all this could be yours by jami attenberg

In the final draft, she gives him the first few pages, and then she spends the rest of the book “investigat what this kind of toxic male behavior can do to a family.” Stated in interviews that Victor originally was not going to appear in the book at all. Although Victor’s heart attack in the first few pages sets the plot in motion, he is not the center of this tale. More specifically, he is a ruthless “mercenary”, a developer who deals in shady business practices and violent abuse. While they pretend it is to be near their grandchildren, everyone knows that they have fled something awful, because they are not a close family, and, well, Victor is a monster. The aging pair moved to New Orleans from Connecticut the previous year under mysterious circumstances. The novel opens with the 73-year-old patriarch Victor Tuchman angrily pacing the floors of his New Orleans condo-”grinding himself against the floor, the earth, this world”-as his bored wife flips idly throughĪrchitectural Digest.

Suitable, for a work that reckons with a “real bad man”. Jami Attenberg‘s sixth novel All This Could Be Yourshas earned her some thematically consistent praise: “ oddly sparkling master of warped family sagas” (NPR), “ poet laureate of family secrets” (Kirkus Review) and “ masterful psychoanalyst” of “familial dysfunction” (USA Today).

All this could be yours by jami attenberg