#jamiattenburg

[kattra]

#FridayReads: ALL GROWN UP by #JamiAttenburg, THE POLYGAMIST'S DAUGHTER by #AnnaLeBaron, GET IN TROUBLE by #KellyLink, THE CHOSEN MAIDEN by #EvaStachniak. #amreading

[lena-francesca]

The Middlesteins- Jami Attenburg

"Because food was a wonderful place to hide"

Managed to get some quality reading done while on holiday- finished the third book in Murukami's 1Q84, started Samuel Shem's House of God and the succulent meaty filling of this literary sandwich was Jami's Attenburg's newest book "The Middlesteins".

I enjoyed this book and I read it fairly quickly.  Jonathan Franzen's books gave me an appetite for reading about unhappy Midwestern families.  And in keeping with the old truth about all unhappy families being unique, the Middlesteins have their own catalyst for combustion, matriarch Edie is eating herself to death.  I've read books (and seen countless soap operas) where the characters destroy or are destroyed by drugs, alcohol, affairs and illness but I've not read a book this focused on the issues around eating since I graduated from the Teen Fiction section (Jacqueline Wilson's Girls series springs to mind).  Obviously within the family there are other long standing resentments and the "what shall we do about Edie?" panic brings these to the forefront.  Tense, topical and full of truth "The Middlesteins" is a refreshing, intelligent read for 2013.