The best selling author Jami Attenberg returns with a domestic drama that follows three generations of a family over 37 years. The novel opens in 1971 on a cozy domestic scene where 16 year old Nancy and 12 year old Shelly play Scrabble with their ailing father, Rudy, a Holocaust survivor, while their mother, Frieda, makes popcorn in the kitchen while taking sips of slivovitz. The following year Rudy dies, and the foundation of the Cohen family crumbles. Frieda’s unwarranted anger at her daughters propels Nancy into a quick marriage to Robby and early motherhood. Shelly accelerates her education and receives a full scholarship to Berkeley. Frieda moves to Miami where she continues working at a nursing home although her roommate, Carolina, who generously loaned her money that she knew would remain unpaid, ultimately abandons Frieda because she neglects her obligations, “chipping away at the sadness with booze.” Nancy has a lonely marriage, although Robby pays the bills and is a good father to their daughter, Jess (but perhaps not to the other children that he fathered with women outside of his marriage). Shelly is succeeding in the male dominated tech sector, although her personal life is disastrous. She does forge a relationship with her niece when she recognizes Jess’s loneliness. Jess may have had food in the refrigerator and money on the counter, but she was neglected by her philandering father and her searching mother.

In vignettes that trace the trajectory of the Cohen family, we learn of the choices that the Cohen women make through the years, both professionally and personally. Ancillary characters pop in and out, including Margaret, the second woman hired at Shelly’s tech start-up with whom Shelly has an undercurrent of romantic love, and Lorraine, Robby’s second wife with the disapproving mother. Each of these minor players is as well drawn as the Cohen women. Attenberg brings the threads of these characters’ lives together when Frieda falls ill and the sisters must decide who, if anyone, will tend to her. Attenberg has created a dysfunctional, chaotic, but realistic family where the ties that bind often are suffocating. Her characters are intimate and human. She knows how abruptly love seems to boil over into hate and how quickly adults can turn into raging children. Thank you Ecco and Net Galley for this moving and wry tale reflecting the endurance of familial love.

A Reason to See You Again, introduces us to the Cohen family. A family that was happy to play Scrabble on a Saturday night while tucking into a bowl of hot buttered popcorn. Things roll along more or less smoothly until the untimely death of Rudy Cohen. A Holocaust survivor, gentle, quietly charismatic and grateful just to be alive, Rudy was the glue that held the family together. In his absence, Freida Cohen continues to work as a caretaker but soon goes from sneaking sips of slivovitz in the kitchen to messy alcoholic, and is angrier than ever. Shelly is the brainy sister and Nancy the beautiful one, each bides their time, and withstands their mother’s bitterness until they can leave home. Shelly takes off to the west coast to study math and makes a career in a nascent tech industry. Nancy takes a more traditional route, never finishes college, quickly marries and starts a family. The only thing the sisters seem to have in common is Frieda. We journey along with the Cohen women for four decades of heartbreaks, triumphs, resentments, and family secrets as they navigate the ever changing cultural climate.

Attenberg’s a wry wit carries the reader through the trials of these messy women who to seem to fail to connect at nearly every turn. And yet, despite their brokenness, mistrustfulness and lengthy absences, they yearn to reach out to one another, keeping the slightest flicker of hope alive. I recommend a Reason to See You Again to readers who like a complicated family, rich with references to the shifting cultural zeitgeist and a story structure that isn’t afraid to skip ahead several years at a time. Attenberg is a new to me author, and I’m eager to dive into her backlist.

⚠️ alcoholism, sexual harassment in the work place, infidelity


Many thanks to the author @JamiAttenberg, @EccoBooks and @NetGalley for the pleasure of reading this digital book in exchange for an honest review.

This wasn’t deep enough to be a character study but it wasn’t really plot driven either. So the reader is left with characters they can’t really connect with and no real plot to follow. I don’t need both but I do need one or the other to enjoy a book. This felt like a rough layout of what could have been made into a good read. Just wasn’t there yet.

