The Middlesteins: A Novel

Jami Attenberg

Oct 2012 · Sold by Grand Central Publishing

About this ebook

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.

Ratings and reviews

Fascinating journey into the minds of characters who all have really entrenched obsessions which don't do them much good in the grand scheme of things ,,,, story may be very odd and a little sad, but I think we all know a family like this( mired in bitterness, insecurities and tragedy because of the choices they make and the love they fail to give or receive) for themselves or for others.....however it is a compelling story and the characters while unrepentantly self serving will draw you in and make for some interesting drama and perspectives.

Emotional and realistic, I found myself drawn into this suburban Chicago world. The characters were painstakingly crafted until I felt they were my own family, a branch I'd forgotten about until opening this book. No character is perfect, but they are all understandable, and a fierceness of love pervades the mucky stupidity of trying to run your own life and fit into your family too.

About the author

Jami Attenberg is the author of a story collection, Instant Love, and four novels: The Kept Man, The Melting Season, and The Middlesteins, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, and Saint Mazie. She has contributed essays and criticism to the New York Times, Real Simple, Elle, the Washington Post, and many other publications. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.