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Jami Attenberg

The Melting Season Hardcover – January 21, 2010

by Jami Attenberg (Author)

23 ratings

3.1 on Goodreads

653 ratings

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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.

Print length

289 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Riverhead Hardcover
Publication date

January 21, 2010
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

5.44 x 1.08 x 8.32 inches
ISBN-10

1594488967
ISBN-13

978-1594488962
See all details

Jami Attenberg
27
Paperback
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Jami Attenberg
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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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Riverhead Hardcover; First Edition first Printing (January 21, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 289 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1594488967
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1594488962
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.44 x 1.08 x 8.32 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #5,109,318 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #28,640 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- #183,535 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- #196,161 in American Literature (Books)

Customer Reviews:
23 ratings

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Jami Attenberg

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JAMI ATTENBERG is the New York Times best-selling author of seven books of fiction, including The Middlesteins and All Grown Up. She has contributed essays to the New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Sunday Times, and Longreads, among other publications. She lives in New Orleans.

Customer reviews

5 star		33%
4 star		26%
3 star		19%
2 star		7%
1 star		16%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Handsome Dan 79

Really, Not Very Good, But Interesting to See What Attenberg’s Earlier Work Was Like

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 14, 2021

Verified Purchase

It’s a little hard to believe that this was written by the same author who just two years later would publish The Middlesteins: one of the most spot-on, beautifully humane, perfectly pitched novels I’ve read this century. Melting Season, on the other hand, is well-intentioned, but often trite, relying on overused tropes (the nurturing, truth-speaking gay best friend; Vegas as the locus of self-reinvention; a rural landscape whose harshness mirrors the barrenness of the residents’ interior lives), and- most fatally- a narrator and central character whose identity and voice never feel authentic. (Sometimes Catherine’s naïveté and diction feel borrowed from Forrest Gump.) Engaging enough, but ultimately unsatisfying.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 16, 2012

Verified Purchase

This book turned out not being what I was expecting in terms of storyline, but regardless I couldn't put it down! Good quick read about a wife's rouge story as she breaks away from heartache of inconsiderate husband.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 28, 2013

Verified Purchase

I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as The Middlesteins, perhaps because I couldn't relate as well to the Las Vegas setting or the plot quandaries of the heroine. Attenberg's prose flows so it's a quick, smooth read, but not besutiful literature. A decent vacation read, I'd say.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Megan Coleman

Love

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 12, 2016

Verified Purchase

For young adults looking for independence. Dealings with a breakup and trying to find ones self. Easy read, fast read for breaks from school or work. The author makes you feel captivated in the characters story and keeps you wanting more

Helpful

hm

Poorly contrived hash that wouldn't have been new ten years ago

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 20, 2013

Verified Purchase

One of the crappiest books I've ever read. The sample portion seemed like a quirky novel with some Vegas thrown in, but five minutes after I purchased it I realized it was toxic. And it only got worse. This book is like combining ten lifetime movies, three afteshcool specials, ten crappy modern country songs and and turning the blender on high. So awful! I didn't even read the last 10%, I just skimmed the last few paragraphs in hopes that at least one of the uncompelling characters died. Spoiler alert: no such satisfaction exists. I will never read anything by this author again. The characters are entirely unappealing and one dimensional and lifted from a hundred other books. The plot is similarly cobbled together. Sassy best friend with a past? check. Sassy gay man? check. Troubled sister? check. Alcoholic parent? check. Rape scene? check. Road trip? check. Spousal abuse? check. Codependant woman on a trite quest for self-discovery? check. Improbably close relationships formed with virtually no backstory? check. i think the only topic left uncovered was immigration, and it was probably tackled somewhere in the pages I skipped. Anything new? No. It's not even a compelling rehash. Save yourself.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

C. M. Sienko

Outstanding, unique work of fiction

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 24, 2010

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.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Cecilia Parker

This story is not very interesting.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 5, 2012

Verified Purchase

I didn't find this book interesting at all. It it remedial comapred to other books I have read. I would not recommend it.

Helpful

JRS

A resonant road story, and more

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 27, 2010

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.

13 people found this helpful

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