Attenberg, Jami 1971–

PERSONAL:

Born 1971. Education: Graduated from Johns Hopkins University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Brooklyn, NY. E-mail—[email protected]; [email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, poet. Worked as a hostess, bartender, waitress, and nursing home employee; worked in advertising, beginning 1998; Home Box Office (HBO), senior Web producer for The Sopranos and Six Feet Under.

WRITINGS:

Deli Life (chapbook), So New Media (Austin, TX), 2003.

Instant Love: Fiction (stories), Shaye Areheart Books (New York, NY), 2006.

The Kept Man (novel), Riverhead (New York, NY), 2007.

Author of a Web log; contributor of articles to periodicals, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Salon.com, Print, Nylon, Plenty, Radar, and eWeek; contributor of stories to periodicals, including Pindeldyboz, Nerve, Bullfight Review, Jane, and Spork.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jami Attenberg is a writer who has also enjoyed a career in marketing and online content production as a Web producer for several television shows. In an interview with Barb Klansnic for the Web site How to Write and Publish Your Book, she offered her ideas about the marketing of writing, particularly women's writing, stating: "I'm not in love with the way they market women. Too many books are put in that Chick Lit box and needn't be, for starters. I think we need some more creative thinking in that area. I hope they get a better understanding of the Internet. There's so much power to be harnessed there, and right now they're largely wasting it. It would be interesting if the higher ups were all forced to have a [Web log] for a few months."

She added in the same interview: "It might be helpful if publishers developed a basic marketing class for their authors. I learned everything I know from reading the Web sites of other authors and talking to people who had already been through the process. But what if publishers already had a set list of suggestions for their authors? Things they could do cheaply and easily."

Attenberg has contributed articles about writing, the media, technology, and sex, as well as short stories, to various publications. Her first book is a collection of stories, some of which were previously published, titled Instant Love: Fiction. Attenberg tells stories about teenage girls growing into women, focusing on three characters especially: Holly, her sister Maggie, and Sarah Lee. "Attenberg flows easily from life to life and character to character, setting up each story so that the reader is quickly placed within the chronology of each woman's life," wrote Cara Seitchek in a review for the Small Spiral Notebook Web site. Seitchek added: "A strong fiction debut, Instant Love is an easy read with substance and style."

Attenberg's first novel, The Kept Man, appeared in 2007 and is an investigation of a woman's awakening. Jarvis Miller is young and beautiful, a former party girl living in Williamsburg, a gentrifying neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Her artist husband, Martin, has been in a coma for six years after a fall in his studio. Jarvis, like her husband, feels only half alive, going weekly to the nursing home to visit him and living off the sale of his artwork. Her one release is at the local Laundromat where she meets three young men who are "kept" by their successful wives; they are househusbands, and Jarvis finds solace in their company. As she begins to sort through her marriage, Jarvis realizes that she has been kept just like these men. She also discovers that Martin has been unfaithful to her with an assortment of people; these discoveries help to free her from her inertia. In an interview with Attenberg for the Edward Champion's Reluctant Habits Web log, Edward Champion noted that The Kept Man "is as much about a woman's relationship with topographical territory as it is about a passive thirtysomething drifting on the dregs of her husband's legacy."

In a review of the novel for the San Francisco Chronicle, Anna North observed, "The frozen woman brought back to life is a popular trope, but Attenberg puts a new spin on it: Jarvis is saved not by love, but by banter." North also praised the author's "admirable sense of fun," as well as her "keen ear for dialogue and a half-cynical, half-affectionate tone that makes even the most venal characters likable." Similar praise came from Trashionista reviewer Sarah Hague, who noted of The Kept Man: "Superbly written, it's the story of one woman's journey from a living death, [toward l]ife, whatever it might hold." In an interview with Attenberg for the Bostonist Online, Ryan Walsh commended her ability to set the scene in her novel: "What's most impressive about Attenberg's work is her ability to capture the liveliness of Williamsburg in words, and her description of the paintings and photos made by Jarvis' husband make the paintings seem tangible, like you could see them in a gallery right this minute." In a review of the same novel for Booklist, Katherine Boyle reacted negatively to the protagonist's "lack of direction and passivity," but also commented that the author has a "keen eye for detail and weaves an intriguing tale." Harsher criticism came from a Publishers Weekly contributor who stated: "Not for a moment in this airless dirge does Jarvis or her marriage feel credible." However, a Kirkus Reviews critic offered a more positive assessment of The Kept Man, terming it "a likable novel marked by a profundity of feeling." Similarly, Library Journal reviewer Beth Gibbs found The Kept Man to be "an engaging and innovative first novel."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2007, Katherine Boyle, review of The Kept Man, p. 28.

Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2007, review of The Kept Man.

Library Journal, October 15, 2007, Beth Gibbs, review of The Kept Man, p. 50.

Publishers Weekly, April 3, 2006, review of Instant Love: Fiction, p. 36; September 24, 2007, review of The Kept Man, p. 41.

San Francisco Chronicle, December 19, 2007, Anna North, review of The Kept Man, p. E2.

School Library Journal, September, 2006, Brigeen Radoicich, review of Instant Love, p. 246.

Time Out New York, January 3-9, 2008, Amy Plitt, review of The Kept Man.

ONLINE

ASAP,http://asap.ap.org/ (July 3, 2006), Kevin Sampsell, "Hickeys, Hope and Hard Work," author interview.

Bostonist Online,http://bostonist.com/ (January 9, 2008), Ryan Walsh, author interview.

Edward Champion's Reluctant Habits Web log,http://www.edrants.com/ (January 10, 2008), Edward Champion, author interview.

How to Write and Publish Your Book,http://www.writeandpublishyourbook.com/ (May 5, 2007), Barb Klansnic, "Jami Attenberg Gives the Lowdown on Book Marketing," author interview.

Hub Pages,http://www.hubpages.com/ (August 29, 2008), Gabriel Brice, "Five Questions for Jami Attenberg," author interview.

Jami Attenberg Home Page,http://www.jamiattenberg.com (August 28, 2008).

Jami Attenberg MySpace Profile,http://www.myspace.com/jamiattenberg (August 29, 2008).

Jive Online,http://www.jivemagazine.com/ (May 5, 2007), Taryn Hubbard, review of Instant Love.

LAist,http://laist.com/ (January 11, 2008), author interview.

Largehearted Boy Web log,http://www.largeheartedboy.com/ (January 9, 2008), Ryan Walsh, author interview.

Maud Newton Web log,http://maudnewton.com/ (January 9, 2008), Kate Christensen, author interview.

Pilcrow Literary Festival Web log,http://www.pilcrowlitfest.blogspot.com/ (April 22, 2008), "Five with Jami Attenberg," author interview.

Radar Online,http://www.radaronline.com/ (January 16, 2008), review of The Kept Man.

Reading Matters,http://kimbofo.typepad.com/readingmatters/ (December 26, 2007), review of The Kept Man.

Small Spiral Notebook,http://www.smallspiralnotebook.com/ (May 5, 2007), Cara Seitchek, review of Instant Love, and "Cara Seitchek Interviews Jami Attenberg, Author of Instant Love."

Trashionista,http://www.trashionista.com/ (August 28, 2008), Sarah Hague, review of The Kept Man.

Tripwire,http://www.thetripwire.com/ (July 13, 2006), Brian Bergstrom, review of Instant Love.