, embarrassingly, reminds me of myself) is older and seems more isolated, and lonelier, than she did in DTWO. Julie Hecht's sense of humor is of the "love it or hate it" variety, I think; I happen to love it, but have shared the first volume with some friends who just didn't get it, at all. I still like them, though.

[Jeff Friederichsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Julie Hecht's short story collection describes in first person, and with self-conscious humor, a mid-life, upper middle class woman in rural Connecticut, conflicted between her idealistic concerns and the social life of those around her. Told with great hilarity in places, and a general sense of absurdity throughout, my lasting impression is one of empathy for her self-inflicted angst, some of which I share.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful, hilarious, oddly appealing short stories. Can't explain why I love her work so much, but I do.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could eat this book, I would.

[Jenny Yates · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a small collection of interwoven short stories – quirky, often funny, sometimes sad. It’s set during the Bush/Cheney years. The narrator is the same in each story, a vegan photographer with definite political and nutritional opinions, living in Nantucket. She’s obsessed with trying to keep poisons out of her life, and frequently other people are the source of these poisons – but she still wants to be friends. This isn’t easy.

Sometimes I found this a little tedious, especially when the author recounts long circular conversations. It feels a bit like cinema verité, and can get bogged down in the trivial. But sometimes it’s very original and disarming, as in the following paragraphs about looking at faces:

< Swept away by the meaninglessness of people’s faces, I gradually lost the ability to talk to them. “What is a face?” would come into my mind every time I looked at one. But I’d continue the conversation and no one would be the wiser.

How do people understand each other’s faces? They take them for granted. Not like me – stunned and bewildered, each time one appeared in front of me. Just the thought of having to face a new face was enough to make me shudder with fright.

I saw a number of psychiatrists and psychoanalysts during this time – not because of this one problem – they actually added to the problem. Because every one of these psychiatrists’ faces had something really wrong with it. >

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

(This review duplicates my thoughts of the author's similar collection of essays, "Do the Windows Open?")

In a recent "what are you reading?" interview in the NYT Books section, the novelist Julie Otsuka was asked which writers she admires most: "I would do anything to read a new short story by Julie Hecht, who gets my vote for funniest writer." I'd never heard of Hecht, so decided to explore her work.

I imagine, in the '90s, these essays might have struck some readers as amusing and engrossing. In the current era, they read pretty slow, not that funny, dated, and too often, dull. An East Hamptons Erma Bombeck, with sprinkles of Nora Ephron, shades of Andy Rooney. Those too were great successes in their time, but a lot of their schtick doesn't hold up so great.

That said, I agree with Otsuka, it might indeed be interesting to see a new piece by Hecht, to see whether or how her work might have evolved with the times, and particularly to see if she might get to the point quicker. Couldn't help but think that some of these 20-page essays should have been condensed into two.

[Mollie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given the book took place in the '90's it was astounding how timely the topics felt to today (2019). Between the pollution/climate change themes and her obsession with Clinton's impeachment trial! Almost disorienting and it was written in 2008. It was an interesting read.
The narrator is pretty off putting until you realize she is just doing the best she can in our crazy world and worrying that others can't/don't/won't do the same.

[Suzan]

Hilarious! Love her books!

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bizarre. That would be the one word that I would use to describe this book. The randomness, the paranoia, the self-righteousness - it all threw me for a loop. I just can't believe that at some points I actually was identifying with the main character because she is such a liberal freak of nature. The nameless character has anxiety attacks because the whole nation found out about good ol' Bill Clinton's scandal. And by the sound of it our nation is hopelessly and irrevocably becoming less intelligent because we elected George W.
If it was satirical, that would be one thing. But author does such a good job in her narrative that I'm afraid that this isn't a work of fiction and that Hect really feels the way her unnamed character does.
Anyway, it made me think about my dislike toward most members of the Democratic Party and how maybe my biases are wrongly based. I need to strive to not be like the main character and look at the politician (and their actions) individually rather than automatically group them with their registered party.
I rated it 2 stars because it made me think a lot about my outlook about different things and I finished it. But I mostly didn't like it.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I'd recently heard a Ukrainian or Russian--a big, Soviet-looking expert--explaining how the poisoned Prime Minister of the Ukraine could have eaten soup without tasting the dioxin that almost killed him and did disfigure his face. 'It was thick borscht--with garlic, onions, cabbage, turnips, kale,' the expert said in his thick accent, which made the soup sound even thicker. The explanation was that with all these healthful, strong flavors of vegetables, with spices, too, the Prime Minister might not have noticed the dioxin. Now that was interesting. And the recipe sounded good--minus the poison. I wanted to try it out if the weather ever turned cold."

"'Why do you live in Texas again?' I asked. I never liked it. Even in grade school, I couldn't learn the states because that one state was so large and badly shaped. It startled me out of concentrating on the others."

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

i LOVED do the windows open but this book left me feeling like julie hecht was doing a julie hecht imitation. many said they found the character irritating in her previous book, but i actually found her funny & "relatable" (whatever that says about me.) but in this book, i found her grating and offensive. maybe it's me who's changed. but there was a big difference to me in someone talking about their anxiety about the LIE - oh, boy, can i relate - and someone talking about their annoyance that their cleaning person won't wear a uniform - can't relate. it makes sense after reading these here why none of them ran in the new yorker.

[Alex Templeton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a very hard time connecting to this collection of short stories until the very end. I found them meandering and without an emotional core that I could find (except a sense of the loneliness and isolation, which was present throughout the book but only really apparent to me in the last two stories in the collection). These are not poorly written stories, however, just...airy in the reading.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would not compare Hecht to Sedaris. This book was okay but slow. Quirky, yes, but not funny, more sad. But not sad enough...a little was fine, the whole book of stories with the same character tired me.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good writing, but I'd recommend reading the other books first, the narrator doesn't seem quite as neurotically quirky here. Also, it helps to be familiar with Nantucket (where I am writing this review as it turns out).

[Les · Rating 5 out of 5]

more weird funny truths and neuroses

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think Julie Hecht's neurotic narrator is one of the funniest voices in fiction.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories all struck the same note--a good note, a lingering note--but I'd have liked a bit more variety.

[Kelly]

Picked this up at hte library too. It's always nice to have a book of short stories sitting around....easy to pick it up and read one at a time, here and there. This looked promising.

[Nora]

Major mixed feelings about this one. Can't really rate it.

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

She's one of my fave writers, but this book is a mediocre imitation of "Do The Windows Open?"

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

still five stars. still hilarious and heartbreaking. I need her to write more things. Please?

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it hard to rate this book... on one hand I really like the writing style of the author. On the other hand she can often come off very self righteous and annoying at times.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the book.

[Mette · Rating 5 out of 5]

to be clear, she does not get points with me for being a mysophobe

[Susan Merrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dry and funny, and surprisingly disturbing, the narrator of these stories becomes more interesting with each turn of the page.

[Janci · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was ready to give this 3 stars until the last sentence, to which I could totally, 100% relate.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quirky short stories about a woman dealing with her myriad of anxieties.

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

More short stories from Julie Hecht about her protagonist in Do the Windows Open?