"Writing in the tradition of Winesburg, Ohio, Joanna Lipper takes us into Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Growing Up Fast is an astonishing book combining arresting portraits of mothers and fathers who are themselves children with a devastating depiction of a community living on the edge of economic despair."

-- Carol Gilligan, author of In a Different Voice

"Growing Up Fast is a haunting testament to the vast, unfinished business of the abandonment of the working class and the resulting trauma that continues destroying lives. Joanna Lipper takes on the hard task of really listening to the young women who carry on, and she honors their predicament by rigorously setting out the complex context of their lives. This is necessary, enraging work. We're very lucky to have it."

-- Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of Random Family

"Lipper's book works as a literary representation of the film 8 Mile. Like the hit movie, Lipper's investigation of the young working-class in a burnt out, post-industrial, rust belt city, portrays lives of not so quiet desperation.

-- Nelson George, author of Hip-Hop America

"America has been waiting for Growing Up Fast for too long...In telling the stories of Jessica, Shayla, Amy, Sheri, Liz and Colleen so sensitively, and often in the voices of the girls themselves, their families, friends and partners, this landmark work of empathy and of oral history reads like a nineteenth century novel of young women burdened by fates they did not choose. Everyone who works with young people and children should read this book; so should policy makers; so should parents; so should young people themselves."

-- Naomi Wolf, author of Promiscuities