The Middlesteins Quotes

“...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.”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

“What's the point of having a book club if you don't get to eat brownies and drink wine?”
― Jami Attenberg, 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.”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

“...but she never wanted to be in a relationship ever again. Because relationships were the worst. So many obligations. So many compromises. So many arguments. Someone always got destroyed in the end. Sometimes everyone got destroyed in the end.”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

“He was a fool to think he could have love twice in this life. Arrogance. He held her hand close his chest with both of his hands. No one was entitled to anything in this life, not the least of all love.”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

“Worst parent on the planet. All he knew how to do was bark orders and walk away. He didn't understand that his daughter was smarter than that, that she wasn't a dog.”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

“She wanted to read and talk and laugh and watch television and listen to the radio. She wanted to watch the world around her go by, and make up stories in her head about everything she saw...Like a princess in a carriage, surveying her kingdom, preferably one with a magical forest.”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

“Playing with them was boring, and it wasn't even their fault. It was just the notion of playing itself. She had never gotten the hang of it, even when she was a child. You needed to be able to adopt a personality other than your own in order to fully immerse yourself in the world of play, and it was burden enough carrying her own self around.”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

“Middlestein thought texting was the same as Morse code, and the more people texted, the closer American came to being a nation at war.”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

“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.”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

“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.”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

“Robin looked at Daniel and had the meanest thought of her life: "He'll do.”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

“It's not that I don't care," said Robin. "It's just that I don't want to know."

She knew too much already. This was real life, kicking her in the face, and she wanted nothing to do with it.”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

“He respected a person’s right to weakness.”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

“Suddenly Robin felt relief: Her mother had a life outside her home, outside of sitting there at that kitchen table, stewing in her own flesh, in the layers of hate and frustration and anger and heartbreak that she had been building up for so long. If she came here regularly, and she was helping people, then maybe she could be saved after all. Edie had always lived to help people, volunteering with the elderly, the synagogue, feeding the homeless every Christmas without fail. All those female political candidates she canvassed for. All those family members who needed pro bono work, and she did it without thinking, staying up late after Robin and her brother had gone to bed. God, where was that passionate, connected, committed woman? Robin missed her so. Was she right here?”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

“She opened the McRib box and eyed the dark red, sticky sandwich. Suddenly she felt like an animal; she wanted to drag the sandwich somewhere, not anywhere in this McDonald's, not a booth, not Playland, but to a park, a shrouded corner of the woods underneath shimmering tree branches, green, dark, and serene, and then, when she was certain she was completely alone, she wanted to tear that sandwich apart with her teeth.”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

“He clicked through a dozen of them until he found a picture of a dark, curly haired woman, ample, smiling, appearing much younger than sixty, so familiar-looking that he was immediately attracted to her simply because he found familiarity, rare these days, so comforting. He opened her ad and realized he was staring at a picture of his wife,”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins