All This Could Be Yours: Toxic Masculinity, Toxic Relationships

My dad was about the nicest, most generous man you could ever meet. So, to me, reading about a guy like Victor Tuchman is rather eye-opening. Victor is the patriarch of the massively dysfunctional family inhabiting Jami Attenberg's fantastic new novel All This Could Be Yours. He is also about the most despicable character you can imagine. Thankfully, as we meet him at the beginning of the novel, he's on his deathbed in a New Orleans hospital, having suffered a heart attack.

But that leads his estranged daughter Alex, a Chicago lawyer, to begin to wonder why he was the way he was — a career criminal who beat and cheated on his wife and emotionally damaged his children. And beyond that, Alex wonders why her mother Barbra stayed with Victor all these years. So as Alex and Barbra pace outside his hospital room, as he is comatose, waiting to die, she grills her mother on their past, hoping to both learn about her evil father, but also to find any clues about her own troubles with relationships.

This is a novel about toxic masculinity, yes, which Victor encapsulates in its purest form. There really is no limit to his depravity. But it's also a novel about toxic relationships. Alex herself is divorced, and while her ex-husband is basically a good man, he has one fatal flaw: He just can't stay faithful. So, is he a good man? As well, Alex's brother Gary, who is holed up in an AirBnB in LA, and refuses to come to New Orleans to see off his father, has a HUGE relationship issue with his wife Twyla. We soon find out why, in one of the more shocking twists in any book I've read in awhile. Read this book alone to find out what that twist is! 

Attenberg introduces us to several minor characters along the way who all have some sort of relationship malfunctions, as well. Relationships are really tough, even when both parties are fully committed. But they're all but impossible when one isn't. And when they break, they have lasting, long-term consequences.

All this sounds as heavy as the sweltering New Orleans summer heat. But remember: This is Jami Attenberg. And she's really, really cool. So this is a pleasure to read at every turn. I don't know if this is my favorite Attenberg novel — that might still be The Middlesteins. But this is certainly in the top tier, and very highly recommended.