cover image Just Keep Shooting: My Youth in Manhattan

Just Keep Shooting: My Youth in Manhattan

Judy McConnell. Ingram Spark, $14.99 trade paper (264p) ISBN 978-0-692-66597-8

In her second memoir (after A Penny a Kiss), McConnell embarks on an immersive journey through nearly six years of post-college life during the late 1950s and early ’60s, though it’s difficult to discern any real impact that time has on the author’s life. She traveled from home in Minnesota to Manhattan, Paris, and Spain, then to California and back to New York. McConnell recalls people she met and experiences including jobs at the U.N., in publishing, and at Forbes magazine. These gigs don’t hold much for McConnell, nor do her loves and friends, who come and go. Her passions feel more like hobbies, as her film and writing aspirations are never fully realized. Throughout the book, McConnell makes clear her disdain for her mother, including her attitude toward the volatile politics of the day and married life. This gives the reader a loose sense of McConnell’s ideals and beliefs, only to have it dismantled as she concludes the book with a rushed description of falling in love and getting married. McConnell works to define herself and her place in life, but by the end, readers are left with no better an understanding of her than when the book began. (BookLife)