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The Middlesteins

by Jami Attenberg (Goodreads Author)

3.47 of 5 stars 3.47 · rating details · 5,909 ratings · 1,035 reviews

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 nex...more

ebook, 201 pages

Published October 23rd 2012 by Grand Central Publishing

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Jun 11, 2012 karen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: thank-you-bea-or-ala

oh, jami attenberg... i ♥ the way you write.

this book is like richard scarry's busytown. you and the om narr are just looking down at a scene unfolding, and you are watching everyone be very very busy. edie is busy eating herself to death, her estranged husband richard is busy trying to re-enter the dating pool in his sixties, their children are busy resenting their father for leaving their mother in her illness, their grandchildren are busy preparing for their b'nai mitzvah, rachelle the perfec...more

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Nov 25, 2012 oriana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012

I can't even begin to list all the interviews and articles and accolades Jami is getting for this book, which is so so so so great. I am sort of friends with her, by which I mean we're friends on Facebook and have chatted at publishing events, and she's always been really nice. But we know each other only glancingly, so while I was predisposed to enjoy this book, you can still take it at face value when I tell you that it was holy motherfucking incredibly good.

It even made me cry at one point (o...more

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Jul 10, 2012 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

Okay, this is very un-PC but I'm just going to say it: Jews should read this book. Obviously non-Jews should also read this book, but I'm just saying, if you have ever been to a themed Bat Mitzvah with a choreographed dance routine, you will maybe get a slightly bigger kick out of this book.

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Nov 23, 2012 Megan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, jewish, literary-fiction, fiction, family, dysfunctional-family, food, american-dream, angst, divorce, body-image, obesity, odd, short, suburbia, midwest, chicago, american-as-apple-pie, old-age, stylistic, stories, marital-issues, marriage, lust, needs-editing, blah, depressing, death, hyped, overrated, thought-i-would-like-it-more, female-author

This novel left me feeling empty and like it was a waste of time. I
very rarely feel this when reading novels, even ones I don't like. (In
fact sometimes reading a bad novel is a joy in itself--it can be kind
of sadistically fun to make fun of in your head, to read out bad
dialogue to people, etc.) I am still trying to wrap my head around why
I dislike it so much because she can write. There were a few observations about her character's actions and just being a human
in general that made smile and tha...more

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Nov 18, 2012 tee rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own

A tasty little book; a smorgasbord of neurosis and bite sized pieces of suburban melancholy. Edie is fat and I started the book looking forward to living vicariously through her snacking and binging but I also couldn't wait to find out why Edie was so huge. I soon realised that this book is more about how Edie's fat upsets others. Which really, is apt, because that is how it seems to be in the real world. People get fat, everyone concern trolls them and tells them how bad it is (or they side eye...more A tasty little book; a smorgasbord of neurosis and bite sized pieces of suburban melancholy. Edie is fat and I started the book looking forward to living vicariously through her snacking and binging but I also couldn't wait to find out why Edie was so huge. I soon realised that this book is more about how Edie's fat upsets others. Which really, is apt, because that is how it seems to be in the real world. People get fat, everyone concern trolls them and tells them how bad it is (or they side eye them while they dare eat in public). The fat person keeps eating. Fat person eventually dies. So does everybody else.

Edie's obesity was dealt with tastefully. Attenburg didn't turn her into a sweaty, shining freak show. She was just a person who was fat - unfortunately, for me, I didn't find her a particularly interesting or engaging character. More of a maypole for the rest of the characters to do their neurotic (albeit half hearted) dance around. I should have related, I'm overweight, my mother has always been a comfort eater and probably rivals Edie in size and eating habits but I wasn't really interested. The book was safe, comfortable. A few nights ago I ran a warm bath and lit some candles and read a chapter or two and the book fit the mood perfectly.

What's not mentioned, and what I tire of - is that fat people can be fat and healthy. And happy and fat. And have their shit together and be fat. Just as skinny people can be sickly and lazy and very quickly dead from their own poor life choices. Fat people are demonised enough and although it's not really something Attenburg needs to deal with and this book doesn't really cast Edie as a spectacle, she's still a stereotype. Yawn.

