Unclish, the Seltzers’ uncle, drilled the rules into them when they were kids through rhymes like “A bite and half / and you won’t need another, / whether it’s your father, your sister, / or even your mother.

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. Ich habe es verschlungen und hoffe, dass es übersetzt wird, damit auch die deutsche Leserschaft hiervon zehren kann. Can-Am is an abbreviation for Cannibal-American, and the family have to eat her (hence the weight gain prior to imminent demise).Diving into the new lives of the 12 siblings and their conflicting views on their cultural heritage, this story gets chaotic and can be sometimes hilarious. As part of the (deliberate quotation marks) “journey,” we learn a great deal about the fractious family dynamic. The boys all have a purpose -- they are a chain of people who keeps their family and culture connected. Esta é a permissa deste livro provocador, intrigante, satírico, politicamente incorrecto e divertido, mas que levanta também algumas questões pertinentes : Quem realmente somos? Mas mete canibais modernos (bom, a história é sobre canibais na Nova Iorque de hoje) e, apesar de ser sempre contado com um certo exagero cómico, há algumas passagens que podem dar a volta ao estômago aos mais sensíveis.

Does it take two generations to change from referring to yourself as Chinese to Chinese-American to just American? It is a rare and agile narrative, part deftly-written, Cannibal satire, part moving exploration of identity and party truly concerning recipe book.

The scene where Mudd bequeaths her body parts for digestion is bad enough, although it does fit into a literary tradition that include’s Villon’s Testament, Lindsay’s Papyngo and Donne’s The Will. Seventh Seltzer has done everything he can to break from the traditions of the past, but in his overbearing, narcissistic mother’s last moments, she whispers in his ear the two words he always knew she would: ‘Eat me’.

The story is hilarious although it falls at the end with the deed only half done but reading thoroughly recommended. There’s a positively rabbinical exchange, for instance, between Seventh and a sibling who turns out to be vegan over what counts as “eating”: “There,” says Seventh, having consulted Siri on his iPhone, “If you spit it up you’re not absorbing.

if you are a chain breaker in YOUR family -- (hard knock truth) -- you just might be seen as a NOBODY! He grew up in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Monsey, New York where he describes himself as having been "raised like a veal".

The characters are wonderful and well defined but this story is just not big enough to fill a whole novel - the effect of this is that the idea goes round in circles too many times. Auslander has published a collection of short stories, Beware of God and a memoir, Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir. 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.Auslander turns his taboo-shattering satiric gaze to cannibalism in this outrageous, salty take on contemporary culture .