"Oh, the games families play with each other."

This one starts with Scrabble, and Ms. Attenberg sets the stage for all the idiosyncrasies that follow with the family of Cohens.

Such a good read, this messy novel about this messiest of families. Not to mention all the mentions of my favorite Stevie Nicks! I loved reading about the Cohens and all the people who circled in and out of their universe. Funny, crazy, sometimes dirty, these people were SO real it was painful at times.

"The headline read: the specter of terrorism. You know who the real terrorists are? Your family."

Highly recommend. Plus, love the cover.

P.S. Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC.

If you like dysfunctional family stories, you will like this book. Because of the dysfunction, the potential to be too depressing is there but the smart sarcasm and underlying humor make it so you can’t look away.

This book spans forty years while focused on three generations of women from the Cohen family. I loved how the story is propelled forward years at a time allowing the reader to infer what happened between those years. I hate when author spoon feeds me information and I found this to be a unique way to move things forward.

These women are hurt and broken and seeking fulfillment on their own. But they are also family and eternally connected to each other. I really loved their stories - together and apart.

This novel is told over forty years primarily from the POV of four women across three generations of a dysfunctional family. In addition to the main characters, I really enjoyed reading the perspectives from the supporting characters. This is very well-written and seamlessly shifts between characters while also offering glimpses of the future unbeknownst to the characters themselves. This is a short but mighty story that excels at character building and the nuance of family relationships.

I had high hopes for this book. I generally enjoy disfunctional family sagas, and when the book started out with the family's mandatory game night, I was hooked. Covering four decades beginning in the 1970s, the story centers around matriarch/alcoholic and at times, angry, Frieda; gentle and kind patriarch Rudy, a Holocaust survivor who has a deep secret; and their two daughters, smart Shelly and beautiful Nancy. It's not giving away anything to say that the women come together to mourn Rudy's passing, because the book is primarily about how the women deal with his loss over the years and how they grow as individuals over the years. Frieda was definitely not my favorite, but I was invested in Shelly and Nancy's storylines, although I felt like the book was more character-driven than plot-driven. I think there was a bit too much pain and adversity, yet I kept reading. Mixed feelings, but I am sure there is an audience that will love this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for the ARC, and the opportunity to review this novel.

A story about a mother and her two daughters after the patriarch of the family dies. Each daughter takes a vastly different path from each other and their mother.

A Reason to See You Again by Jami Attenberg is a recommended dysfunctional mother/daughter drama spanning over forty decades.

After Chicago residents Frieda Cohen and her two daughters, Nancy and Shelly, lose their husband/father Rudy, a closeted Holocaust survivor, they slowly fall apart as a family under Frieda's sharp tongue. Nancy heads to college where she soon moves in with her boyfriend and future husband, Robby, and becomes pregnant at 21. They have a daughter, Jess. Shelly graduates early and heads off to the west coast for college and stays on the coast to work in the emerging tech industry. Frieda drinks, a lot, and eventually makes her way to Miami to drink some more. What follows is a portrayal of the women in a complex, troubled, unhappy family.

A Reason to See You Again is a character driven novel as it follows and develops the female characters who are members of this distinctly unhappy and dysfunctional family over a span of forty years. Chapters alternate between characters as they all experience resentment, unspoken anger, change allegiances, and hold grudges against each other. The male characters are basically despicable or irrelevant. Really, none of the characters are likable.

After a very promising start the narrative decidedly coasted downhill for me. There is no real, firm plot. As the chapters randomly jump ahead in time and follow a different character, I was often left wanting more as a reader. It also felt melancholy. I wanted to love this novel but ended up just barely liking some parts of it. Thanks to Ecco for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Edelweiss, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

I loved this book! I looked forward to climbing into bed to read it each night. Each of the main characters are messy and realistic and relatable. I loved being inside each of their brains and along for the ride at different times throughout their lives, and the idea of how you see yourself vs how others see you was represented well. I loved the little glimpses into smaller side characters a la Amelie, some of which I would have loved to hear more from. I was sad when I realized the book was ending, I would have kept reading for another couple hundred pages at least. The writing style runs along at a brisk pace and has a very subtle comedic tone. The book spans 1971-2007, each section picking up a few years after the previous one, and it was like meeting up with a friend you haven't seen in a while but you are immediately back in sync. I just love Jami's books!

