Alexandra Penney

A woman has lost her life savings thanks to a ponze scheme. She's been very well to do as far as most people would be concerned, an apt in Manhattan, a cottage in FL and a cabin in upstate. Some of the reviews I've read say that she was just a spoiled wealthy woman. If you look deeper into the book she however is facing challenges that we might all face. What would happen if we lost all our savings? She also has what she calls her bag lady nightmares in which she is penniless as well as homeless. This is where the title of the book comes from. Although her life is extravagant by my mid-west standards it is relatable in that we could all face these same challenges.… (meer)

Ms. Penney is an affluent member of society whose worst nightmare is the thought of losing everything and ending up penniless in the street. A horrible nightmare to be sure … until it actually happens. This is the true story of the author’s experience with financial ruin after losing everything by investing with Bernie Madoff (the original Ponzie scheme).

This was an interesting read, but somehow I could not muster the appropriate sympathy for Ms. Penney. Granted, losing all your money, your home and everything else you value is devastating no matter how much or how little it all amounts to. But Ms. Penney had a support circle and contacts to manage to get herself on her feet again much faster than the average person. Kudos to her for telling her story and finding her life again, but it would have taken someone like me much longer if I could even do it at all.
… (meer)

What literary agents constantly urge on us (writers, that is) is topicality.

Whatever you do or don't feel about Alexandra Penney's writing style (not to mention philosophical outlook), you can't deny that this book is topical! Homelessness -- whether the reality, or merely the threat of it -- is no longer something that happens only "out there" to marginalized people. It's a spectre that haunts all of us in these troubled economic times.

Is Alexandra Penney some "materialistic bitch" (as some have suggested here)? I, for one, don't think so. She and I (or you) may have (y)our eyes on different labels, but that's a world she knows -- and she's not ashamed to own up to it. Who doesn't miss nice things? Besides, every writer worth his or her salt knows the cardinal rule: Write what you know about!

If I have one major criticism of the The Bag Lady Papers, it's only this: Alexandra and her coterie make this out to sound exclusively like a women's issue. Trust me, Alex: many men wrestle with the same demons night and day. And women (or at least mothers) have the courts to back them up. Men don't. The message to men who suffer a similar economic plight is quite simply: "DIE, DOG! Or at least DISAPPEAR!"

RRB
4/5/13… (meer)