October 12, 2017 SPLIT DECISION

We make decisions every day. Most are innocuous--others life changing.  How do we know the difference?? Sometimes we don't. I often think back to when I was young and REALLY DUMB. I made some  BAD BAD decisions and THANKFULLY SURVIVED THEM. Life is sometimes like that old television show Let's Make a Deal. How do we know which door to choose? SCARY. One of the best decisions--PURE happenstance--I ever made was at the tender age of fourteen.  Life wasn't easy living with my mother--and on a WHIM--I called my father and moved in with him. Don't get me wrong--it wasn't easy living with my father and his family either BUT the alternative was worse. It scares me to think about where I'd be today had I not made THAT--door number 1, 2, or 3--decision. It was the BEST decision for ME at the time because I was one step away from out of control. The move was positive in many ways but  not without its own set of consequences.  Decisions are tough to make but what can be even harder sometimes is living with the repercussions.  This is exactly what happens to Richard Middlestein in Jamie Attenberg's The Middlesteins.

After more than thirty years of marriage, Richard, a pharmacist  living in Chicago, decides he wants a  divorce. Richard and his wife Edie have been miserable for many years. It seems that Edie's true love is Food. She is a food addict--tipping the scale at about 350 pounds. In addition to her weight problem, Edie is a diabetic facing several surgeries because of her obsession. Doctor's have warned her to change her eating habits or die. Richard's had enough. He's given up on her. He wants his life back before he's too old to enjoy it.  After Richard leaves his wife, his children are devastated. His daughter Robin will barely speak to him and his son Benny's wife Rachel has cut him off. No more visits with his grandchildren and no b'nai mitzvah party. This is the story of the choices we make and the people who are affected by those choices--extended family, neighbors, old friends. A lesson that Richard learns too late. Will Edie change her eating habits? Will Richard and Edie get back together? Will his children forgive him?? Will Richard go to the party? Find the answer to these questions and many more when you read this book about a family that is both hilarious and heartbreaking. This novel is about 270 pages or a 3.5 mile run that will make you think twice about the choices you make.