So all in all, a well written story. The characters were believable and felt real, even if they did lack a little oomph. I wanted more to chew on. Some spice, some heat but ultimately it was incredibly easy to read and I think to craft something so seamless and smooth is commendable. I even quite liked this weird little thing she did where she jumps forward and wraps up an aspect of a character's future story in a brief paragraph before flowing straight back into the story at hand. Rated three point five stars with a confident recommendation to those who want a quick snack in between those heavier meals.

Food devoured whilst flipping pages: tofu & cucumber sushi, chocolate zucchini muffins, 3 apples, banana smoothie and endless cups of chai tea.
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Jan 16, 2013 Beth Knight rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I finally finished my first book of 2013. Maybe I should quit reading between 4 and 6 books at a time. If I could concentrate on just one at a time I could complete a book more efficiently. Anyway, this book was quite enjoyable. Small parts of it were somewhat funny, in a weird kind of way, but mostly it was sad. Despite the sadness, the book was well-written and engaging and the characters were all interesting, although a few of them weren't completely likable., which I personally kind of like....more

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Jan 05, 2013 Paula rated it 5 of 5 stars

The clever and well-written Middlesteins is a dark and funny story about a dysfunctional Jewish family in the Chicago area. Told from a variety of perspectives, it is about a family attempting to cope with the Middlestein mother/wife who is killing herself by overeating, and dealing with the Middlestein father/husband who has decided to leave his wife of 40 years. It is all about family dynamics and personal conflict with astute observations about the middle class milieu. I heard the book review...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Susana rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

Oh, what's going on in The Middlesteins? No communication, that's for sure, because what better way to up dramatic tension than to not have your characters talk to one another? But when the entire book depends on that fact, and little to no self-awareness emerges as the characters delve into themselves and their options, it just makes for one frustrating read.

Edie Middlestein is eating herself to death. Her husband has left her, her kids make attempts to save her, and she remains indifferent to...more Oh, what's going on in The Middlesteins? No communication, that's for sure, because what better way to up dramatic tension than to not have your characters talk to one another? But when the entire book depends on that fact, and little to no self-awareness emerges as the characters delve into themselves and their options, it just makes for one frustrating read.

Edie Middlestein is eating herself to death. Her husband has left her, her kids make attempts to save her, and she remains indifferent to her impending death. Even when she finds joy in her family and in new friends, indifference and the need to eat dominate.

But why? Why does Edie feel this compulsion? Attenberg never truly gives any insight (food being equivalent to love doesn't cut it for me). Her take on Edie's eating isn't unsympathetic, it's not mocking, but it also lacks depth. Ruminations by Edie herself don't seem to give way to the source of her unhappiness, the root cause of her unease. Her family spends the majority of their time pushing each other away--as far as dysfunctional families go, the Middlesteins are pretty distant from even the cusp of true craziness, so their struggle to connect rings false. Their motivations and character development don't flow organically, and I'm left wondering why I should care about these people.

The only chapter that has a degree of honesty to it is "Seating Chart," where Edie and Richard Middlesteins' friends speak in the first-person plural at the Middlestein grandchildren's b’nai mitzvah and see all that the family itself lacks the insight (or willingness) to observe. It's also Richard and Edie's first meeting after his leaving her, and of course it's fraught with anger. But again, the problem here is that we don't see the anger through the main characters themselves. Sure, it's cheeky and funny through the eyes of old family friends, but the distance at which it's told is a reminder that we'll never reach an understanding of these characters.

One last thing--the flash-forwards annoyed me. Sure, we were told what was going to happen, but I was so disinterested in Edie's story that I found the flash-forwards a distraction, thinking that I might get more from the book if Attenberg had given us a little bit more of the future. The idea of that would quickly fade as I wasn't sure there was much more to the flash-forward beyond the sentence or two we were given. So I was caught in the middle (hah), but without a real pull toward either narrative, present or future. In the end, my thought was the Attenberg just had to stop jerking me around and say something worth caring about--it never happened.

