The Melting Season [Hardcover]

Jami Attenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 21, 2010

A tender, provocative story about the power of friendship, the thrill of self-discovery, and the strength it takes to escape the past.

Catherine Madison is headed West with a suitcase full of cash that isn't hers. She's just left the only home she's ever known, a small town in Nebraska, after the only man she had ever known, her husband, Thomas, deserted her. She's also left behind her deepest, most shameful secrets-among them a dysfunctional family she's never quite been able to escape and a marriage whose most intimate moments have plagued her with self-doubt. On the road, she was going to become a new person. Or so she thought.

But running away from the past isn't as easy as she had hoped. When Catherine reaches Las Vegas, she forms surprising new friendships that compel her to reveal what she had sworn she'd keep hidden, and teach her what human connection really means. Armed with this new knowledge, she is finally emboldened to uncover the truth about her family, come to understand what destroyed her marriage, and prevent her troubled sister from repeating her mistakes.

Deeply compassionate and unflinchingly bold, The Melting Season is the story of an indelible character's journey from isolation to belonging, as well as an honest look at the things we feel we deserve from our lives- and how far we will go to find them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the author of The Kept Man comes an uneven road story about a woman fleeing from her past. Catherine Moonie Madison, 25, runs away from her stifling smalltown Nebraska life with a suitcase full of her husband's money, ending up in Las Vegas, where she finds a confidante and partner in crime in Valka, who, like her, is looking for escape. As the story progresses, Attenberg fills in Moonie's backstory via flashbacks; unfortunately, Moonie's hard-luck story is far less interesting than her adventures in Las Vegas. What resonates is her friendship with Valka, her dreamlike evening with a crew of hedonistic celebrity impersonators and her sometimes naïve observations on being outside of Nebraska for the first time. There's a promise of redemption as Moonie begins piecing together an unconventional life and stand-in family, but there's a certain deliberateness to the empowerment theme that makes it feel less than real. There are some nice moments, and Attenberg has a knack for poignant description, but the author seems distracted from the story she set out to tell. (Jan.)
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From Booklist

Betrayed by her husband, young Nebraska farm wife Catherine Madison steals his nearly $200,000 in cash and heads west. Never mind that it’s the middle of winter, the roads are covered with snow, and she has no idea where to go. What could be worse than living with a broken-down marriage and a family of reprobates and drunks? She ends up in Las Vegas, where she becomes instant best friends with Valka, a beautiful older woman who’s had her own share of misfortune. (Valka’s significant other abandoned her after ovarian cancer and a hysterectomy.) Together the two engage in bad-girl behavior, drinking and partying until the wee hours. They hang out with a lively group of celebrity impersonators: Valka beds Paul McCartney, Catherine locks lips with Prince. Catherine tells Valka her life story, and the sorry details of her broken heart are slowly—too slowly—revealed. Although Attenberg’s singular focus on Catherine’s efforts at self-empowerment occasionally grow tiresome, she renders poignant prose and portrays the desperate behavior of her characters with verve. --Allison Block

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover (January 21, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594488967
• ISBN-13: 978-1594488962
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #661,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jami Attenberg is the author of Instant Love, The Kept Man, and The Melting Season. Her fourth book, The Middlesteins, will be published in October 2012. She has written for The New York Times, Details, Babble, Print, Salon, and many more publications. Visit her online at whatever-whenever.net.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A resonant road story, and more, January 26, 2010

By 

J. R. Schaap - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Melting Season (Hardcover)

The Melting Season gets off to an irresistible start when its heroine, Catherine "Moonie" Madison, steals a pile of money and hits the highway, leaving behind her small Nebraska town and very complicated family. In precise and arresting descriptions and lucid, lyrical prose, Jami Attenberg captures the landscapes and textures of the midwest and west, and both the liberation and vulnerability of being a woman on the open road. Moonie makes her way to Las Vegas where, amid the city's splendid artifice, she builds real friendships that lead her to confront the truth about herself and her past, and help her to forge a way forward. There are some dazzling and very funny Vegas set pieces and unforgettable characters, but what's most enduring and moving about The Melting Season is that underpinning the adventure and desert glitter is real contemplation--of the nature of love, friendship, and selfhood.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful story, artfully told., January 26, 2010

By 

Julie Klam - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Melting Season (Hardcover)

Jami Attenberg paints a rich lovely portrait of Catherine Madison, a woman running away from her past and finding answers to her life in a haunting new friendship. I picked up Attenberg's book and couldn't put it down. The writing is beautiful and the story will stay with you for a long time.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, unique work of fiction, May 24, 2010

By 

C. M. Sienko "I'm a Venusian, myself" (Chicago, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Melting Season (Hardcover)

This is a really outstanding book. I'm not a big fiction reader, so my thoughts may not count for much, but I was consistently riveted and entertained by Attenberg's story of journey and realization, most of all by her strong, concise prose style. Attenberg populated Moonie's thoughts with thoughtful observations while still noting that the character isn't used to trafficking in thoughtful observations. There's that annoyingly common compliment that a writer "really understands the mindset of the working-class life," usually turning its blue-collar heroes into prosaic, constantly profound mouthpieces for the author. Moonie Madison is played realistically...she doesn't over-analyze every strange new experience she sees, but gets to the center of what's happening with an enviable clarity.

The story is structured well, jumping back and forth between current action and flashback without much problem (I should point out that my rating is more like 4.5 stars, with the half deducted for the middle section, which amounts to little more than two people laying on a hotel bed, one telling the other her life story. Every time we're taken out of the action to think about that [as when Valka comments on some part of Moonie's story:], it's a reminder that our two main characters have been on their backs and talking for almost 80 pages). The emotional twists at the end were well-handled and not at all maudlin, and though I didn't really need the happy resolution at the end, it was in line with what came before it.

As I say, I don't read much fiction, but I'm sure glad I read this.