
Mother for Dinner
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $15.75
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Shalom Auslander
-
By:
-
Shalom Auslander
By the author of Foreskin's Lament, a novel of identity, tribalism, and mothers.
Seventh Seltzer has done everything he can to break from the past, but in his overbearing, narcissistic mother's last moments he is drawn back into the life he left behind. At her deathbed, she whispers in his ear the two words he always knew she would: "Eat me."
This is not unusual, as the Seltzers are Cannibal-Americans, a once proud and thriving ethnic group, but for Seventh, it raises some serious questions, both practical and emotional. Of practical concern, his dead mother is six-foot-two and weighs about 450 pounds. Even divided up between Seventh and his 11 brothers, that's a lot of red meat. Plus Second keeps kosher, Ninth is vegan, First hated her, and Sixth is dead. To make matters worse, even if he can wrangle his brothers together for a feast, the Can-Am people have assimilated, and the only living Cannibal who knows how to perform the ancient ritual is their Uncle Ishmael, whose erratic understanding of their traditions leads to conflict.
Seventh struggles with his mother's deathbed request. He never loved her, but the sense of guilt and responsibility he feels - to her and to his people and to his "unique cultural heritage" - is overwhelming. His mother always taught him he was a link in a chain, thousands of people long, stretching back hundreds of years. But, as his brother First says, he's getting tired of chains.
Irreverent and written with Auslander's incomparable humor, Mother for Dinner is an exploration of legacy, assimilation, the things we owe our families, and the things we owe ourselves.
©2020 Shalom Auslander (P)2020 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
"Auslander uses his signature dark humor to brilliantly satirize tribalism in America...Graphic situations abound; even the characters are revolted, while, through their often ludicrous stories, Auslander explores the sense of otherness and the value of diversity. This could be a portrait of any ethnic group that has been consumed by America, though, in this case, it’s unclear who is devouring whom.” (Booklist)
"Auslander...turns his taboo-shattering satiric gaze to cannibalism in this outrageous, salty take on contemporary culture...[a] riotous dissection of cultural formation and a community’s hunger for meaning." (Publishers Weekly)
"Maintaining tradition becomes all-consuming in Shalom Auslander's novel... Mother for Dinner ... turns a jaundiced eye toward ethnic identity and the burdens of tradition as they concern a different oppressed minority group...jokes are dependably good.” (The Wall Street Journal)
People who viewed this also viewed...


I also find the way he narrates his own work excellent, unlike many self-narrating authors.
Loved it
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great Satire
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I have never come across a work so brilliantly adapt at skewering ethnocentrism, ethnic narcissism and out and out racism and bigotry so thoroughly and hilariously. I did not think that Auslander was capable of toping his 2012 novel Hope: A Tragedy, but I think he may have.
Everyone who wants to understand just how preposterous so many parts of American culture have become as well as the terrible weight that many people feel compelled to impose upon themselves. Auslander does all while making the reader (listener) laugh so hard that soiling oneself or hyperventilation remain a constant possibility.
Funnier and smarter than I would have thought possible. Should be read by anyone who loves great comedy and intelligent commentary through nearly perfect storytelling. Auslander is the ****!
Funniest, wildest, craziest stuff I have ever listened to.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A great cynical view of the great melting pot
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A veritable tour de force of story telling and narration.
An absolute riot
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
brilliant but wierd
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Tedious
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
weird and entertaining
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
a deep delve into an unknown culture
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.