Wouldn't recommend.(less)

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Mar 05, 2013 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Im Zentrum des Romans „The Middlesteins" geht es um einen ganz handfesten Skandal, um eine Ungerechtigkeit, die größer nicht sein könnte: Wie kann es sein, dass manche Menschen glücklich sind, während anderen diese Fähigkeit nicht gegeben ist?
Molekularforscher würden vermutlich antworten, dass die Gene verantwortlich sind; nur hilft den Unglücklichen diese Auskunft nicht weiter. Allerdings muss die Fähigkeit zum Glück auch erlernt werden, und eben hier setzt dieser wunderbare Roman an. Anhand de...more Im Zentrum des Romans „The Middlesteins" geht es um einen ganz handfesten Skandal, um eine Ungerechtigkeit, die größer nicht sein könnte: Wie kann es sein, dass manche Menschen glücklich sind, während anderen diese Fähigkeit nicht gegeben ist?
Molekularforscher würden vermutlich antworten, dass die Gene verantwortlich sind; nur hilft den Unglücklichen diese Auskunft nicht weiter. Allerdings muss die Fähigkeit zum Glück auch erlernt werden, und eben hier setzt dieser wunderbare Roman an. Anhand der weiblichen Linie der Middlesteins macht Jami Attenberg deutlich, wie Tochter Robin genau wie Enkelin Emily Gefahr laufen, ihr Leben in ganz ähnlichem Fahrwasser wie Edie zu verbringen, wenn ihnen entgegen der Vererbung und Erziehung der Ausstieg aus einem glücklosen Leben nicht gelingt.
Die Frauen dieser Familie leiden an einer inneren Leere, die Edie Zeit ihres Lebens erfolglos mit Nahrung zu füllen versucht. „Food was made of love, and love was made of food, and if it could stop a child from crying, then there was nothing wrong with that either." – sagt Edie.
Doch Essen ersetzt nicht die Liebe und so kommt Edie auch mit 170 kg Körpergeweicht dem Glück nicht näher.
Edies Tochter Robin ist als Kind recht stämmig, auf dem Weg, fettleibig wie ihre Mutter zu werden. Doch als ein Freund stirbt, ändert sich dieses, an die Stelle der Esssucht tritt etwas Neues: „...something new and cruel, a taste that was better than all the processed sugar in the world: bitterness." Diese Bitterkeit ist fortan Robins ständiger Begleiter und hindert sie nicht minder an einer glücklichen Beziehung als die Fresssucht, die schließlich zur Scheidung Edies von ihrem Mann Richard führt. Richard, der sich mit 60 Jahren auf der Suche nach einem Rest Lebensglück von Edie trennt, als dieser eine zweite Operation bevorsteht, nachdem sie ihre Ernährungsgewohnheiten nicht umzustellen bereit ist .
Als er aus der Familie „aussteigt", wird er dafür sofort sozial geächtet, von seinen erwachsenen Kindern Benny und Robin, von Bennys selbstgerechter Ehefrau Rachelle, die Richard aus moralischer Entrüstung den Umgang mit seinen Enkelkindern untersagt, und auch von den Enkelkindern selbst.
Offenbar gibt es nur einen wirklich guten Zeitpunkt, aus familiären Mustern auszubrechen: die Pubertät. Drücken wir also Bennys Kindern die Daumen, dass sie die ersten Repräsentanten einer glücklicheren Generation der Middlesteins werden können.

Mir gefällt der Tonfall, in welchem Jami Attenberg diese jüdische Familiengeschichte erzählt, sehr gut. Ohne Pathos und ohne das Geschehen episch aufzublähen, erzählt sie auf humorvolle und berührende Weise die Geschichte von Edie, die an ihrer Fresssucht zugrunde geht und von ihrer Famile, die im Strudel dieser starken Persönlichkeit mitgerissen zu werden droht.

„The Middlesteins" ist ein kurzer, gut und schnell zu lesender Roman, der gleichwohl tiefgründig ist. Er steckt voller äußerst treffender Beobachtungen und wunderbarem jüdischen Humor.
Anders als Franzen in den „Korrekturen" erzählt Jami Attenberg aber nicht eine Familiengeschichte, die hochliterarisch für eine ganze Epoche einzustehen hat, sondern sie bleibt ganz nah an Familie Middlestein, deren Mitglieder kein moderner Jedermann / keine Jederfrau sein wollen.

