Reviews

BookSense Picks, May 2004
"The story of a 13-year-old's life after her mother's nervous breakdown is funny and sad, a roller coaster of thoughts -- like most adolescents who think they are very grown up but find they really aren't."… "A great novel." Donna Henrich -- The Bookseller, Cherokee, IA

Kirkus Reviews
"In a risky but successful style, Fischer illustrates Abby's lack of breathing space as she strains to hold herself together and move from one moment to the next." Kirkus Reviews, April 2004

Starred Booklist Review
"From the moment she catches her mother skinny-dipping alone in a neighbor's pool, 13-year-old Abby senses that "something is fishy in France." As her mother Shirley's behavior becomes more erratic, Abby, her younger sister, and her father vacillate between denial and bewilderment until Shirley attempts suicide, spends a year in a mental hospital, and breaks apart again. In Abby's honest, unwavering first-person narration, Fischer wholly captures an early adolescent's voice: the staccato rhythms, run-on sentences, and made-up words (grossamundo is a favorite) as well as the fact that Abby sees clearly (certainly more clearly than her father) but doesn't always comprehend. Like Karin Cook's excellent What Girls Learn (1997), Fischer's novel describes with astonishing, visceral detail a young adult's pull between the universal struggles of adolescence and the surreal anguish of losing a parent to illness. There is the private, almost comical rage ("I'm so mad at Mom I could spit a big spitball right in her eye") and guilt: "I don't know if I want to see Mom. I am the worst daughter ever born. I feel like that girl Regan in The Exorcist." And in the "big stomach clench" and "flat lungs" that Abby feels around her mother, Fischer shows how the deepest, most terrifying truths are known before they are understood. An unforgettable debut." American Library Association, May 2004

Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)
"Someone needs to tell me why Portland is producing so many writers whose first published novels are better than most people's mature work. The latest is Jackie Moyer Fischer, who has accomplished the mighty task of presenting us with a unique voice that seems to come from both heart and gut. This is an affecting, moving, funny and slightly frightening story of a 13-year-old girl who hasn't got time to be 13 because her mother is mentally disturbed and she must hold the family together. That's the plot. But it isn't the reason for the book. The reason is the opportunity to step into someone else's skin, to revel in ordinary language made the messenger of secrets." Statesman Journal, Salem, Oregon, May 23, 2004

The Buffalo News
"Fischer makes a stunning debut in this heartfelt coming-of-age story about a 13-year old girl named Abby who is dealing simultaneously with the burdens of adolescence and the crushing burden of her mother's mental breakdown. In turn humorous and heartbreaking, the novel is told in Abby's voice and is set in the 1970s in the Bay Area of California. This is a very painful look at family members struggling to deal with the depression of a loved one." The Buffalo News, May 2004

Elle Girl
"And get out the hankie when you read Jackie Moyer Fischer's An Egg on Three Sticks because this excellent coming-of-age story, about a girl whose mom has a mental breakdown will break your heart." Elle Girl Magazine, May 2004

Georgia Family
"Thirteen year-old Abby is not only struggling with becoming a teenager, but also with her distant relationship with her mother, who has recently suffered a nervous breakdown. This raw novel intertwines humor and tragedy, making for an emotionally charged read for teens." Georgia Family, June 2004

Metro Parent
"This riveting first novel by a local writer is definitely YA, with serious subject matters such as a mother's nervous breakdown, shoplifting, sneaking out of the house, sex and suicide. The author has found the dead center of a teen's psyche, and as the story unfolds in Abby's 13-year old voice, the teenager's bad choices seem like her only possible response to heart-wrenching situations." Metro Parent Magazine, June 2004

YM Magazine
"an awesome novel…" YM Magazine

Advance Praise

"You can't stop reading An Egg on Three Sticks once you start reading it. Three pages, in I was hooked."

“An Egg On Three Sticks is a step into the bewildering world of adolescence. As the child narrator grows into womanhood, she is forced to deal with the deepest of adult mysteries; the desperation of chronic illness, sanity, death — the fragility of our lives. Profound, fresh, funny, it will make you laugh as it breaks your heart.”

“An Egg on Three Sticks, Jackie Fischer’s absorbing first novel, is as genuine as the voice at its center. Abby, one of the most engaging young narrators since Elizabeth Berg’s Katie in Durable Goods, tells her story with honesty, toughness, and a vulnerability that carries the reader along with a sense of suspense and deep emotional investment to its heartbreaking conclusion. In an impressive and rewarding writerly feat, Fischer manages to make Abby’s story funny, entertaining, devastating, and redemptive, all at the same time. I was sorry to see it end.”

“Jackie Fischer’s novel is a spare, unflinching picture of a nuclear family’s disintegration. At the same time, it’s a nostalgic ride through the goofy, vulnerable years of early adolescence, when stolen hallway kisses, forbidden pulp novels, and super short miniskirts are of monumental importance . . . all the more so if your mom is going crazy behind the bedroom door. Read it and weep for lost innocence.”

“In prose both fresh and piercing, Jackie Fischer brings us so close to her narrator that we feel what it’s like to be thirteen and watching your mother fall apart and to be tormented by a potent mixture of love, anger, and guilt as you start to face the hard truths of the adult world. Abby’s voice is unfaltering; its honesty and pure tone animates a story of immediate and affecting emotional power.”

“With her poetic writing and honest voice, Jackie Fischer has captured a 12-year-old’s description of her mother’s breakdown. I’m very much looking forward to Jackie’s next book.”

"The voice and flow of this funny, sad, life-loving work are so note-perfect that taking in An Egg on Three Sticks feels less like reading a novel than hanging out with its unforgettable teenage protagonist as she lays it all out to you. A remarkable debut."

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Copyright 2004, Jackie Moyer Fischer. All rights reserved.