Dumbfounded: A Memoir

Rothschild, a writer and high school teacher living in Florida, was abandoned by his mother and raised by his grandparents, a retired Jewish couple living in “the most exclusive building in the most exclusive neighborhood” of New York City. The setting is sitcom-perfect, from the headstrong grandmother and exasperated grandfather to the wisecracking servants, and Rothschild’s youthful acting out offers much opportunity for humor. At one point, his behavior was so out of hand that one of the few private schools he hadn’t been asked to leave would accept him only if his grandparents donated one of their Van Goghs as well. But all is not happy: an early attempt by his mother to reunite the family ends in disaster, and her selfish behavior forces him to care for his Alzheimer’s-stricken grandmother while still a teenager. Rothschild has been through a lot, and he’s an able storyteller, easily drawing readers’ sympathy by layering the emotional drama. If his story seems incomplete, that’s probably because it is—the final break with his mother would, from an older author, be the midpoint at which Rothschild turns his life around, but this memoir ends with just the first glimmers of an optimistic future. (Aug.)