We all know you can’t run away from the past, but that doesn’t stop the Cohen women from trying their hand at bestselling author Jami Attenberg’s new novel that spans decades.
IN A reason to see each other againout September 24th from Ecco, troubled Frieda and her daughters Shelly and Nancy head in completely different directions after the death of their patriarch Rudy. Beginning in the 1970s and spanning the next 40 years, the novel follows the trio through “a rapidly changing American landscape as they search for lives they can fully claim as their own,” according to the publisher.
Called “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 love can take,” it’s a brilliant, witty, empathetic novel.
Get to know the Cohens in an exclusive excerpt shared with PEOPLE below.
‘A Reason to See You Again’ by Jami Attenberg.
Here
Oh, the games families play with each other. In the Cohen household it was Scrabble and they played it every Saturday night. This was one of Frieda’s rules. Phone off, whole family together. The girls were still young enough that they had nowhere else to be but right there. Nancy, 16 years old; Shelly, 12. Lounging in the living room with their father, Rudy, while Frieda was in the kitchen making popcorn.
The PEOPLE Puzzler has arrived! How fast can you solve it? Play now!
Tonight, Lawrence Welk was leading an orchestral tribute to America on television, and Rudy was nodding along to the music. Rudy: fragile, angular, pale, but loving and present. A real bon vivant when he had energy. I want him alive, Frieda thought. I have to feed him.
A frantic feeling. Him, she has to take care of him. She salted and buttered the popcorn in good, thick, greasy layers. Humming as she delivered it in a Tupperware bowl to the seated family, she sank into a green velvet pit of conversation. Lucite table in the middle, set with a game board. A waiting family. Press play.
See the books PEOPLE must read for fall 2024: the best fiction, thrillers, memoirs and more
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(574x0:576x2)/jami-attenberg-092024-15732a7fa3494847baa0dc78f509086f.jpg)
By Jami Attenberg.
Bryan Tarnowski
Shelly clapped for the popcorn. “It smells divine,” she said. “What a delicious and satisfying treat.” Shelly always tries words for greatness. She put one piece after another in her mouth; she liked to have something with her hands. A place to channel her nervous energy, Frieda thought.
This whole family was nervous. Everyone was worried about Rudy, who was sick, then not sick and then sick again. It was like that for years. Malnutrition in youth, in the camps, and all the stresses, then and always. Now he had a bad heart. He was 41 and looked 60. A little worse this year, but then again, what did worse mean when things had been bad for so long?
So it was good that they were all together, thought Frieda, every Saturday. An ordinary moment for the family, in private, after the hustle and bustle of the shul the night before. But also: she wanted to win at Scrabble.
Rebecca Yarros, Jodi Picoult & More Bestselling Authors Recommend Their Favorite Fall Books (Exclusive)
The girls played well. Competitive enough to keep things interesting. Frieda taught them some tricks. All two letter words, the most powerful ways available to use Q and X. Their little spongy minds are preparing for their next moves.
There was Nancy, arranging her tiles to be just like that. She liked it when ideas connected easily and was sharp enough to find a few five or six letter words here and there. Neat girl. Modest, beautiful. Moderately interested in many things, but not in one thing in particular. She would do well, Frieda thought. In this game. In life.
Shelly was a real challenge in the family: strategic, focused, steadfast. Dark hair, dark eyes, healthy peach skin, overall intense presence, even for a child. She didn’t leave loose things behind, she blocked every exit and entrance if she could help it. Our little winner, Frieda thought. Smarter than anyone in the room, maybe. But she better not have beaten me, thought Frieda. Not yet.
Best PEOPLE Books in September 2024: The Reimagined Life of Oscar Wilde and New Fiction from Rumaan Alam
Rudy was a useless competitor, just to have fun with his family. English was his second language and although he spoke it well, he did not have the same competitive spirit attached to the game. “If this was in German, I’d beat you all,” he said. “Lawrence Welk is the one I should play.”
He was a dreamer, weak and beautiful; their thin, pale dad, who had only been released from the camp as a teenager, starved, starved and made it to America to exist as a hero in their eyes. The girls couldn’t imagine ever being as hungry as he was. Everyone was amazed, amazed at his presence. He knew how to hold a room – even if it was simply because he was alive.
For a time, when he was younger, he gave talks in temples across America about his journey. How was it in the camps? American Jews really wanted to know. Most of the survivors didn’t want to talk about it, but Rudy felt it was important for them to hear the truth.
WITH Intermezzo, Sally Rooney grew up: ‘I didn’t want to be a ‘young writer’
When Frieda met him, he seemed so sophisticated even in his weakness. An elegant speaker, but also funny. That silk scarf he tied around his neck. What a story. He said well. People quickly warmed to him. He needed a secretary, he said, and she traveled with him, until it became easier to be married. Frieda was only 19 years old. She was already attached to a man. She thought he would be the breadwinner forever. He should be paid for what he went through; she firmly believed in that.
At one point, even Hollywood was interested in what happened to him. Rudy and Frieda as newlyweds, by the pool, sunburned, dizzy. The cabana boy dips to serve them. The producer who rushed over, not ordering a drink from anyone in particular as he moved around the terrace, then shook Frieda’s hand and held her for a moment with both of his.
And then: nothing happened. Letters still arrived occasionally, typed, official, offering a travel allowance and perhaps a small honorarium for the speaker. They saved up and put a down payment on this house that Rudy, with all his style preferences, wanted. This modern home.
Best books for Hispanic Heritage Month: PEOPLE picks fiction and nonfiction for all ages
But then there were new wars. And then less speeches to give, and, after a while, less of everything else in their lives. Bookkeeping for him, nursing home shifts for her. Popcorn at home costs less than popcorn at the cinema. No one knew how to calculate like Frieda. Scrabble – Frieda’s favorite – was completely free, of course. And tonight Shelly was winning. A lot.
“Anyone want more popcorn?” Frieda did not wait for an answer. In the kitchen, she was stealing sips of plum wine from the stem hidden in the cabinet behind the tea kettle. Fresh bottle, bought last week, after it started working in the new home. She was a helper like her mother before her, Goldie, in her own way, always caring, taking care of people. One husband for Goldie, and then another, until there was no one left, and especially no one to take care of her, Frieda was long gone.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up to date with the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
She also liked sips of plum wine to pass the time, sometimes she shared it with young Frieda to quiet her down. Frieda didn’t even like the taste of it, not then or now, but the general effect was soothing and familiar. One day he will develop a new favorite drink. One day she will drink whatever is nearby, no matter what, just to get drunk. Without thinking. Between caring for others. Grooming was what she was good at. Care of foreigners. Strangers and husbands. Not the children.
Whose children were they? she sometimes thought. They were people now. Who beat her at Scrabble. He will leave her once and not look back for a long time. But she didn’t know that yet.
When Rudy dies a year later, the Scrabble box will gather dust for a while, and then the three remaining Cohens will try to play it again, but it will not end well: Frieda, now completely unable to play nice, taking a large one, aggressively turns her daughters, Shelly grimly stares at the board, and finally, Nancy howls and storms out of the room. (Why am I always the kid here, Nancy thought that night, wistful, alone, in her room, when I’m the oldest? How did it end up like this?) They needed Rudy to balance things out. But Rudy left.
From A reason to see each other again Jami Attenberg. Copyright © 2024 Jami Attenberg. Excerpted with permission from Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins.
A reason to see each other again by Jami Attenberg is out on September 24th and is available for pre-order now, wherever books are sold.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education