This is a novel about the women of one family as they navigate their lives in the aftermath of the untimely death of their husband and father. The two daughters, Shelly and Nancy, both leave home as soon as possible. Shelly heads to the West Coast for college, ultimately pursuing a career in technology. Nancy ends up married young to a traveling salesman who is a good father but not always much of a husband. And their mother, Frieda, struggles to find her footing without clear direction. As the three women move in and out of each other's lives over the course of several decades, they find that it is not quite as easy to leave behind the ties that bind.

This is a well-written and compelling story, with strong and nuanced characters. Through the three main characters, the author explores both the complexities of family relationships, where those closest to you often feel like strangers, and the period of American history since the 1970s.

Highly recommended!

I so tried to get into this story but it just didn't hold my attention. I'm sure it's a delightful novel but just not for me. It felt stilted and uninteresting. I'm sure others will enjoy it.

A vast sweeping family saga that covers three generations of women, their lives, and the familial ties that keep them bobbing in and out of each others lives.

Thought-provoking and engaging, this book begins in the 1970s and follows a family for the next 4 decades. After patriarch and Holocaust survivor Rudy Cohen dies, his widow, Frieda, and his two daughters are distraught and rudderless. We follow the three as they make decisions, both good and disastrous, with their lives. A great family story that's hard to put down.

I so enjoy Jami Attenberg on Twitter (yup, I sti call it that) and her essays. But, I continue to be a bit disappointed in her novels. This one, same. Just ok.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for the advanced reader copy.

I love Jami Attenberg as a literary citizen (her most recent craft book is a must read for any writers), but I find her fiction to be hit or miss for me. Either the premise and the characters immediately pull me in or I never get that connection. Unfortunately, A Reason to See You Again didn't pull me in. The characters felt at a remove for me and I couldn't hook into the overall narrative.

Jamie Attenberg is an assured writer who knows her territory-generational family malfunction-yet she takes chances, with sudden hairpin turns of narrative structure, POV, and backstory; admirably they pay off. Her prose is sparse and her characters are uniformly compelling. A lot of mutual reader and author trust goes into this book, which examines the heartbreaks, resentments, chaos and the small triumphs of the Cohen family over 4 decades. The focus initially is on gentle, lovely Rudy, a Holocaust survivor, his angry, alcoholic wife, Frieda, and their daughters, the brainiac driven Shelly, and Nancy, a pretty and pleasant girl who does not make waves, even when she is lost in them. Then Rudy dies, and with him the lynch pin of family cohesion. Terrible things are said and done to and by the remaining family members and their friends, lovers, spouses, and children, who move between cities, and sometimes continents. On the journey, though her characters, Attenberg observes the rise of new technology and old sexism, the ever-shifting culture zeitgeist, the art world, the work world, the self-help industry, the age of open sexual fluidity, the wealth divide, and the heritage of trauma with its legacy of secrets. Bonds of all kind-family, marriages, friendships, as well as economic, societal, and religious ones, are examined as they pertain to the characters, and ultimately to us. Yet the urge to reach out, even after years of mistrust and absence, somehow persists, though it shifts between the many characters and often emerges as love and a battered form of hope. Hang on for the ride: recommended. My thanks to NetGalley and Ecco.

This is the story of a family of four over a period of forty years. The patriarch, and the heart, of the family, Rudy, dies and leaves the mom and two girls rudderless. They spend the rest of their lives trying to find their true north. Weaving in and out of each others' lives. Always finding their way back to each other.

It covers many topics around motherhood, family, sisterhood, marriage, loneliness, friendship (especially female friendship) and more.

This book is mostly sad. It's real in so many ways and also it's a true portrayal of inherited trauma. The writing is beautiful and the characters are so real they jump off the page.

with gratitude to Ecco and netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

This slow burning female centered family drama runs steadily on Attenberg’s unadorned but solid prose that chugs the reader along in a very pleasant, road trip sort of way. The physical stakes are low, the emotional stakes high, and I was always invested enough to keep going, but it is definitely more character than plot driven. It is a quiet, true to life book, no big reveals and no full-on happy endings. But satisfying nevertheless. Big thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy.

"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." says a review of Jami Attenberg's latest fiction.

Ms. Attenberg is well known for her memoir and her craft book #1000 Words of Summer. She has written five works of fiction, each one better than the last. This book didn't grab me at first but I enjoy her work and stuck to it. I was not disappointed. The story of two sisters with a mother, crazy after the break-up with her husband, rang a sympathetic bell with me. My life isn't nearly as creative and 'exciting' as in this book but it was easy to believe all the ups and downs, twists and turns, this family and connecting people go through.

If you want a wild family ride that is also a history of the US and its various movements that people get caught up in, this book is for you.