I expected something different - so beginnt manche zwei- oder drei-Sterne-Rezension, und jedes Mal frage ich mich, warum ein Buch oder sein Autor für die Erwartungshaltung des Lesers haftbar gemacht wird. Oft führt der Verlag zu Werbezwecken eigenwillige Vergleiche an, oft sind es auch die Kritiker. Der Kunde, der sein mühsam Erspartes dann für das Produkt auf den Tisch gelegt hat, möchte nun zufrieden gestellt werden.
Jami Attenbergs "The Middlesteins" ist offenbar mehr als einmal mit Jonathan Franzens "Corrections" verglichen worden und auch ein Lob von Franzen wurde auf das Cover der "Middlesteins" gedruckt. So wurden Erwartungen geschürt, die beiden Buchtiteln nicht gerecht werden. "The Middlesteins" ist keine Fortsetzung von Franzens Erfolgsroman, sondern ein ganz wunderbarer, unvergleichlicher eigenständiger Titel.
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Nov 14, 2012 Diane S. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Food, everything it can and does mean to a person, from comfort, love, relaxation, well being, to in the case of this novel, a cause of death. The family in this novel is so very real and for all appearance not very likable. Yet beneath the core they are all so wanting, insecure and so very genuine, actually like most of us and probably our families. Narrated bu different characters, sometimes the reader learns back stories, oftentimes the future, but will it be real and the parts about Edie alw...more

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Dec 06, 2012 Lori rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nook

I expected something different from this book. From all the bits and pieces I read on various sites I thought this would be more of a humorous book. I found it quite depressing. The hardest part for me is that the author didn't make me understand why Edie had an eating disorder in the first place. Given that she had this before she married, it couldn't be blamed on her husband or her kids. I did like where she went with how her eating had such an effect on her husband, children, and grandchildre...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Anmiryam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Read this and at the same time read Elizabeth Crane's 'We Only Know So Much". Both books are touching family portraits with quirky characters, midwestern setting and interesting literary perspectives masquerading as enjoyable reads.

I need to come back and write more about the striking similarities between these two stories, and exploring their differences, but right now my daughter and I have a date with Dr. Who.

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May 16, 2013 basia added it

In Jami Attenberg’s The Middlesteins, a contradiction:

On page 253, Kenneth is talking on the phone to his lover, Edie, the book’s heroine--mother, grandmother, and wife--who is killing herself with compulsive eating:
“But why should I care what he’s doing if I’m crazy about you?”
“We are allowed to have more than one feeling at once,” said Kenneth. “We are human beings, not ants.”

3 pages later, Kenneth is driving through the suburbs:
“Every mall looked the same from a distance, but he had spent eno...more In Jami Attenberg’s The Middlesteins, a contradiction:

On page 253, Kenneth is talking on the phone to his lover, Edie, the book’s heroine--mother, grandmother, and wife--who is killing herself with compulsive eating:
“But why should I care what he’s doing if I’m crazy about you?”
“We are allowed to have more than one feeling at once,” said Kenneth. “We are human beings, not ants.”

3 pages later, Kenneth is driving through the suburbs:
“Every mall looked the same from a distance, but he had spent enough time in them--his whole adult life--to know that they were all unique, even if it just came down to the people who worked there. Busy little American ants.”

That is the heart of the book for me, that we are both ants and human beings. We feel a thousand things at once, as Edie does, and also like Edie, one thing, suffering. And suffering, like hunger, is never present without the desire to end it. Each of the characters has a way of trying to mask suffering: food, wine, pot, sex, control. They lose themselves in these things, some more than others. They are there and not there. They surface, affect each other, cause each other joy or pain, and disappear again into themselves, into their coping.

On page 263, Richard, Edie’s estranged husband, eats and eats at her funeral.
As he stood there, alone, in a room full of people who would rather take the side of a woman who was dead than acknowledge his existence, he believed he at last had a glimmer of an understanding of why she had eaten herself into the grave. Because food was a wonderful place to hide.

This is the question: life or death, feeling a thousand things or feeling nothing.

The Middlesteins are only redeemed when they can emerge from their oblivions and feel, in the presence of other people. Redemption comes in shared emotion.

The very last paragraph, page 272:
There she was, alone by a tree, weeping for her grandmother. He wanted to weep, too. He went to his granddaughter and he hugged her and held her against him, and just like that, they were close. Until the day he dies, they were close. Wasn’t that strange? No one would have put the two of them together like that. No one would have figured they had much in common except being family. But they were close to the end.(less)

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May 11, 2013 Ferdinand E. rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you like self-destructive characters, this story offers two: Eddie Middlestein who eats too much and her husband Richard who leaves her after she gets too fat.

