Heidi Pitlor
A Good Morning America Must Read, an Apple Books Best Book, and an Indie Next Great Read
"A book that fires up the synapses... Pitlor’s voice is witty and brisk, bringing warmth and light to questions of identity, independence and, yes, intellectual property. Who owns your stories? How much are they worth? Allie Lang’s answers are complicated. Watching her reach them is like sitting down with a refreshingly honest friend who skips the part about how great her life is and dives right into the real stuff. We need more friends like this. Authors, too."-New York Times Book Review
"Impersonation highlights what’s important in life, parenthood, and ambition in this compulsively-readable story."-Good Morning America
"Brilliantly deals with class, misogyny, and parenthood, all in a compulsively readable story. We’ll never look at a celebrity memoir the same way again."-Apple Books
"Dryly and poignantly channels the zeitgeist through nuanced characters, settings, and just-right details. Both the story and its resourceful heroine are fresh, intelligent, and charming.”
-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Pitlor’s genius is that Impersonation doesn’t resort to pitting two women against each other... Impersonation isn’t just a critique of the 'white feminism' of privileged women who prioritize money and success in existing power structures. It’s also more than a critique of the publishing industry, which only cares that Lana seems 'maternal' enough to sell parenting books. Impersonation is a critique of our society’s fragile social safety net for so many vulnerable women, full of satirical humor and a lot of harsh truths." -BookPage (starred review)
"A searing and nuanced exploration of identity."-Booklist
"In dealing with issues of gender, class, parenting...Impersonation is both timely and timeless."-Boston Globe
"In a novel that’s smart, surprising, thought provoking, and bound to set a few readers on edge, making for good book-club debate, Pitlor offers an astute study of what it means to be a woman today."-Library Journal
"Smart and thought-provoking... the sharply observed depictions of how lives are shaped by financial status ring all-too true. Fans of Meg Wolitzer's The Female Persuasion will want to take a look." -Publishers Weekly
"Breaks every rule doled out in Creative Writing programs around the country, and yet manages to more than make it work...Impersonation is fun to read. It is heartbreaking and empowering. It is high-brow and down to earth, as if it can’t help wanting to teach you what it can, to give you something you can take with you after the last page is turned."-New York Journal of Books
"Impersonation has so many rich layers for readers to fold back and appreciate. Writers will find themselves chuckling at many of Pitlor’s observations about the realities of their craft; parents will recognize themselves in Allie’s blend of fierce love and outright exhaustion; and readers with an eye for politics and social movements will appreciate Allie’s growing confusion and disorientation about finding her place --- and a place for her son --- in this increasingly alienating country. Allie’s bittersweet story offers a nuanced portrait of a woman coming to terms with all different sorts of imperfections --- and learning to relish moments of grace whenever she can find them."-Book Reporter
"By turns revealing, hilarious, dishy, and razor-sharp, Impersonation lives in that rarest of sweet spots: the propulsive page-turner for people with high literary standards."-Rebecca Makkai, Pulitzer finalist for The Great Believers
"Heidi Pitlor has written a wonderfully rare thing: a comedy of manners set in the 21st century that brilliantly grapples with some of the more thorny issues--class, privilege, and parenting--of our day. Smart, funny, and generous in spirit, Impersonation is an engaging meditation on who controls the narrative and why it matters. A terrific read that will have you hooked from page one.”-Kate Walbert, author of She Was Like That and His Favorites
"With refreshing humor and an endearing charm all her own, Heidi Pitlor channels the narrative slyness of Rachel Cusk and the political acumen of Rebecca Solnit to deliver this zeitgeisty novel about the struggles of anonymity, accountability, modern-day mothering, and making ends meet in the gig economy. As both loss and possibility swirl around our lost but scrappy heroine, you can’t help but root for her to claim her own voice and personhood. A smart behind-the-scenes tour of the murky world of publishing, politics, and the good people who get caught in the cross-fire."-Christopher Castellani, author of Leading Men
“Smart, funny, and provocative, Impersonation tunnels through our current politically-charged American landscape with humor and empathy. It's a story of parenting--and surviving--in a time when the messy realities of everyday life often clash with ideology. As page-turningly readable as it is relatable. I’ll be recommending to my book group."
-Jessica Shattuck, author of The Women in the Castle
"Impersonation is the book we need now: an unflinching look at our current moment, and at questions few of us dare to ask. If our personas do good in the world, does it matter what we did to create them? How much hypocrisy are liberals willing to tolerate? Can women raise good men? Provocative, heartfelt, and often hilarious, this is a novel I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come."-Anna Solomon, author of Leaving Lucy Pear and The Book of V.
"For our heroine Allison, this is her story of survival and endurance in these maddening times. She goes to extraordinary measures for her son and her work, yet the path is not always clear, and far from easy. A gifted storyteller, Pitlor is also not afraid to ask the tough questions. What does it mean to raise good boys? Good people? What does it mean to be a woman, a feminist, a believer in others and, above all, in yourself?"-Weike Wang, author of Chemistry