A Reason to See You Again
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15
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Average rating4
From New York Times bestselling author Jami Attenberg comes a dazzling novel of family, following a troubled mother and her two daughters over forty years and through a swiftly changing American landscape as they seek lives they can fully claim as their own. The women of the Cohen family are in crisis. Triggered by the death of their patriarch, Rudy, the glue that held them all together, everyone's lives soon take a dramatic turn. Shelly, the younger of the two Cohen sisters, runs off to the West Coast to immerse herself in the emerging (and lucrative) world of technology. Her sister, Nancy, gets married at the age of twenty-one to a traveling salesman with a shadowy lifestyle, while their mother, Frieda, hurls herself into a boozy, troubled existence in Miami, trying to forget the past even as it haunts her. But they each learn in different ways that running from the past can't save you--and then must make life-altering decisions about what they want their family to be and what they need to move forward. Beginning in the 1970s and spanning forty years, A Reason to See You Again takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic journey through motherhood, the American workforce, the tech industry, the self-help movement, inherited trauma, the ever-evolving ways we communicate with one another, and the many unexpected forms that love can take.
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Jami Attenberg's "A Reason to See You Again" resonated deeply. If you’ve grappled with family dynamics, loss, and the enduring quest for maternal love, this book will speak to you. This poignant, multi-generational saga of the Cohen (ahem, ahem) family is a masterclass in storytelling, weaving together themes of grief, ambition, and unbreakable family bonds with heart-wrenching honesty.
At the novel's core is the portrayal of Frieda, an overbearing Jewish mother whose grief transforms her into a shadow of her former self. Attenberg's depiction of Frieda's descent into a boozy existence in Miami is raw and painfully authentic. With unflinching clarity, how a mother's inability to nurture in the wake of loss can ripple through generations, leaving her children forever chasing the specter of maternal love they never fully experienced.
The novel brilliantly explores how this void shapes the lives of sisters Shelly and Nancy. Their divergent paths—Shelly's immersion in the tech world and Nancy's early marriage—are beautifully rendered. Attenberg's insight into how we try to "repair and make up for the mother we wanted and never had" struck a nerve and stuck with me after the last page.
Critics of the book highlight its episodic nature and how she quickly glosses over major moments. These criticisms, for me, were its strengths. I loved how she left so much open to interpretation, how I could plug in my own grief, my own reflections, to understand what happened in what was unwritten. I didn’t need Attenberg to show me the depths of the internal struggles; I’ve been there; I can fill in the blanks.
This is not just a must-read; it's a must-feel. And reading it during the High Holy Days was just way too fitting. I will recommend this book to anyone who will listen.
Reviews at: https://judgemebymycover.substack.com/
Originally posted at judgemebymycover.substack.com.