Before proceeding, I should mention that I read self-destructive-character books to gain insight into the bad decision making and then to measure how much I sympathize with it. My review may prove unhelpful if you read for other reasons.

From the standpoint of Eddie's decision to eat too much, I got everything I needed to decide whether...more

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May 08, 2013 Rita De oliveira rated it 3 of 5 stars

Eddie Middlestein sempre gostou muito de comer, desde pequena. Mas agora, já avó, a sua obsessão pela comida está a destruir tudo: o seu aspeto, a sua saúde e a sua família. É submetida a diversas cirurgias por causa da diabetes e continua a comer. O marido deixa-a e continua a comer. Os filhos andam num estado de preocupação constante e ela continua a comer.

Em The Middlesteins, Jami Attenberg mostra-nos de modo muito cru a evolução desta família disfuncional, sempre, sempre com a comida como pe...more

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Apr 30, 2013 zxvasdf rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

So the Middlesteins are getting divorced after nearly forty years of supposedly blissful marriage. Daddy Middlestein Richard just decided to break loose in what seems like a dick move because it's the middle of a health crisis belonging to his wife. Edie Middlestein is morbidly obese with no end of girth at sight. Is she eating herself to death? She must be!

Locked in between these two are the young 'uns who aren't really young 'uns anymore. Benny, cast in the archetypal role of level-headed, fai...more So the Middlesteins are getting divorced after nearly forty years of supposedly blissful marriage. Daddy Middlestein Richard just decided to break loose in what seems like a dick move because it's the middle of a health crisis belonging to his wife. Edie Middlestein is morbidly obese with no end of girth at sight. Is she eating herself to death? She must be!

Locked in between these two are the young 'uns who aren't really young 'uns anymore. Benny, cast in the archetypal role of level-headed, fair-handed eldest sibling, has difficulties remaining neutral in face of his spouse Rachelle and her strong personal beliefs on the responsibilities in a marriage. Then there is Robin who is more like her mother than she's willing to admit (when sober). Add to the mix grandchildren and a Chinese restaurant and lovers and friends and you've got Jami Attenberg's The Middlesteins.

It shows that there cannot be a cut and dried version of the truth. It is a deeply personal thing that becomes dynamic when presented from a unique viewpoint. It's not that one version of the truth is wrong; it's that they are all correct, so it all comes down to choosing which one fits your moral ideology.

My favorite chapter would have to be "Seating Chart" which is cleverly told from the collective viewpoint of a group of near and dear friends of the estranged Middlesteins. You find everyone has an opinion, but not everyone is brave enough to have a voice. Sometimes the worst person you know is the best person you know, and what can you do at that point?

Another aspect I love, love, love about The Middlesteins are the flash forwards. Employed to marvelous effect by one of my all time favorite writers Brian Francis Slattery, the flash forward is a powerful tool in the right hands. And Jami Attenberg, you've got it. The flash forward manages to increase your current understanding of the character itself, as informed by distant future events! How cool is that?!

The Middlesteins begets inevitable comparisons to The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen for obvious reasons, which sucks because if The Corrections wasn't written yet, this would be the standard for similar books. It also reminds me of The French Revolution by Matt Stewart, probably because of the themes of obese mothers, estrangement, and twins. I don't know if it's fair to an author if his/her book makes you think of other books, but it's fair enough to say The Middlesteins doesn't disappoint.

On a completely unrelated side note, I turned the last page and looked at the author photograph. I blinked and looked again. I adjusted my viewing angle, sometimes to extremes, and I could only come to one conclusion. Jami Attenberg and her enigmatic, conflicting smile is the latter day Mona Lisa. (less)

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Apr 23, 2013 Denise Cuenin rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is well written and the characters are detailed and complex but the whole thing had just too much—all self-absorbed “suburban melancholy”. The Author has received great praise and been touted in the popular press. I was looking forward to reading it.
However, I found the story tedious…everyone is miserable and very little of it was funny. I did enjoy the dance theme of the big event – the twin’s B’nai Mitzvah celebration. The complex planning and expense is familiar to me but terribly...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Pamela rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had high hopes for this novel. It was intriguing, a fascinating portrait of a family and the relationships that go wrong. However, it ended up being what I call a “snapshot” novel, basically an observation of a family in the throes of dysfunction, where nothing really happens. There was no real plot.

