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A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France Paperback – March 10, 2023

by Janet Hulstrand (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 20 ratings
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This story, about three generations of women with a passion for reading, writing, and travel, begins in 1992, in an unfinished attic in Brooklyn, as a young writer reads journals written by her grandmother as a schoolgirl nearly 100 years earlier. This sets her on a 30-year quest to uncover the hidden lives and unfulfilled dreams of her mother and grandmother. In this coming-of-middle-age memoir, the author comes to realize that the passion for travel and for literature that has fueled her life's journey is a gift that was passed down to her by the very role models she was determined to escape.

This is a story of the life-changing journey of the author as she comes to terms with the complicated relationships she had with her mother and grandmother; about her travels in the US and France; and the emotional journey she takes as she recovers from the breakup of her marriage. It is also about the journeys―geographic, intellectual, and emotional―of her mother and grandmother.

It is also a story about the tenacity and strength of even difficult family relationships; and about the role of luck, both good and bad, in shaping human lives. It is about the importance of dreams, whether or not they are entirely fulfilled. And it is about the importance of persistence in making dreams come true, as well as the kind of wisdom that allows one to quietly enjoy one's life, accepting its limitations while pushing its boundaries.

"Janet Hulstrand looks back on her life growing up in a Midwestern family, and the road she took to go beyond it to places that are indeed a long way from Iowa, skillfully weaving the threads of her own life with those of her mother's and grandmother's...This is the story of three strong women and the personal challenges they faced…A wonderful accomplishment, and storytelling at its best." Harriet Welty Rochefort, author of French Toast, French Fried, Joie de Vivre, and Final Transgression

"A lovely, lyrical memoir that tells the story of the author's winding path from a childhood in Minnesota to her adventures as an adult in New York, Washington, Paris, and beyond…. Janet Hulstrand is an engaging and empathetic storyteller, and her memoir is a testament to the writing life, and to all the hardship and reward that it entails." Susan Coll, author of Bookish People and five other novels

"Janet Hulstrand's charming memoir will cheer every reader who has dreamed of changing her life, living in Europe, becoming a writer, or just plain having a more lively time than a Midwestern girl usually expects." Diane Johnson, best-selling author of Le Divorce, Lorna Mott Comes Home, and Flyover Lives: A Memoir.

"Janet Hulstrand is an adventurer with a passion for travel, and a writer with a gift to teach. Her honest memoir of moving to a village in France will inspire others to think of change as life-enhancing, and courage as a habit we can learn." Elaine Showalter, Professor Emerita of English, Princeton University

"Libraries need this book! This is an all-American story about three generations of Midwestern women with a passion for reading, writing, and travel, and how that passion was passed down from mother to daughter...Descriptions of life in small-town Iowa in the early part of the 20th century are provided through local newspaper accounts; and travels by train and bus come alive through the letters and journals of the author's grandmother and mother. " Ginnie Cooper, former director of public libraries in Multnomah County, Oregon; Brooklyn, NY; and the District of Columbia.

"Janet Hulstrand takes us on a fascinating journey, backward in time as she seeks to uncover the hidden lives of her grandmother and mother, then forward as she forges her own adventurous path out of the Midwest and into a little village in the French countryside...A fun and heartwarming read." Adrian Leeds, from HGTV's House Hunters International
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  1. Print length
    286 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Winged Words Publishing
  4. Publication date
    March 10, 2023
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1667879189
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1667879185
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Janet Hulstrand is a writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher who grew up in Minnesota, and has lived in New York City, Washington DC, and France. She teaches literature classes for Politics and Prose bookstore, and she created and has taught "Paris: A Literary Adventure," a study abroad program for the City University of New York , since 1997. She writes frequently for Bonjour Paris, France Today, France Revisited, and for her blog, Writing from the Heart, Reading for the Road. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and coauthor of Moving On: A Practical Guide to Downsizing the Family Home. She divides her time between the US and the village of Essoyes, in the Champagne region of France.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Winged Words Publishing (March 10, 2023)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 286 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1667879189
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1667879185
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 20 ratings

About the author

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Janet Hulstrand

Janet Hulstrand

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Janet Hulstrand is a writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and literature who divides her time between the U.S. and France. She has created and taught classes in American literature for study abroad programs offered by the City University of New York in Paris, Florence, Hawaii and Cuba. She also teaches online classes for Politics & Prose bookstore in Washington DC.

Hulstrand writes frequently for the online travel magazines Bonjour Paris, France Today, and France Revisited, as well as on her blog, Writing from the Heart, Reading for the Road. She is the author of "Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You" and "A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France," and coauthor of "Moving On: A Practical Guide to Downsizing the Family Home."

