Hi everyone. I'm rincey and this is
rincey reads. Today I'm going to be doing
a book review on all this could be yours
by Jami Attenberg. So this is a literary
fiction family saga sort of story. You
are following this family where the
patriarch basically of the family named
Victor is on his deathbed. You're
watching the different people in this
family sort of grapple with that in
different ways, particularly because
Victor was a not great person. So there
is his daughter Alex who flies out to
where her parents are in New Orleans to
be with-- by her mother's side. But also
she's there because she wants to find
things out about her father and her
family, find out the truth about her
parents. Specifically she wants to kind
of understand why her mother even stayed
with him in the first place. And then of
course there is the mother Barbara who
is working really hard to kind of ignore
the questions that her daughter is
berating her with, in her opinion, and
just trying to deal with the situation
at hand. And then Alex has a brother
named Gary who lives in New Orleans but
is currently in Los Angeles and isn't
really wanting to return home to the
family during this period of time. And
then there's Gary's wife Twyla who is in
New Orleans and she's having a bit of a
breakdown. And you find out why in the
story. So yes, anyone who saw my 10 year
challenge tag saw that this was like the
book that I wanted to read the most that
like came out this year that I hadn't
read yet. And so I finally read it and so
I thought I would do a review on it.
I really enjoyed this book
overall. I think I gave it a four out of
five stars. It's not my favorite
Jami Attenberg book, I still loved all
grown up a little bit more. But I feel
like her writing in here has gotten a
lot stronger. And I think the reasons why
this one didn't buy as much with me as
all grown-up did is mostly because of
like that multi character point of view
style that takes place in this book.
Which, as many of you are aware if you've
watched a number of my videos and book
reviews, you know that multi POVs very
often don't work for me. But I think that
like that style has a point in this book.
But again just made it so I couldn't love this
book as much as I wanted to. I think that
if you are someone who enjoys family
sagas, you will enjoy this one.
Particularly family sagas where the
family is extremely rich and well-off.
But I think that the characters in this
book also grapple with a lot of things
that are really relatable, particularly
the idea of kids trying to figure out
who their parents really are. There's a
number of things that are talked about
in here about Victor, and you don't know
exactly like all of the things that he's
done but it's very much insinuated that
he has done illegal business activities,
potentially working with like the mob.
They used to live on East Coast and I
think he's originally from New York. And
so there's like potential that he's
connected to all of these very shady
criminals. He's definitely cheated on his wife.
And so I think it's very interesting to have
the story sort of exploring what it's
like to be a blood relation and a close
blood relation to someone like that. You
see Alex and Gary sort of grappling with
their own responsibilities that they do
and don't feel towards their parents,
especially in a situation like this. And
how the fact that they were not great
parents really made a huge impact in the
way that they chose to live their lives.
And how Alex ended up becoming a lawyer
and she works really hard to try to be a
good mom to her daughter. But she also
like is concerned that she's going to be
a lot like her own parents. Gary
basically like goes in kind of an
opposite direction with his life but you
also just see still like how his parents
have influenced the choices that he's
made and the way things are right now.
But if I'm being completely honest, my
favorite character in this story was
Barbara, the wife. I think seeing how she
rationalizes things and seeing why
she made the choices she made including
like why she chose to stay with her
husband and the life that she's built
for herself and all of that was like so
fascinating to me. Because it's such a
different like worldview and idea than I
would like to ever choose from my own
life. And so seeing the story from that
point of view is super, super interesting.
There are a couple of things in this
book that kind of like, I don't wanna say
they bothered me because that's like a little bit
extreme, but I don't think that they were
necessary. One of them is the fact that a
lot of the story takes place in New
Orleans which is where Jami Attenberg
currently lives. She like tries to insert
all of these New Orleans based like
characters into the story for just like
either a couple of paragraphs or just
like a quick switch a point of views.
There's like one chapter that's
told entirely from the perspective of a
character who lives in New Orleans and
it feels just like so unnecessary and so
irrelevant to everything else happening
in this story that I didn't enjoy those
parts enough to like stick out in my
mind as something to talk about. Like
this isn't a very long book and I don't
think that those additions really added
much. Although a lot of people who've
reviewed this book and really loved it
talked about how much they loved the way
that Jami Attenberg
talks about New Orleans. But I feel like
that should have been just a whole
'nother separate story, maybe a collection
of short stories or vignettes or like
interconnected stories about New Orleans.
Like that should have been its own
separate thing and I would have just
been happier with more stories about the
family itself or more sort of
information about their past or anything
along those lines. But one of my favorite
things about this book is just like the
writing itself, like this was a book
where there were just like these
individual sentences or individual like
paragraphs that just like really, really
blew me away. I posted one of them on
Instagram, like on my Instagram stories.
And like I have a highlight thing on my
Instagram profile full of like book
quotes. So it's saved in there in case
you guys want to like scroll through
that, or tap through that I guess. But I
think that like Jami Attenberg with
each book is really like upping her game
in terms of the actual writing
itself, which is a really great
thing to be watching and to be reading
and to be experiencing. Like she has all
of these really great observations on
what it's like to be like growing up in
the world today or just be existing in
the world today that's really fantastic
and I feel like that this book is kind
of worth it just for those observations
in and of itself. So like if you're
someone who's a very like plot heavy
person, this is not going to be a book
for you. But if you are someone who likes
those sort of like literary
ruminations on life, then this would
definitely be a book for you. But there
aren't any sort of like big reveals or
shocking moments in my opinion with this
book. Again, plot seems very secondary to
what this book is about and why this
book is so enjoyable. So like for me
while I was reading this book, I was able
to basically guess or assume a lot of
the plot points that happen later on in
the story. So if you're the type of
person who that might bother you, then be
forewarned for that. This book feels a
little bit predictable in terms of plot.
Maybe I've just read enough literary
fiction books filled with drama that
it's not too hard to see where things
are going. But again, I think that the
characters in here are really
interesting in the way that they sort of
struggle with and grapple with this
difficult person in their life is really,
really interesting. And I think that,
again, if you're someone who enjoys the
sort of like ruminations on life and
death and family and stuff like that,
Jami Attenberg has some really, really
interesting ideas in here. So that is my
review on all this could be yours. Let me
know down in the comments below if
you've read this book and what your
thoughts were on it. Or if you have any
questions, definitely leave that down in
the comment section as well. So yeah,
that's all I have for now and thanks for watching.
