All Grown Up: Jamie Attenberg - Softcover

Attenberg, Jami

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1781257051 ISBN 13: 9781781257050

Publisher: Serpent's Tail, 2017

Synopsis

'Hilarious, courageous and mesmerising' Maria Semple

'Think BBC's Fleabag set in Brooklyn' Stylist

'I'm alone. I'm a drinker. I'm a former artist. I'm a shrieker in bed. I'm the captain of the sinking ship that is my flesh.'

Andrea is a single, childless 39-year-old woman who tries to navigate family, sexuality, friendships and a career she never wanted, but battles with thoughts and desires that few people would want to face up to.

Gut-wrenchingly honest and shimmering with rage and intimacy, All Grown Up questions what it means to be a 21st century woman:

- What if I don't want to hold your baby?
- Can I date you without ever hearing about your divorce?
- What can I demand of my mother now that I am an adult?
- Is therapy pointless?
- At what point does drinking a lot become a drinking problem?
- Why does everyone keep asking me why I am not married?

Powerfully intelligent and wickedly funny, All Grown Up delves into the psyche of a flawed but mesmerising character. Readers will recognise themselves in Jami Attenberg's truthful account of womanhood, though they might not always want to admit it.

About this title

Review

Hilarious, courageous and mesmerizing from page one, ALL GROWN UP is a little gem that packs a devastating wallop. It's that rare book I'm dying to give all my friends so we can discuss it deep into the night. I'm in awe of Jami Attenberg. (Maria Semple, author of Where'd You Go Bernadette)

One of the smartest and truest novels I've read about being a single woman (Hadley Freeman Guardian)

Jami Attenberg has written her frankest, funniest, and most riveting and heartbreaking book yet. In Andrea, she has created a character women will be talking about for years; she has opened the door for us to see ourselves in literature in a new way, writing with skill and fearlessness few others can match (Emily Gould, author of Friendship)

Is all life junk - sparkly and seductive and devastating - just waiting to be told correctly by someone who will hold our hand and walk with us a while confirming that what we're living is true. This is a good proud urban book, a sad and specific blast for the fearless to read. Thank you Jami. (Eileen Myles, author of Chelsea Girls)

What a voice. Honest and hilarious, unflinching and unapologetic, Jami Attenberg writes what it is to be single, sexual, and childfree by choice. I read the first page of ALL GROWN UP and knew the novelist was going to outdo herself. I am happy to report that she most certainly did (Helen Ellis, author of American Housewife)

The literature of sex and the single woman has been in the doldrums since Carrie got married and Bridget had her baby, so three cheers for this warts-and-all portrait of a woman trying to find her place in the world and in her own nuclear family now she is all grown up ... This is a novel about how to step up when your smug married friend suddenly gets divorced, or when your annoying mum really needs you; about "being there" for people when you don't even know where "there" is. It has hope, in spades. (Katy Guest Guardian 2017-04-01)

Think BBC's Fleabag set in Brooklyn ... Attenberg has a compassionate eye for the gulfs that open between people, and how they can be bridged. (Stylist)

Expect to see a copy on every sunlounger this summer. (Vogue)

I have never in my life finished the last page of a book and wanted to open to page one and start all over again. Jami Attenberg, this book is outstanding (Attica Locke)

Jami Attenberg's Andrea is the most addicting female protagonist voice I have read in years, with her cutting observations on human relationships. This witty journey through a mess of men, female friendships, family and boozy urban existence positions the single girl not as object to be fixed but as contemporary sage and seer: the ultimate witness of truth in love today (Melissa Broder, author of So Sad Today)

Book Description

An enthralling confession of a woman contending with the outside world's expectations of who she should be

About this edition

• Publisher: Serpent's Tail
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1781257051
• ISBN 13: 9781781257050
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208