Jami Attenberg’s fifth novel is her best yet. It’s a super-smart, often extremely funny, sometimes heartbreaking portrait of a 39-year-old, single, child-free heroine in New York City who’s taking her very best shot at living life on her own terms.
Andrea is far from perfect and far from living the dream, whatever that is – as this novel cleverly demonstrates, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side – but she’s all the more understandable because of it, and, thanks to her dislike of cocktails with “fruit wedges”, all the more likable too. Attenberg’s episodic approach – chapters flit between subjects, from friendship, family, sex and ambition, the chronological narrative winding through them, sometimes to the fore, sometimes in the background – may give the impression of something insubstantial, but the end result is actually the opposite. As angry, sad and raw as it is astute, hilarious and hopeful, All Grown Up puts other novels in this vein to shame.
• All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg is published by Serpent’s Tail (£12.99). To order a copy for £9.74 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
