All Grown Up
Fiction
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
March 7, 2017
Advanced Reader Copy
208
NetGalley
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Middlesteins comes a wickedly funny novel about a thirty-nine-year-old single, childfree woman who defies convention as she seeks connection. Who is Andrea Bern? When her therapist asks the question, Andrea knows the right things to say: she's a designer, a friend, a daughter, a sister. But it's what she leaves unsaid--she's alone, a drinker, a former artist, a shrieker in bed, captain of the sinking ship that is her flesh--that feels the most true. Everyone around her seems to have an entirely different idea of what it means to be an adult: her best friend, Indigo, is getting married; her brother--who miraculously seems unscathed by their shared tumultuous childhood--and sister-in-law are having a hoped-for baby; and her friend Matthew continues to wholly devote himself to making dark paintings at the cost of being flat broke. But when Andrea's niece finally arrives, born with a heartbreaking ailment, the Bern family is forced to reexamine what really matters. Will this drive them together or tear them apart? Told in gut-wrenchingly honest, mordantly comic vignettes, All Grown Up is a breathtaking display of Jami Attenberg's power as a storyteller, a whip-smart examination of one woman's life, lived entirely on her own terms.
My review:
I had a hard time liking this one, but I can see why others would. I was a big fan of two previous novels by Ms. Attenberg (Saint Mazie and The Middlesteins), so I'm not a stranger to her writing. And I love her writing, I really do, I still do. However, I did not like the main character in this book AT ALL! She reminded me of those books about 20 somethings who can't get their act together and figure out their lives (and if you've read my blog, you know those are not books I tend to enjoy, with a few exceptions). The problem was, that Andrea is thirty nine years old. Come on now! I kept reading (because the writing style just flows so well that you want to continue on), waiting for a major change in her character. I guess it kind of, sorta happened at the end, although not well enough to convince me, and far far too late. Her behavior was appalling to me, and although the book was trying to convey why she acted that way, I just couldn't buy into it (especially at her age).
Sorry to say that the character ruined this one for me, although Attenberg's writing style has not lost anything since her previous books. Count me in to read the next one, I'm just hoping for a character I like better. Be sure to check out other reviews of this around social media, sometimes it is just not the right book for me, yet others enjoy it immensely.
I loved Saint Mazie, too. I had heard this one was more of a style book with no plot, but I hadn't heard about the character. I don't think this one is for me, either. Thanks for reading it for me. 🙂
Anytime, happy to be your advance reader 🙂 I get really touchy about people who can't get their lives together within a reasonable amount of time, so these kind of books, with a few exceptions, don't usually work for me. Hopefully I will like her next one better.