Jami Attenberg's novels are always full of great character insights and realistic, compelling dialogue. This one follows some interesting characters in both everyday and extraordinary situations. Very readable and nostalgic, but in a good way.

Focusing on a mother and her two daughters, this tells the story of their complex relationships over the course of 40 years. I love the way this author writes but this was my least favorite of hers so far. Just when I started to feel invested in a particular narrative, the story would jump perspectives or skip ahead 10 years. Barely over 200 pages, there just wasn’t enough time to make me care about the characters over such a long period.

Sisters Shelly and Nancy lose their father when they're young, and their mother Freida spirals into addiction. Since he was the one who held their family together, things fall apart for the Cohen women. This story spans multiple decades as Shelly focuses on her career in tech, and Nancy marries young and starts a family. The sisters have a strained relationship, and the only thing they have in common is their Freida, who is drinking her life away in Miami. If you liked Hello Beautiful, I think you'd love this. I thought the characters and pacing of this book were so well done, I couldn't put it down.

Jami Attenberg's latest novel, A Reason to See You Again, explores the life and relationships of the Cohen women. Mother, Frieda, loves her husband deeply and is thrown into a tailspin with his untimely death. Eldest daughter Nancy, with beautiful hair, goes to college, waits tables, and marries and has a daughter. Youngest daughter Shelly, the 'smart one', runs away to the West Coast to begin a career in the emerging tech industry.

We follow these women for decades. From friendships to relationships to various career highs and lows, we see how time and money affect their lives and relationships with each other. One thing I really enjoyed about Attenberg's writing in this book, is the allusions to future problems, successes, etc. It adds a nice touch to these lives.

The story does deal with heavy drinking, sexuality, women in the tech industry - all Attenberg handles effectively and with a gentle touch.

I always feel like I should like Attenberg's books more than I actually do. However, just like The Middlesteins, this one left me wanting something different, something more.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Dysfunctional family dynamics between alcoholic mother Frieda and daughters - smart Shelly and pretty Nancy come to bear upon the death of family patriarch Rudy. The novel spans decades and deals with each making their way in life, and their evolving relationships with others and with each other. The plot lacks depth, and I found the characters formulaic and not particularly likeable. 2.5 stars.

ARC provided by NetGalley and Ecco.

This was a really enjoyable read! I loved seeing the paths of these characters as they broke apart and came back together, each living complex lives full of decisions - both good and bad. I also really loved the narration style - 40+ years felt like it went by with the blink of an eye.

Jami Attenberg's new novel mines the souls of the Cohen family women. Frieda, the mother, and her two daughters, Shelley and Nancy, populate the scenery of life beginning in Chicago. Rudy Cohen dies relatively early, but his and Frieda's approach to parenting is a plot thesis that reverberates throughout the daughters's lives.

I enjoyed Jami Attenberg's superbly written book A Reason to See You Again. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book, which will be published on September 24, 2024.

A kaleidoscopic journey we went on for sure! New to me author with characters that came to life on the pages. Loved the forty year span of the book - i felt like they were my friends and i was part of their family.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the author. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.

I'm a huge Jami Attenberg fan and was really excited for this, and it did not disappoint. She knows what she does well, and she's done it again -- a thorny family story about the ties that bind and occasionally gag. Two sisters and their mother go back and forth in the Chicago suburbs, wanting to escape each other but never quite figuring it out. The book is a sprawling, multi-generational story that never drags.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a book this quiet, so it took me a second to get used to the pacing, but ultimately enjoyed floating in and out of the characters’ lives. There were many beautiful moments (I did a lot of highlighting) celebrating otherwise a fairly average family.