"A Reason to See You Again" | Reviewed by Tonya O'Connell

“A Reason to See You Again,” by Jamie Attenberg, is the story of the women in the Cohen family. The daughters and mother are in crisis, brought about by the death of their father and husband, Rudy, the only one who held the family together. Soon after Rudy’s death, the women’s lives take a drastic turn.

This change is what hooked me on the novel—an experience that occurs in many families when one parent dies; however, what a spouse and offspring decide to do with their lives is different in every instance. This proves true in the engaging story of the Cohens.

After her father’s death, Sheila, the youngest of the Cohen sisters, goes to the West Coast to immerse herself in a technology career. Nancy, her sister, decides to get married at the age of 21, to a traveling salesman with a less than pristine lifestyle.

Their mother, Frieda, throws herself further into her bottles of alcohol to try to forget her haunting past.

The three search for peace, a journey that starts in the 1970s and spans 40 years. They learn in different ways that running away from problems can’t save a person. Each, through their individual experiences, makes life-altering decisions about what they want and who they want their family to be.

The story takes you through motherhood, the American job market, the tech industry and the self-help movement, constantly exposing readers to the changing ways the women communicate and the many forms that love can take.

“A Reason to See You Again” will leave readers wanting to guide the girls and mother—to help them straighten out their lives until they can figure it out themselves. It's the process of the characters’ learning to adapt and change that will keep readers engrossed in this marvelously plotted novel.

Buy the Book.