Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl: A Memoir

by Susan McCorkindale

Overview

A laugh-out-loud memoir about a city slicker who discovers that Manolos and manure just don't mix.

At her husband's prompting, suburban mom and New York career woman Susan McCorkindale agreed to give up her stressful six-figure job. Together, they headed down south to a 500-acre beef farm, and never looked back. Well, he didn't look back. She did. A lot.

From playing 'spot the religious billboard' on the drive to rural Virginia, to adapting to a world without Starbucks, to planning bright-orange hunter-resistant wardrobes for the kids ('We moved here to get away from the madness of Manhattan only to risk getting popped on our own property'), this is her hilarious account of how a city girl came to love-or at least tolerate-country life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451224934
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/07/2008
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Susan McCorkindale is the author of two memoirs, No Place to Hide: More Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl and Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl. A former marketing director at Family Circle, McCorkindale is now a freelance advertising copywriter in Virginia. She is also the editor of SHE! magazine and a contributor to The Huffington Post. She is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College.

Editorial Reviews

Former Family Circle marketing director McCorkindale writes about adapting to life on a Virginia cattle farm. Burnt out from her demanding job and frightened by 9/11, the debut author gave in to her husband's dream of leaving suburban New Jersey for the pastoral paradise of Upperville, Va. She kissed goodbye the high-six-figure salary that had her "dripping in Donna Karan," packed her six- and 13-year-old sons in the Durango, and accompanied her spouse South to raise chickens. McCorkindale christened their 1890 farmhouse "Nate's Place" because her literary husband, nicknamed "Hemingway," noted its resemblance to Nathaniel Hawthorne's home. The fish-out-of-water story is divided into short chapters that read as self-contained anecdotes, each including a fluffy e-mail, a set of tips or a top-ten list at the end. (The most worthwhile is "The Impractical Girl's Guide to Farm Speak.") The author's rural misadventures included rollerblading through a cattle guard, rescuing Hemingway from a toppled chicken perch, running from a stampede of cows, schvitzing in the double Burberry turtlenecks she donned in emulation of the locals (she drew the line at riding pants), and chasing loose hens in Via Spiga stilettos (two in a lengthy parade of designer shoes). But frustrations such as cheerless DMV workers, slow bank tellers and unreliable contractors, McCorkindale might be disappointed to know, are not unique to the countryside. The author is at her funniest when recounting her faux pas: assuming that "riding" meant the subway, or not knowing what address to give the 911 operator (numberless estate name or P.O. box?). Her prose is chatty and upbeat, conveying an odd mix of self-effacement andsnobbishness. (Continual references to her pre-move success and fashion-police smackdowns will alienate some readers.) The book's 227 footnotes range from shout-outs to loved ones to entirely separate stories, most of which are distracting and should have been cut. More proof that funny e-mails and a good blog do not necessarily add up to a good book.

Kirkus Reviews