I only had one quibble with Jami Attenberg’s The Middlesteins – I wanted more.

It’s the story of Edie and Richard Middlestein, married for more than thirty years, with two grown children – Robin, their schoolteacher daughter, and Benny, an easy-going, pot-smoking family man. They’ve lived a solid family life together in the suburbs of Chicago for decades but suddenly things are falling apart, seemingly because of Edie’s enormous girth. She’s obsessed with food and her insatiable appetite is killing her.

Despite Edie being diagnosed with diabetes, Richard abandons his wife, leaving it to Robin, Benny, and Benny’s controlling, (thin) wife, Rachelle, to take over. Robin cannot forgive her father for leaving her mother; Benny plays peacemaker –

“He respected his mother, because she had raised him with love, and because she was a smart woman, even though she was also incredibly stupid. Also, he respected humanity in general. He respected a person’s right to weakness.”

and Rachelle gets bossy with everyone, right down to putting family members on an exercise roster with Edie.

“Emily and her grandmother, Edie, walked around the track of the high school she would attend next fall so slowly, so grudgingly, that it was possible it did not even count as exercise at all. Could one walk with loathing? They were doing it.” Continue reading →