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
20 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

mgdonna
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read. Honest as the book is long
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2023
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What a story! A saga: from Grandma Effie (b.1892) to mother Carol (b.1926) to Janet (b.1953); from Minnesota to New York City, Brooklyn, Washington, D.C., and—bring out the glasses, sing out the toasts—Champagne, France. It even includes the Kennedy’s—yes, those Kennedy’s, Caroline, John, and Jackie….

For me, the test of a well-written memoir is if I’d want to spend prolonged time with the author. I give bonus points if I like the person, because not all interesting/creative people—even when writing about themselves—are likeable. With Janet Hulstrand, there are bonus points aplenty.

This is a brave, true, honest, honest, honest story and storyteller. The book is a lesson and model of self-exploration and revelation, and like all good stories it ends where the next one will begin. The sequel can’t arrive soon enough.
2 people found this helpful
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Deborah Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging Story told in an Appealing Midwestern Voice
Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2023
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In a clear, authentic voice, Janet Hulstrand recounts a life that reads as an adventure. From Iowa to Minnesota to Brooklyn to a village in France (and stops in between) Hulstrand finds the patterns in her past. She describes how she learned about the early lives of her mother and grandmother, and how she revised her understanding of them. She credits them both with inspiring her to a life of books -- reading, writing, and teaching them -- as well as a life of travel, including the realization of her lifelong dream to live in France. Bravo, and hats off!
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David Downie
5.0 out of 5 stars Francophiles and good ole Americans from the homeland will enjoy this
Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2024
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Janet Hulstrand has lived for many years in France, and still thrills in her adopted land. But she's a product of the American homeland and her decency, courtesy and utterly un-Gallic qualities of generosity and kindness shine through in this compelling narrative. Highly recommended.
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D. J. James
5.0 out of 5 stars Progress over Three American Generations
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2023
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“Follow your dreams” is a phrase that we hear so often in the optimistically sentimental TV land of American story-telling that we may be forgiven a certain skepticism when opening an autobiography that takes a young Mid-Western girl from a housing development in St. Paul Minnesota to a house in a little French village in Champagne, fulfillilng in middle age the dream of her youth to be a writer and to live in France.

But this is not a starry-eyed version of a life. Following her dreams led Janet Hulstrand through many years of everyday challenges, making money, getting jobs, bringing up babies, dealing with marital break-up, all described with a light touch but with total seriousness. On the way by we have pictures of life ranging from an American high school, through Mid-Western colleges and survival as a student in France, picking grapes in Champagne, later living on a shoestring in a loft in New York City, then in an unfinished attic in Fort Green, Brooklyn, and much later with a young family navigating the even stranger waters of society in a suburb of Washington DC.

The importance of this life’s story, and the reason why it should be widely read, lies to me in its illustration of how, over three generations of American women, the opportunities for self-fulfillment have grown enormously but how self-awareness and self-direction do not come easily even to the modern American woman: they have to be built up consciously and worked on, year by year, day by day.

Hulstrand’s memoir is rooted in careful research into the lives of her grandmother, born in 1892, and her mother, born in 1925. Her hunt for facts, events, places and thoughts of these two American women of previous generations, is in itself fascinating. She describes the way she unearthed and sifted through letters, documents, diaries to piece together a clear picture of what these two women hoped for in their lives, and what they achieved and did not achieve. Against this background, her own hopes and disappointments and achievements take on significance, not just as a story of her life, but as a story of women’s progress over time, progress hard-won and still in the making.
2 people found this helpful
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M. Burns
5.0 out of 5 stars I loved the writer's self-effacing, irrepressible spirit that will warm your heart
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2023
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I loved Janet Hulstrand’s "A Long Way from Iowa. From the Heartland to the heart of France" about three generations of women moving in baby steps, via detours, and occasional strides toward greater freedom of self-expression—shaped by the culture and colors of their loved ones, and by the places where they live. In Janet’s case the habitats are the Midwest, Brooklyn, Washington, DC, Paris, and finally a village in the Champagne region of France. In between are all the stations of Janet’s life: daughter, college student, lover, jobber, adventurer, grape picker, writer, teacher, wife and mother presented in a colorful palette. Above all, I loved the author’s self-effacing yet irrepressible spirit. If you want to catch it, quick, get the book, and warm your heart.
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Jeffrey M Burrows
5.0 out of 5 stars Be inspired to follow YOUR dreams!
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2023
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Janet looks back to her grandmother and mother to see the strands of her journey to living in France. She found key pieces of her own history that helped her re-see these women in her life, and then help her know them and herself more. What an inspiration to us all to look back and then go forward with a vengeance!
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A library fan….
5.0 out of 5 stars If I lived Janet’s life…..
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2024
Like Janet Hulstrand, I am a “girl from the Midwest.” How fun to read about her life! And to think that I might have chosen her path…. Wow!
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Jeri San
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2023
A very pleasant journey, with several interesting anecdotes that will surprise and and amuse you along the way. Feels like I had a nice conversation with the author and really got to know them better. Definitely worth the read!
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