Miss New York Has Everything

For someone who has not spent a lot of time reading memoir, I have been passionately and genuinely introduced to the power of memoir through Sheryl St. Germain’s "Swamp Songs" and now Lori Jakiela’s "Miss New York Has Everything." Although very different in language and style, St. Germain and Jakiela have both touched a part of my soul that finds writing to be not only one of the most compelling forces of language but also a necessity in the daily life of being human.

Jakiela took me into the mind of a child growing up in small town Pittsburgh, shedding light on the years before I was born, to the mind of a well traveled adult who found stability and her own sense of home in the most foreign of places. I was laughing in the first essay, as Jakiela intelligently sectioned her memoir into a collection of shorter essays that acted as chapters in "Miss New York Has Everything." She successfully told a life story through creatively titled essays that although not strictly chronological, weaved into a perfect storyline that was compelling and captivating, quite the page-turner.

Her language was simple and conversational and at the same time incredibly ingenious in diction and uniqueness. I often felt I had already spent time with her, having known nothing about or of her before opening the cover. She is hysterical and clever in her ability to evoke the life of a Pittsburgh-er (as someone whose lived in Pittsburgh for 3 years now) and the communal aspects of growing up, through celebrity crushes, miss teen pageants, parent-dog relationships and the trials and tribulations of being an adopted only child with her eyes set on the dream of making it “big.”

The more I read, the deeper I was led into the mind and soul of Lori Jakiela, and into a better understanding of how we, as humans, see a world of steel workers and suburbs, shit jobs and tough breaks, small gestures and magical cities that all light up and darken our everyday lives. Jakiela’s memoir is told from a perspective that comes from every angle: a dirty Erie, Pa, an empty NYC dorm room, a pink closet room in Paris, a comfortable suburban hometown, all balanced out and complicated by the visions of a stewardess 20,000 feet above ground. Her tales from pouring coffee to walking the streets of Manhattan in search of raspberry soap to looking for “glamour” in everything she did color the page with sincerity and humor, always finding the sarcasm or lessons in every experience.

Although at times I felt she spoke of things in a somewhat stereotypical or cliché manner, particularly when speaking about foreigners, I think it was due to the little time she actually spent in a country (as a stewardess), exposing herself just on the surface to the typicality of the French, German, etc. I also believe there is usually truth behind stereotypes, even though they are for the most part gross generalizations. I also found the real heart of the memoir and the powerful reflection to be toward the end of the book. The beginning didn't seem to have much and I found myself way more interested in her voice and personal story toward the end. I wonder if it is important to bring that out earlier on so to maintain the attention of her reader.

I am looking very forward to meeting with Lori and discussing how she worked through the entire memoir process. I'd like to know her thinking with the format: Did she know before sitting down to write, the order and set-up of the essays, or did that come naturally as she began writing down her life? I'm also interested in knowing the way she recalled details, especially as someone who flew thousands of times to many different places encountering a great number of people.