The imagery of the Jewish family and their meshugenah shenanigans is well written and worth reading - - from the secular approach to Jewish life, the b’nai mitzvah which is all about the party, the...more

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Apr 02, 2013 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

I probably should have liked this better, because it was not bad, but I realized about a quarter of the way in that I've read several "family falling apart at the seams"-type books in the last few months and I think I need to take a break from them. I guess that story line just feels a bit old to me, and it's also pretty depressing! On top of that, in this book there were not really any characters to root for, I pretty much disliked all of them.

Edie is the mom, who at 350-plus lbs. is eating he...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Larraine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Although I felt a little ambivalent about this book after finishing it, I realize it was less about the writing - which is wonderful - than the subject: a woman who is literally eating herself to death. We meet a suburban Jewish family near Chicago. After 30 yrs of marriage, Richard has decided to leave Edie because she is fat. Actually it's more than that. She has picked him apart, his 3 chain pharmacy has been reduced to one as Walgreen's, Target and others take over the pharmacy business.

For...more Although I felt a little ambivalent about this book after finishing it, I realize it was less about the writing - which is wonderful - than the subject: a woman who is literally eating herself to death. We meet a suburban Jewish family near Chicago. After 30 yrs of marriage, Richard has decided to leave Edie because she is fat. Actually it's more than that. She has picked him apart, his 3 chain pharmacy has been reduced to one as Walgreen's, Target and others take over the pharmacy business.

For years, Edie has had a love affair with food. The book opens with Edie at 5 yrs old and 62lbs begging her mother to carry her up the stairs. The fact is that Edie simply loves to eat. Never a small person, she is 6ft tall when she reaches adulthood and by the age of 60 has reached 350lbs and, despite diabetes, continues to eat: salty, sweet, greasy. Her family is worried about her. The law firm for which she worked has bribed her with the promise of lifetime health care and an early pension if she will just leave because it embarrasses them to have a fat female lawyer. Her friends are worried about her.

The only people who don't care about her weight are the owner of a Chinese restaurant and his daughter who helps him run it. In fact, the restaurant owner, Kenneth Song, a widower, has fallen in love with Edie.

Edie's daughter who looked as if she might take after her mother has become an avid fitness buff. Her son is losing his hair from stress. Her svelte daughter-in-law follows her around watching her go from one food establishment to another. Meanwhile, she determinedly keeps her family on such a strict, no fat vegetarian diet that her daughter tries to escape by jumping from a window. In between chasing her mother-in-law and starving her family, she is planning an expansive and expensive B'nai Mitzvah for the twins.

The story is told from varying points of view - various family members, the past, as well as Edie herself. We learn about an energetic, intelligent and ambitious woman who really wasn't sure about marriage, children or how her life ultimately turned out. Particularly telling was the chapter told from the perspective of a group of friends of both Edie and Richard who have not distanced themselves from both of them because Edie's weight and the breakup bother them. However, it is mostly Edie's weight that bothers them so much. I wonder if they would have felt the same way if it had been Richard?

Edie has been eating herself to death for years. For Edie, eating is escape. Eating is a source of joy. It is a way to forget the other disappointments in her life including her disappointment with herself. Ms. Attenberg has hit close to home for a lot of people with this novel.
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Mar 04, 2013 Jo rated it 4 of 5 stars

4 stars mostly for its realistic and non-blaming depiction of how an obsessive eater acts. The scene where the daughter-in-law follows Edith through a series of drive-throughs to a Chinese restaurant is classic classic classic (can I say that one more time?) I also admired the way the author was able to display Edie's compulsion with food through out the book. Yes, it was a sad book. But it was sad in the way that life itself is sad. People make self-harming emotional decisions. These decisions...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Judith rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked this book a lot but couldn't give it 4-5 stars because I don't want to encourage this trend of books with no likable characters. Whose idea was it to start writing books with no heroes? Still I enjoyed this book and it was a fast read. It is funny and sad at the same time.

Edie is a 60-ish married mom of two adult children and has a couple of grandchildren. A retired attorney, she lives in a nice Chicago suburb and is addicted to eating. Her husband leaves her at the outset of the story,...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Melanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

In "The Middlesteins," Edie Middlestein, 62, is undergoing some health issues related to her obesity. Her husband has left her and her adult children want to have an intervention, but there is more to Edie's life than they can see. The steady revelation of Edie, not only her relationship with food, but her life behind and beyond the number on the scale as well, made for a rich read.

