All This Could Be Yours, Jami Attenberg

All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg is a book that made the best books of 2019, so it made my list.

Started: 1/27/2020
Completed: 1/28/2020
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By:  A number of top 10 lists

Review:

It is disconcerting to read this book that pretty much opens with a female submissive right on the heels of Normal People which made me uncomfortable with the story of a submissive.  This story, however, makes me uncomfortable with the role of a submissive in a whole different way.

The inability of the other characters to accept that abuse is appropriate in a healthy relationship helped make this story more palatable.

The author seems to feel the need to leave no character unexamined.  I get that, but it feels to me like the author built the back story but an editor did not help the author figure out what should and what should not be included in the book.  That is just my take--who knows, the editor may have pulled a bunch out of the book to get it to here.

In the end, however, every character takes a look at loneliness.  What is it to different characters?  It seems like some characters pursue loneliness while others run screaming to anyone to avoid loneliness.  I don't know what the take-away is.  It is a good examination, however.  Maybe the secondary characters help define some of the ways to look at loneliness.  It feels to me, though, that the secondary characters just brought some of the same points again and added unnecessary complexity to the story.