Book ~ "The Kept Man" (2007) Jami Attenberg

From Goodreads ~ Jarvis Miller's artist husband has been in a coma for six years. And so, Jarvis has spent these years suspended between hope and grief, paralyzed with longing for a life and a marriage that are slipping away. 

But then, unexpectedly, Jarvis makes her first new friends in years when she meets the Kept Man, three men whose lifestyles are funded by their successful wives, who gather once a week on laundry day. With their help, she reawakens to the city beyond her Brooklyn apartment, past the pitying eyes of her husband's art dealer and his irresponsible best friend as her future begins to take on the irresistible tingles of possibility for the first time in almost a decade. 

When a shocking discovery casts a different light on her idealized marriage, she's propelled even further down a path that she would never have dared to imagine just months before. 

Jarvis is married to Martin, who is an artist. He fell off a ladder six years ago and has been in a coma on life support ever since. Jarvis visits Martin every Wednesday and sells off his paintings when she needs money but has basically stopped living. When her washing machine breaks down, she heads to the laundromat. There she meets three men who call themselves the Kept Man Club (their wives are the breadwinners) and meet there every Tuesday. Because she hasn't got much else going on in her life, Jarvis starts to join them. When Jarvis discovers Martin's secret, it changes her outlook on her life.

I've read a couple books by this author and I wasn't crazy about it. It's a dreary story and the writing reflects this. There are no likeable characters and it's written in first person perspective in Jarvis' voice. As a head's up, there is swearing and adult activity.

It did prompt a discussion between Gord and I as to how long we would keep each other on life support with no hope of recovery if something ever happened. We both agreed that six years was too long and maybe a couple of months was more reasonable.

Book ~ "The Melting Season" (2020) Jami Attenberg

From Goodreads ~ Catherine Madison is headed west with a suitcase full of cash that isn't hers. She's just left the only home she's ever known, a small town in Nebraska, after the only man she had ever known, her husband, Thomas, deserted her. She's also left behind her deepest, most shameful secrets - among them a dysfunctional family she's never quite been able to escape and a marriage whose most intimate moments have plagued her with self-doubt. On the road, she was going to become a new person. Or so she thought.

But running away from the past isn't as easy as she had hoped. When Catherine reaches Las Vegas, she forms surprising new friendships that compel her to reveal what she had sworn she'd keep hidden and teach her what human connection really means. Armed with this new knowledge, she is finally emboldened to uncover the truth about her family, come to understand what destroyed her marriage and prevent her troubled sister from repeating her mistakes.

When the story begins, Catherine is driving west to get away from the small town in Nebraska where she is from. She has a suitcase with $178,000 which she has stolen from Thomas, her estranged husband. She ends up in Las Vegas where she is befriended by Valka, an older woman who is in Las Vegas to celebrate New Years Eve.

As the story unfolds, we find out why Catherine has run away. Her mother is a mean drunk, her father has tuned out and her younger sister is running wild. Marriage to Thomas hasn't turned out to be the love story she thought it would be.

Sounds like a dreary story, right?  Well, it was. The writing style for of the book was dark and depressing too. The only likeable character was Valka and I found her a bit over the top.  The story jumps back and forth in time as Catherine fills us and Valka in on what's been going on. As a head's up, there is swearing.

Book ~ "All Grown Up" (2017) Jami Attenberg

From Goodreads ~ Who is Andrea Bern? When her therapist asks the question, Andrea knows the right things to say: she’s a designer, a friend, a daughter, a sister. But it’s what she leaves unsaid - she’s alone, a drinker, a former artist, a shrieker in bed, captain of the sinking ship that is her flesh - that feels the most true. 

Everyone around her seems to have an entirely different idea of what it means to be an adult: her best friend, Indigo, is getting married; her brother - who miraculously seems unscathed by their shared tumultuous childhood - and sister-in-law are having a hoped-for baby; and her friend Matthew continues to wholly devote himself to making dark paintings at the cost of being flat broke.

But when Andrea’s niece finally arrives, born with a heartbreaking ailment, the Bern family is forced to reexamine what really matters. Will this drive them together or tear them apart? 

Andrea is soon going to be forty.  She lives alone in New York ... her mother has recently moved to New Hampshire to live with Andrea's brother and his wife to help them care for their disabled daughter who isn't expected to live much longer.  Andrea is still carrying around the emotional baggage of her father passing away when she was in her mid-teens of a heroin overdose and afterwards her mother having parties with just men in attendance who would get creepy with Andrea while her mother did nothing about it.  Artistic when she was younger, Andrea is in a job she hates, waiting and hoping to get fired.  She drinks too much, does drugs and sleeps with any man that comes along.

Sounds like a depressing story, right?  Well, it was.  The writing style for of the book was dark and depressing too.  The book didn't have a natural flow ... it seemed like each chapter was Andrea telling a rambling story.  For example, she talked about Matthew, a guy she was seeing, and their relationship.  Then a couple chapters later, she mentioned Matthew, who was a guy she'd been seeing.  Yes, I know who he is ... I read about him a couple chapters ago ... you don't have to tell me he's an ex-boyfriend.  As a head's up, there is swearing.

Andrea is not likeable.  Rather than fixing what's wrong in her life, she continues to plod along and feel sorry for herself.  The title is misleading as Andrea is not "all grown up" ... at forty years old, she has a lot of growing up to do.  None of the characters are especially likable.