THE MIDDLESTEINS: MY REVIEW AND BONUS ENTRIES

 

GIVEAWAY ENDED

THE MIDDLESTEINS

BY JAMI ATTENBERG

REMINDER ABOUT THE BOOK:

For more than thirty years, Edie and Richard Middlestein shared a solid family life together in the suburbs of Chicago. But now things are splintering apart, for one reason, it seems: Edie's enormous girth. She's obsessed with food--thinking about it, eating it--and if she doesn't stop, she won't have much longer to live.

When Richard abandons his wife, it is up to the next generation to take control. Robin, their schoolteacher daughter, is determined that her father pay for leaving Edie. Benny, an easy-going, pot-smoking family man, just wants to smooth things over. And Rachelle-- a whippet thin perfectionist-- is intent on saving her mother-in-law's life, but this task proves even bigger than planning her twin children's spectacular b'nai mitzvah party. Through it all, they wonder: do Edie's devastating choices rest on her shoulders alone, or are others at fault, too?

With pitch-perfect prose, huge compassion, and sly humor, Jami Attenberg has given us an epic story of marriage, family, and obsession. The Middlesteins explores the hopes and heartbreaks of new and old love, the yearnings of Midwestern America, and our devastating, fascinating preoccupation with food. 

 

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

TAKEN FROM JAMI ATTENBERG'S WEBSITE HERE.  Jami believes in the power and importance of independent publishing and self-publication, whether online or in print. She has been published by a number of zines, and her chapbook, Deli Life, was published by Austin upstart So New Media in 2003. Instant Love was originally a zine series which she sold primarily on her website, whatever-whenever.net. Her site has been in existence in various forms since 1998. Jami has lived in the following cities: Buffalo Grove, IL (where she established herself amongst her peers as “the kind of girl who wears black a lot” and “always has her head in a book” and is “kind of cranky.”); Ithaca, NY (summer school program for geeks, in case you hadn’t figured out she was a geek yet); Baltimore, MD (where she got a degree from Johns Hopkins University in Writing Seminars); Norwich, UK (where she smoked a lot of hash); Fairfax, VA (where she worked as a hostess at a Ruby Tuesday’s in a mall); Tampa, FL (where she bartended at a lesbian bar on Pass-A-Grille Beach and worked on a NOW march); Washington, DC (where she waited tables at Polly’s Cafe on U Street and lived for a six months in a room that had a gigantic hole in the floor); Seattle, WA (where she worked in a nursing home and performed awful erotic poetry in cafes); the East Village of New York City (interactive advertising work, eight years and counting); Napa, CA (where she wrote Instant Love), Portland, OR (where she did nothing but walk six miles a day and think and eat superior produce), Los Angeles, CA (where she promptly broke her ankle and was housebound for six weeks) and, mostly, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY.

So if you think you’ve met her before, you’re probably right.

MORE PRAISE FOR THE MIDDLESTEINS:

“With a wit that never mocks and a tenderness that never gushes, she renders this family’s ordinary tragedies as something surprisingly affecting. ” Washington Post (review by Ron Charles)

Dallas News
“…The most authentic, endearing fictional portrait of a family in recent memory.”

Daily Beast
“Warm and expansive, this book is a funny, fresh, take on the timeless theme of family dysfunction.” 

OTHER BOOKS BY JAMI ATTENBERG:

                  
 

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW:

In THE MIDDLESTEINS, Jami Attenberg introduces readers to THE MIDDLESTEINS, Edie and Richard, who might appear to be an average family, with their children Robin and Benny.  However, with a storyline that takes readers from present to past and back again, the obsessively compulsive, tragically comedic life of Edie Middlestein is revealed. Edie’s obsession with food affects not only her own life and health, but also that of her family and everyone else who know and love her.

THE MIDDLESTEINS grabbed me from the first page and I couldn’t stop reading until it was finished. It reminded me of one of my all-time favorite books, Wally Lamb’s SHE’S COME UNDONE. Trying to understand Edie’s eating habits and compulsions, was hard but not impossible as dealing with weight issues is something I have known all my life. However, Edie’s habits go far and beyond anything, I believe, a normal overweight person contends with.

Edie raised her two children and had for quite a while a comfortable marriage, until the time that her weight and emotional eating start to seriously affect her health and relationship with her husband. After 30 years, when Richard has had enough and walks out on her, Edie’s two grown children are left to try and save their mother. This, I believe, is when the reader realizes Edie doesn’t really want to be saved. During this same time period, we find out about Richard’s life now away from his family and the man he really is. Also, Benny’s wife Rachelle becomes an important character as she is the antithesis of Edie and driven to “make” Edie lose weight never understanding what it is that is causing the obesity to begin with.

Edie’s relationship with daughter Robin is unique and while also painful it resonates a love/hate relationship. Son Benny has been there for Edie as much as possible but when Richard leaves, that is more than he can handle and it all begins to affect Benny’s life both emotionally and physically.

With superb character development, Attenberg does a masterful job of allowing readers to see how each character is affected by Edie. Throughout the story, she gives the reader hope that things will work out for everyone. With each unexpected twist and turn readers are led along only to finally wind up at a rather shocking ending. It came as a surprise and I think was just another reason that I found THE MIDDLESTEINS to be a must-read piece of realistic fiction. 

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO SONYA AND THE GREAT FOLKS

AT HACHETTE BOOK GROUP, I HAVE THREE

COPIES OF THIS FABULOUS BOOK TO GIVE

AWAY TO THREE LUCKY FOLLOWERS!

       
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  BONUS ENTRIES!

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON WHAT WHAT YOU READ ABOVE IN MY REVIEW OF THE MIDDLESTEINS THAT MADE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS BOOK, AND DON'T FORGET YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG AND/OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK HERE AND LEAVE ME YOUR LINK

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOME OTHER BOOK BY AUTHOR JAMI ATTENBERG THAT YOU HAVE READ OR WOULD LIKE TO READ

+1 MORE ENTRY: VISIT MY PREVIEW OF THIS BOOK AND COMMENT THERE IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY BY GOING HERE

 

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT 
6 PM, EST, NOVEMBER 15