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Dumbfounded: Big Money. Big Hair. Big Problems. Or Why Having It All Isn't for Sissies. [NOOK Book]
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In the privileged world of old-money New York aristocracy, young Matt Rothschild stuck out like a menorah at a Christmas party. Jewfroed, chubby, and sexually confused, Matt passed time secretly wearing his grandmother’s dresses, shoplifting Barbies from FAO Schwarz, and inventing imaginary midget butlers whom he addressed at dinner parties. Kicked out of nearly every elite school in Manhattan–once for his impersonation of Judy Garland at a recital–Matt knew his days in his nineteen-room Fifth Avenue apartment were numbered.
But just when it looked as if Matt was about to drown in a sea of Paris Hilton wannabes, his grandmother Sophie, a glamorous, potty-mouthed dowager in killer stilettos, steps in, dismisses the nanny, and decides to raise him herself. Seeing her grandson’s upbringing as a way to atone for the mistakes she made as a mother, Sophie takes his hand and guides him through their world of name-dropping phonies, family connections, and children who have to raise themselves. Gradually, Sophie allows Matt to learn the truth about the mother who left him, the woman who raised him, and the challenges we all face, no matter how exclusive or unusual our origins may seem.
Matt Rothschild tells his story with humor, candor, and unlikely compassion for his eccentric relatives–including his mother–in this bitingly entertaining and unexpectedly tender memoir.
“With genuine affection and brutal honesty, [Rothschild] paints vivid, delightful portraits of the colorful characters who crossed his path.” –USA Today
Rothschild, a writer and high school teacher living in Florida, was abandoned by his mother and raised by his grandparents, a retired Jewish couple living in "the most exclusive building in the most exclusive neighborhood" of New York City. The setting is sitcom-perfect, from the headstrong grandmother and exasperated grandfather to the wisecracking servants, and Rothschild's youthful acting out offers much opportunity for humor. At one point, his behavior was so out of hand that one of the few private schools he hadn't been asked to leave would accept him only if his grandparents donated one of their Van Goghs as well. But all is not happy: an early attempt by his mother to reunite the family ends in disaster, and her selfish behavior forces him to care for his Alzheimer's-stricken grandmother while still a teenager. Rothschild has been through a lot, and he's an able storyteller, easily drawing readers' sympathy by layering the emotional drama. If his story seems incomplete, that's probably because it is-the final break with his mother would, from an older author, be the midpoint at which Rothschild turns his life around, but this memoir ends with just the first glimmers of an optimistic future. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Here's a notable but hardly atypical scene from first-time memoirist Rothschild's poor-little-rich-boy story: overwrought, 13-year-old Matt runs away from home with a $100 bill and a box of rat poison. When the poison fails to do him in, he takes a cab to Times Square to ask the prostitutes whether he's gay. He gets an answer, gets relieved of his remaining cash, and gets sent back home to face his grandparents, who address the situation by buying Matt a puppy. Clearly, Rothschild has quite a story to tell. Abandoned by his jet-setting mother, he's raised by her indelibly portrayed odd-couple parents: Matt's feisty, irrepressibly opinionated grandmother and storytelling, class-conscious grandfather, the only Jewish family in an exclusive building on Manhattan's East Side. Enduring a childhood of privilege and self-doubt, Matt is dismissed from one elite school after another, befriends a neighbor girl who convinces him to steal bagsful of Barbies from F.A.O Schwarz, and struggles with his weight, his sexuality, and especially his breathtakingly wealthy-and stunningly dysfunctional-family. Rothschild's style serves his story well. Reminiscent of David Sedaris, he is by turns whimsical and brutal, self-involved and self-deprecating. A strong debut; recommended for public libraries.
—Janet Ingraham Dwyer
1 Why I Don't Believe in Santa Claus 1
2 China Girl 14
3 All in the D's 27
4 The Petty Thieves 46
5 In My Grandmother's Closet 65
6 Jude the Obscure 81
7 Visiting Mother 96
8 Call Me Pathological 121
9 Greta Garbo Lives Next Door 136
10 The Wandering Jew 153
11 Damn Static 164
12 Intrafamily Feud 172
13 It's Nothing Personal 189
14 Howard's End 212
15 Judaism for Dummies 232
16 Driving Miss Sophie 242
17 100 Percent, Grade-A Hebrews 266
18 Can I Call You Daddy? 284
Anonymous
Posted October 2, 2009
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
“Funny and defiant.” –Los Angeles TimesIn the privileged world of old-money New York aristocracy, young Matt Rothschild stuck out like a menorah at a Christmas party. Jewfroed, chubby, and sexually confused, Matt passed time secretly wearing his grandmother’s dresses, shoplifting Barbies from FAO Schwarz, and inventing imaginary midget butlers whom he addressed at dinner parties. Kicked out of nearly every elite school in Manhattan–once for his impersonation of Judy Garland at a recital–Matt knew his days in his nineteen-room Fifth Avenue apartment were numbered.
But just when it looked as if Matt was about to drown in a sea of Paris Hilton wannabes, ...