Product Description

A former editor in the publishing industry recounts the year after she and her husband quit their jobs, a period of time during which they took to the roads in an RV and traveled throughout the United States and Canada.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #468810 in Books
• Published on: 1997-01-02
• Released on: 1997-01-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.com Review
Just a few months shy of his 20th anniversary at RCA, Sandy MacGregor got his pink slip. Once the shock wore off, he and his wife, Marilyn J. Abraham, then a vice president and editor at Simon & Schuster, did what any rational couple with more than fifty-two combined years on the corporate fast track would do: they traded in the boardroom for the open road and embarked on a four-month trek across America. First We Quit Our Jobs is Abraham's account of their odyssey. Granted, a Winnebago was not their first choice when the bad news came, but after an attempt to buy a small publishing company in New England fell through, MacGregor and Abraham packed their bags and went in search of their destiny.

Part travelogue, part meditation, and part guide to "the road not taken," First We Quit Our Jobs is a charmingly written chronicle of discovery. As MacGregor and Abrahams began to depart from the way they'd always assumed their lives would go, they found the freedom to shape the way they'd like their lives to be.

From Library Journal
Abraham and her husband, Sandy, quit their New York City publishing jobs, rented a 30-foot recreational vehicle nicknamed "the Sue," and headed across the continent to Alaska and back on a four-month journey to rethink their lives. Along the way, they stopped in Edmonton (Canada), Fairbanks, Seattle, Santa Fe, and Memphis, as well as a host of scenic parks, campsites, and hot tubs. Despite warnings from friends and family, they found life on the road wonderfully successful. Lacking the humor and gentle exaggeration of Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence (LJ 4/1/90) and Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island (LJ 4/1/96), Abraham's work is marred by its uninspired description of insignificant events and people who appear two-dimensional, including Sandy. However, the narrative comes to life in Abraham's touching but brief reminiscences of her childhood (learning to cook after her mother's death, a visit to an Orthodox synagogue). For public libraries.?Linda M. Kaufmann, North Adams State Coll., Mass.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Abraham and her husband, Sandy MacGregor, were overworked, short-tempered, stressed-out baby boomers with 52 years of combined experience in business and publishing when they decided it was time for a "life review." They purchased an RV, quit their jobs, turned their backs on a New York lifestyle they had neither time nor energy to enjoy, and began an overland odyssey to Alaska as self-styled "middle-aged easy riders." Although Abraham's travel memoir documents the usual parade of eccentric characters and dazzling vistas, the journey it most honestly documents is the one into the heart of its author. She explains how she and her husband voluntarily revised their priorities in an attempt to save their lives by changing them. They decided to "be" rather than merely "do" and accepted the Thoreauvian philosophy that real living has nothing to do with work or money. The couple emerged from their trek as open-minded, flexible, happy, lucky people willing to face the third quarter of their lives as trail-blazing "conquistadors." Patricia Hassler

Customer Reviews

Power vacationing
This book is more like a glorified vacation than a real life changing tale. Working in high stress, high paying jobs with incomes to match; I do not think these folk have much to tell the rest of us. Sure they can go buy that Class A and have a fine time for a few months. Why not, it is well within their means. Shut the house on the lake for a while; take a few months to see the US. Have a great time. For most of the population quitting jobs and traveling for several months would be a huge undertaking, Many people go entire lives, until retirement without the means to walk away, from their employment, leave their house vacant and travel. I do not think this author has much useful advice for the average person. If you want a book on an RV journey, read Barb Thacker or Sharlene Minshall or Steels on Wheels or Ray Parker. If you want a pleasant read about a rather extensive vacation, buy this book. The writing is pleasant, the story is enjoyable, and I do not regret reading the book. Nonetheless I did have a feeling I was adding to an already hefty bank account. The author is from the publishing field and knew how to turn this trip into a paying venture.

Soul searching RVer
I must say this is an entertaining read; one that gives much encouragement to making the choice to quit, sell up, and hit the road. Ms. Abraham does much soul searching and philosophizing about the choice she and her husband made, even getting down right personal sometimes. I loved her self-deprecating anecdotes of what it is like for a born 'n bred New Yorker to discover that the vast beyond isn't as deprived of culture or gourmet food as she had always believed. The only downside is that, if you are looking for the technicals of RV life, they won't be found here. That was fine for me, I can always hit the RV web pages and newsgroups for the cold, hard facts of RV life. What I found here was the spirit of an RVer.

Yuppies travel West
I picked this book up at Borders', intrigued by the title and happy to take an armchair vacation across the west. While I enjoyed their travels, sympathized with their need to abandon the corporate world, I must admit I was a bit nauseated by the replacement of one chic place for another (Santa Fe). It wasn't like they had exactly abandonned or developed new life styles and an appreciation of the "simpler life." Sure, they were giving up a "Manhattan high stressed life" -- after all it was killing them. Who could live that world very long? But their materialistic superficial values continued. They still live in a glossy unreal yuppie world (Santa Fe). However, on the up side, I did enjoy their travels with all the comforts of home built in.