(It's a very small bit in the book, but I have to address this, too: Early on, Edie's daughter, Robin, moves to Ne...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

I swear I read a review in the newspaper or somewhere that said this book was humorous??? While I would consider some of the writing humorous, I found it to be quite depressing. I guess I would say it wasn't like big, terrible event depressing, but everyday people and everyday life depressing.

Edie Middlestein is obese and literally killing herself with food. Her husband Richard leaves her after like 30 years of marriage because he can't take it anymore. Their two grown children don't know what...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Sandra Bornstein rated it 3 of 5 stars

Months ago I read review after review, hyping Jami Attenberg's novel, The Middlesteins. Although the overall premise of the book seemed a bit morbid, I wanted to see why people were so fascinated. Why would so many people gravitate toward a main character who ate her way to an early death? I was also interested in reading a book set in the northern suburbs of Chicago.

While there is no doubt that this fast paced book is well written, I had trouble connecting with the characters. The descriptions...more

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Feb 04, 2013 Michael Estey rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Middlesteins
A Novel
Jami Attenberg A book review.

The Middlesteins a dysfunctional Jewish family living in Chicago. Three generations: Grandparents, Richard and Edie, their children, Robin and Benny (pot heads) and their children, Emily and Josh.
Richard leaves his wife Edie (an extreme over-eater), after 40 years of marriage, when he realises soon after they married, she never loved him and has replaced him with food.
He files for divorce.
Edie has become obsessed with food. She is killing her...more

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Jan 19, 2013 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, contemporary-fiction

The reviews for this book were phenomenal-both professional ones and those from my most trusted reader friends. My expectations were sky high, which is probably why I didn’t love this.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very good book. The writing is terrific. If you’re into super dysfunctional families (though with wholly authentic and believable family members) and multiple viewpoints, this would no doubt appeal. There’s no real plot and it’s a bit bleak (to wit: “his happiest days were behind him the...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Mallory rated it 5 of 5 stars

Nothing really happens in this book. If you're a plot junkie, it's not for you. But if you like to live in another world for a short while, looking down as scenes unfold in panorama, this is the type of book you will enjoy. Jami Attenberg has an incredible voice; the novel feels like it is being narrated by your Jewish bubbeh as she tells you about a family she knows from the synagogue. This is the type of book that makes you feel like you are watching a movie because you are so present in the c...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars

How did Attenberg make me feel so bereft as I finished this book? Somehow, despite her choice of a grossly overweight main character whose behavior made me want to tie her to a chair, Attenberg delivered a story about what it means to be alive and coping with the stresses of marriage, parenthood, addiction, loneliness, and puzzling over how to help those we love.

Attenberg uses an omniscient narrator who looks down, sees the future and the past while the present is playing out, and loves and sym...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Laura added it

I had a bunch of awesome quotes from the Middlesteins marked in my e-galley, but unfortunately, I took too long to write my review, and the galley expired. So, I am beginning without a quote from which to launch. The Middlesteins is getting much love from around the blogosphere, and basically, I am just adding my voice to the chorus. The book was a lot of fun. I was always excited to pick it up, and the pages flew by.

This is a family tragicomic, at the center of which is Edie Middlestein, a woma...more

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About Jami Attenberg

I'm the author of Instant Love, The Kept Man, and The Melting Season, and a fourth book, The Middlesteins, will be out sometime in 2012. I blog at whatever-whenever.net, and you can find me on twitter too! (@jamiattenberg, of course.)
My essays and criticism have appeared in a number of places, including The New York Times, New York, Print, Salon, and Nylon, as well as the anthologies Alone in the...more

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Quotes from The Middlesteins

“...if she had known just a few months before, during more innocent times, that she would feel that way for the rest of her life....which is to say conflicted, she would have treasured those unaware, nonjudgmental, preadolescent moments more thoroughly. (Oh, to be eleven again!) Because once you know, once you really know how the world works, you can't unknow it.” — 4 people liked it

“...and wasn't life full of layers and nuances, colored all kinds of shades of gray, and the way you felt about something when you were twenty or thirty or forty was not how you would feel about something when you were fifty or sixty or seventy---if only he could explain to her that regret can come at any time in your life, when you least expect it, and then you are stuck with it forever.” — 4 people liked it

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