Susan Ecker

Possibly one of my favorite reads of the last year. I am Sophie Tucker is a fantastic, unique work. The author's write in "Sophie Tucker"'s voice and it is just a pleasure to read from start to finish. Through Sophie's quest to be the biggest thing on stage (nearly literally) we meet all kinds of great characters from her goulash slinging mother to Leonard Bernstein to Joe DiMaggio. There's a little something for any reader. Although younger readers may not know who Ms. Tucker was, it's a show more great way to connect with a family's history. I remember my grandparents talking about Sophie Tucker when I was a child and I delighted in discussing this with my mother. Even without that connection, this book is a grabber, hooking you from the very first pages. The authors skillfully weave in humor, poignancy, show business, the immigrant and Jewish experiences, creating a blend not unlike that famous goulash. As for whether these stories are true or made up out of whole cloth, if it isn't true, it ought to be. I highly recommend this.
I received this copy via Netgalley and was not paid or perked for this review. show less

This was a fascinating read and something you felt that the real Sophie Tucker might have written. When she did her own autobiography back in the 1940's, it was sanitized, so the authors, who accessed Tucker's papers and scrapbooks and talked with those who knew and worked with her, wrote this as the first installment of a trilogy on Tucker - this part dealing with the young Sophie. I think they did a good job and interwove real events with what they perceived Tucker would have thought or show more said. Even if the book was not about a famous individual as Sophie Tucker, it was an interesting look at an immigrant's family struggle to get to America, make a living in America, and a young girl's defiance of her family to make a living in show business. The book also had numerous photographs of Sophie Tucker. It was a good read and very difficult to put down. show less

3.5 stars
Sophie Tucker was unknown to me until I started I AM SOPHIE TUCKER. Starting the book spurred me to do a bit of looking into her and her life. There’s a lot to commend Sophie to readers. The Ecker’s have captured her boisterous and brazen voice perfectly. Sophie was a product of my favorite era in American history. The early 1900’s were a time of less stricture and regulation when the sky actually was the limit if you had the gumption to go for it. It’s an early who’s who show more of a time that produced some of our most memorable and notorious figures. With plenty of humor and a realistic look at exactly how hard people, regardless of age, worked just to survive; I AM SOPHIE TUCKER is a fascinating glimpse into the not so distant past.
It’s my understanding there will be more Sophie in the future and I’m certainly on board for that. The ending isn’t exactly a cliff hanger but it certainly piqued my curiosity to know what comes next. However, while I enjoyed Sophie immensely, the same qualities that make her so interesting also make her a bit grating after a while. So, while I’ve every intention of following Sophie it will be in small doses.

Reviewed for Miss Ivy’s Book Nook Take II, Manic Readers, & Novels Alive TV show less

Review based on ARC.

Sophie Tucker was undoubtably a fascinating person. She seemed to know anyone who was anyone... from Al Pacino to Arthur Conan Doyle to ... well, herself! And this fictional memoir seemed intriguing. I didn't know much about Tucker going into it -- more a recognition of the name than anything else. But I thought it sounded intriguing... a murder mystery, an insider's look at early Hollywood (or, at least, earlier...), the world of Vaudeville.... ok, sign me up!

And... it show more delivered. to some degree. So, fictional memoir. What was I expecting? I don't know, something more akin to Devil in the White City, I guess... a sort of novelization of real events. An adding of thoughts and emotions -- a researcher's best guess -- and maybe that's what this was. But it seemed a lot more fictional than that. It *felt* like someone was creating a whole persona for a real person. Which just felt weird. It felt like someone had decided THIS must be Sophie Tucker's *real* personality -- her behind-the-scenes personality. And.... it was unsettling to me.

It felt surface. It felt false. It felt over-simplified. Like, rather two-dimensional. And, I understand the authors did an inordinate amount of research, and had scrapbooks and many items of Sophie's own words to pull from... so perhaps Sophie was really just a two-dimensional person? Seems far-fetched. Much more far-fetched than the so-called "life and times of Sophie Tucker."

And that was my other complaint. Eyebrow-raising, inward gasping, behind-the-scenes reveals? meh. I get that this was a long time ago, and our standards are different now... but it still felt like this fictional character was going from "hey hey, listen to this CRaaaaay-zee story about me!" to yet another and another... nothing felt organic or ... well, real.

Buuut.... It was Interesting. It was somewhat satisfying to read about that time from a so-called insider's perspective. It was ok. I didn't love Sophie; I didn't hate her. I didn't really feel that particularly strongly about anyone except for her first husband.

As for the others... were they husbands? It felt like a lot was left out. How did she meet her 3rd husband? What happened? How did they break? What about the 2nd .... how did that become, er, formal? (did I just miss that altogether?) So yeah, it was the organization. The organization needed work. And as a result, the story suffered.

But it was ok. And if you're really interested in Sophie Tucker's life, from an arguably inside perspective... check it out. The memoir is pretty consistent from beginning to end, so if you don't like the first few chapters, then you won't like it. If you do, you will.

Overall, three of five stars. show less