I was hooked from the first scene in this book, and it told a beautiful and heartbreaking story of generational trauma and the struggle to forgive and move on. It also dealt with identity issues, especially within the family and work. I really loved the structure and style, especially the little glimpses into the future. The author’s voice was lovely and unique. I did feel like some characters were developed in a bit of a weird way that made me disengage from the novel sometimes, but I was still sad when it was over, as I could have read another hundred pages.


<spoiler>I did think that Shelly’s character was weirdly developed regarding her relationship with Asher, and why dance around her relationship with Margaret the whole book? Robby’s death knocked me out more than I would have expected - that was so devastating. It ended SO abruptly with Frieda’s funeral, and I would have liked to see a bit more of where Shelly, Jess, and Nancy went after Frieda was gone.</spoiler>

Familial dysfunction writ large, a sad tale of stifled lives, opportunities grabbed that foreclose other ones, or that are lost, misshapen love, marriages that go awry, and heartbreak. There is a slight comedic tone, or that’s how I read it, which keeps the novel from being too weighted down by all the miseries. The Cohen women are the main draw - matriarch Frieda whose saving grace is the love she had for her husband, Rudy, a gentle Holocaust survivor, whose kindness and calm belied his experiences and the truths about himself. Their daughters: Shelly, with her brains, Nancy with her looks. The death of Rudy spins them away from one another, and yet. Covering decades and moving among the characters, their complicated relationships with one another continue to affect them, no matter the lives they make or mess up.

Thanks to Ecco and Netgalley for the arc.

A deeply moving portrait of a family of women--utterly addictive and full of complexity, contradiction, beauty, revelation.

“A Reason to See You Again” is the delightful new novel by Jami Attenberg.

One of my favorite topics to read (which says a lot about me) is about family dysfunction and this book is an example of how to an author brilliant can create a memorable family, warts and all. Here, we meet the Cohens, and in particular, the Cohen women. The reader is fortunate to spend upwards of four decades with matriarch, Frieda, and her two daughters, Nancy and Shelly. Throughout that time, they face adversity, including alcoholism and broken marriages. Your family may almost kill you, but they also love you, and this book is a great example of that.

Four and a half out of five stars.

Thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for a chance to read and review this memorable book.

“A Reason to See You Again” by Jami Attenberg was a very thought provoking book. It is the story of three generations of very strong women who grew up in a difficult and dysfunctional family. The father is a Holocaust survivor and a closeted gay man. The mother angry and an alcoholic. It is a story of mothers and daughters and the ability to achieve success despite incredible adversity. I am still thinking about this book as it has caused me to think about many people in my life who grew up in less than perfect households but have gone on to become successful and loving adults. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Ecco for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for providing me with this ARC.

I love Jami Attenberg’s complicated families and the Cohens are definitely complicated. Love that this mostly centered women, and likes how the story. Over forward through time. A couple of times we spent more time than I wanted to with characters I viewed to be tangential. And there’s a sadness to the story—not a critique, just a vibe. Maybe save for a rainy, melancholy moment.

I really like Jami Attenberg, she's a good storyteller. I've enjoyed some of her previous novels like "Saint Mazie" and "All Grown Up". Even though I enjoyed her upcoming release, "A Reason to See You Again" - it wasn't my favorite of her works. I am naturally drawn to family dynamics and dysfunctional relationships. This book has all of that and more, but something was missing, and I can't put my finger on what it could be. I'm not sure if I enjoyed the change in narrative throughout the novel. One minute, we are in Nancy's head, and the next we are in Shelley's within the next paragraph. It made for a confusing read all narrative jumps and time shifts. This novel spans 40 years in the life of the Cohen family, and it's interesting but I was slightly distracted. There's so much going on and so incredibly fast, it was all a little too much. I will say the writing is good and I will definitely read more from this author in the future. It's a mixed bag. The cover art is absolutely precious.

Thank you, Netgalley and Ecco for the digital ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the Kindle ARC. I've read several of Jami Attenberg's books and continue to enjoy them. A Reason to See You Again is about a Jewish mother and two daughters - how they float in and out of each other's lives and the men that come and go while the women figure out their own issues. Broken marriages, mother/daughter tension, a reckoning all in the story. A narrative that is relatable to anyone who comes from a dysfunctional family - and I would imagine that is a lot of us.

Complex family relationships - check! Great storytelling - check! Give this one a go. I was invested in the outcome immediately. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Jami Attenberg has become one of my comfort authors; if I'm having trouble being disciplined in my reading--mind wandering, etc., I know I can pick up one of her books and become instantly immersed. Her novels aren't plot-heavy. She creates fully fleshed-out, realistic characters and lets them loose in the world she's created. There are no heroes or villains--just people.

Though the story mainly focuses on a mother and her two daughters, Attenberg alternates whose point of view the story is told from. She does this so deftly that you're never really left wondering what another character is doing. Either you can figure it out by the information given, or it's easily understood based on what we've come to know about each of them. She trusts her readers to complete the missing pieces, and we do.

Another winner from Attenberg.