Kissing in America (28 page)

Read Kissing in America Online

Authors: Margo Rabb

Praise for
Cures for Heartbreak

A
Kirkus Reviews
Best Book for Young Adults

An ALA
Booklist
Editors' Choice

A Book Sense Children's Pick

An Association of Jewish Libraries Notable Book

A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

A TAYSHAS High School Reading List Selection

A Capitol Choices Noteworthy Book

â “Rabb leavens impossible heartbreak with surprising humor, delivered with a comedian's timing and dark absurdity. Rabb is an exceptionally gifted writer. Readers will cherish this powerful debut.”

â
ALA
Booklist
(starred review)

â “Black humor, pitch-perfect detail, and compelling characters make this a terrific read. As Mia struggles to make sense of her mother's death and her father's illness, she also sees humor in everyday situations, and her irreverent commentary brings the story to life.”

â
School Library Journal
(starred review)

â “This is undeniably a book of anguish; it's also one of raw strength and casual, clever humor in random and surprising places, making it a compelling as well as tearful read.”

â
BCCB
(starred review)

â “When the last page turns, four new and fascinating people have been born into the reader's consciousness.”

âKLIATT
(starred review)

“Everybody, regardless of age, should read this novelâwitty, warm, and gorgeous in its fearlessness.”

âThe Philadelphia Inquirer

“Told in the first person with humor and tears, Mia's voice is authentic, and her story of family tragedy and healing rings true. Touching and tender.”

âKirkus Reviews

“Anyone who has grieved the loss of a loved one will feel an immediate connection to Mia, the narrator of this intimate novel. It gives readers a keenly insightful study of grief.”

âPublishers Weekly

“This novel gets at the blinding ache of grief, while also managing to be very funny, very smart, and addictively readable. This is truly a gorgeous and important book, one I've been pressing onto friends and their teenaged kids.”

â
Cookie
magazine

“Rabb concentrates not on the brooding and self-pity that can often permeate this type of novel but on an examination of death's antithesisâloveâas it touches the lives of her father, her mother and even Mia herself. Each chapter collides and colludes to offer both the familiar and the uncharted with humorous and touching detail, breaking and mending the reader's heart in turns.”

âteenreads.com

“Intense, poignant but also very funny, Mia's story of the year following her mother's death explores the nature of grief as it is experienced by a Jewish teenager, her
older sister, and her father. There is much pain in the story but also much wisdom, not to mention a smart look at school, friendship, and romance.”

â
Association of Jewish Libraries

“Mia's full of conflicting emotions that are expressed in sometimes humorous ways. She wonders whether it's OK to date shortly after her mom dies; is it OK to wear her mom's clothes; return to schoolâand how to feel normal when nothing feels normal anymore. It's an experience that will help people understand grieving and know there is recovery.”

â
Detroit Free Press

“A powerful debut with unforgettable characters and important things to tell us about family, history, death, love, and philosophy. It's a story that will heal your own heart.”

âjbooks.com

“In a wry, introspective first-person narrative (sections of which were previously published as short stories), Mia examines the ripple effects of this tragedy, showing how grief and loss infiltrate her life. An artful mix of the poignant and the sometimes comically mundane.”

â
The Horn Book

“Humor carries this novel, preventing it from being maudlin. Reminiscent of Mexican milagros, those small religious charms nailed on sacred objects to denote miracles, it is through a series of seemingly small experiences that a shattered heart is miraculously mended.”

â
Ingram Library Services

“A witty, matter-of-fact, and heartfelt look at what grief means to one teenager, and how the relationships and habits Mia acquires help her to accept change. The light, everyday comedy born of a series of disasters prevents the book from becoming maudlin. Peripheral characters are delightfully, even frighteningly, real in their details.”

â
VOYA

“If you go to Amazon and limit your search to children's books and type in cancer, you'll get more than 4,000 book titles. With the field so packed with already published books, I thought it would be unlikely for a new book on the subject to be a MUST READ. And now I'm recommending this with all my heart, for teens and adults.”

â
Marianas Variety

“
Cures for Heartbreak
is a sad, funny, smart, endlessly poignant novel. Reading it made me feel grateful for my life, for my family, and above all for the world that brings us gifts like the gift of Margo Rabb.”

âMichael Chabon, Pulitzer Prizeâwinning author of
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

“Margo Rabb's story beautifully brings together the intensely personal and the historical, and rings with the authenticity of a bitter, yet illuminating truth.”

âJoyce Carol Oates

“
Cures for Heartbreak
is full of sadness, humor, and quirky details that ring completely true. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

â
Curtis Sittenfeld, author of
Prep
and
Sisterland

Credits

Cover design by Kate J. Engbring

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any references to actual people, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity, and are used fictitiously. Any other resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A brief excerpt of this novel was published in different form under the title “How to Tell a Story” in
Zoetrope: All Story
, 1999.

Lines from “O Tell Me the Truth about Love”: Copyright 1940 by W. H. Auden, renewed. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd. Copyright Â© 1940 and renewed 1968 by W. H. Auden; from
W. H. Auden Collected Poems
by W. H. Auden. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

Millay Estate for “Ancient Gesture” (2 lines) and “Time Does Not Bring Relief.”

The lines from Poem XVIII of “Twenty-One Love Poems.” Copyright Â© 2013 by The Adrienne Rich Literary Trust. Copyright Â© 1978 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. The lines from “(The Floating Poem, Unnumbered)” of “Twenty-One Love Poems.” Copyright Â© 2013 by The Adrienne Rich Literary Trust. Copyright Â© 1978 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. The line from “Power.” Copyright Â© 2013 by The Adrienne Rich Literary Trust. Copyright Â© 1978 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., from
Later Poems: Selected and New, 1971â2012
by Adrienne Rich. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

“One Art” from
The Complete Poems 1927â1979
by Elizabeth Bishop. Copyright Â© 1979, 1983 by Alice Helen Methfessel. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

“A Letter,” from
The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai
by Yehuda Amichai. Copyright Â© 2013 by Yehuda Amichai. Reproduced with permission of University of California Press Books via Copyright Clearance Center.

“What the Living Do,” from
What the Living Do
by Marie Howe. Copyright Â© 1997 by Marie Howe. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

KISSING IN AMERICA
. Copyright Â© 2015 by Margo Rabb. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

www.epicreads.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015935856

EPub Edition Â© May 2015 ISBN 9780062322395

ISBN 978-0-06- 232237-1

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