All Grown Up

Andrea Bern is all grown up. Well, sort of. Almost forty, she is reflecting on her partners, family, job and decision to stop making art. But can an artist ever stop making art? Filled with Jewish guilt and a father that overdosed when she was 15, Andrea feels the need to be close to her family and a deep desire to push them all far far away. New York City is teeming with opportunity for love and fulfillment yet she cannot seem to latch onto those fleeting moments. Each chapter is told in a short story like format, Andrea looking back on the people she thought she loved and paths she should have taken. Grabbing me in the very first chapter I was unable to put down this accounting of a life drowning in a reality that is not always pretty. Finding myself laughing inappropriately, this bizarre main character/narrator shares things most people would never say out loud (or even think) but feel very deeply. This short glimpse into an artist’s private journey quickly turned into an absorbing read about family, love, fulfillment and the nature of these rules we force ourselves to play by. Highly recommend this extremely well written glimpse of one ordinary person’s life and her daily struggle to live it.