Middlesteins (Attenberg) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Expansive heart and sly wit.... Throughout this poignant novel, the characters wrestle with two defining questions: What do we owe each other after a life together? What do we owe ourselves?
Abbe Wright, O Magazine


A panoply of neurotic characters fills Attenberg’s multigenerational novel about a Midwestern Jewish family. Shifting points of view tell the story of...Edie and Richard Middlestein’s nearly 40-year marriage as Edie slowly eats herself to death.... [A] wonderfully messy and layered family portrait.
Publishers Weekly


Edie Middlestein is digging her grave with her teeth, as the saying goes. Previously a successful Chicago attorney, Edie has sought comfort in food all her life; she craves fattening treats the way an alcoholic craves booze.... Attenberg seamlessly weaves comedy and tragedy in this warm and engaging family saga of love and loss. —Leslie Patterson, Rehoboth, MA
Library Journal


While the novel focuses intensely on each member of the family, it also offers a panoramic, more broadly humorous, verging-on-caricature view of the Midwestern Jewish suburbia.... But as the Middlesteins... move back and forth in time, their lives take on increasing depth individually and together. A sharp-tongued, sweet-natured masterpiece of Jewish family life.
Kirkus Reviews