Minus Me: A Novel

by Mameve Medwed

Overview

Her life turned upside down by a grim diagnosis, a small-town Maine woman sets about writing a "How To" life manual for her handsome yet hapless husband in a novel Elinor Lipman (Good Riddance, On Turpentine Lane) calls "smart, funny-quirky, and so very satisfying."

Annie and her devoted but comically incompetent childhood sweetheart Sam are the owners and operators of Annie's, a gourmet sandwich shop, home to the legendary Paul Bunyan Special Sandwich—their "nutritionally challenged continual source of income and marital harmony and local fame."

But into their mostly charmed marriage comes the scary medical diagnosis for Annie—and the overwhelming challenge of finding a way to help Sam go on without her. Annie decides to leave Sam step-by-step instructions for a future without her, and considers her own replacement in his heart and their bed.Her best-laid plans grind to a halt with the unexpected appearance of Ursula, Annie's Manhattan diva of a mother, who brings her own brand of chaos and disruption into their lives.

Minus Me is a poignant and hilarious novel about the bonds of marriage, the burdens of maternal love, and the courage to face mortality, "with an ending readers will cherish (Caroline Leavitt, Pictures of You)."

"Medwed's lovely novel of marriage, motherhood, love and loss is so real that at times it feels like non-fiction. It's a timely reminder that in the worst of times, we sometimes rediscover the very best of ourselves." —Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of A Spark of Light.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643856438
Publisher:	CROOKED LANE BOOKS
Publication date:	01/12/2021
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	1,025,846
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Born in Maine and named for two grandmothers, Mamie and Eva (pronounced May-Meeve), Bangor's "other" writer (after Stephen King), Mameve Medwed is the author of five novels, Mail, Host Family, The End of an Error, How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life. (2007 Massachusetts Book Award Honors in Fiction) and Of Men and Their Mothers. She has published essays in three anthologies: How to Spell Chanukah (Algonquin), My Bookstore (Black Dog and Leventhal) and What My Mother Gave Me (Algonquin). Her short stories, essays, and book reviews have appeared in, among others, the New York Times, Gourmet, Yankee, Redbook, Playgirl, The Boston Globe, Ascent, The Missouri Review, Confrontation, Newsday and The Washington Post. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

11/16/2020

Medwed (Of Men and Their Mothers) returns with an underwhelming tale of a woman with marital and maternal woes. Annie Stevens-Strauss and her husband, Sam, are childless after four miscarriages and a stillbirth, and her self-involved actress mother, Ursula, can’t believe Annie married her high school sweetheart and stayed in her small Maine town to run a sandwich shop. When a scan turns up multiple masses on Annie’s lungs, Annie believes she’s doomed and puts off a biopsy. She thinks mainly of Sam and his past troubles with depression, and how helpless he’ll be without her, so she focuses on writing a how-to manual for life (covering everything from his parents’ birthdays to operating instructions for the washing machine) without telling Sam about the scan. Drama ensues over a misunderstanding involving a business loan from Ursula, and plot twists that rely on Annie’s almost pathological unwillingness to examine her life until the well-connected Ursula sweeps her off to New York to see a specialist. Medwed’s tendency to repeat key facts over and over, such as Sam’s depression and Ursula’s selfishness, gives the whole affair an unpolished feel. With a passive protagonist at the center, this is a bit of a slog. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Minus Me:
"[A] bright and poignant story."
—Booklist

“Medwed’s appealing characters make Minus Me a thoughtful story about the promises that family members make to one another, about what it truly means to live, and about what people hope to pass on after they die.”
—Foreword Reviews

“Impressively original, deftly crafted, emotionally elegant, and downright comedic.”
—Midwest Book Review

“Medwed’s lovely novel of marriage, motherhood, love and loss is so...A timely reminder that in the worst of times, we sometimes rediscover the very best of ourselves.” 
—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of A Spark of Light

"A profoundly warm and intimate novel about what it means to try to manage the tumult in our life—and the life of a loved one...Sprightly and absolutely delightful with an ending readers will cherish."
—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You

“A delightful romp of a novel....Surely this is the feel good book of the year!
—Ann Hood, New York Times bestselling author of The Book That Matters Most

"Minus Me is a charming and hopeful story about love and destiny...about the family you have and the family you choose in the mouth-watering milieu of a gourmet sandwich shop...A perfect read to escape the world." 
—Miriam Parker, author of The Shortest Way Home

"So much to love! Minus Me is vintage Medwed: smart, funny-quirky, and so very satisfying."
—Elinor Lipman, author of Good Riddance and On Turpentine Lane

"Medwed writes with heart and charm, warmth and wisdom. She knows how to evoke laughter and tears, balance the joys and the challenges of the complicated relationships she describes, and bring to life an entire Maine town."
—Stephen McCauley, author of My Ex-Life

“Witty and charming from start to finish.”
—Jill McCorkle, New York Times bestselling author of Hieroglyphics

Praise for How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life:
“An adventure to which Jane Austen might have raised a celebratory glass of port...A whole lot of fun.”
—Kirkus

“Charming and funny without being precious, Abby’s a thoroughly believable character.” 
—Library Journal, starred review

“Don’t be deceived by Medwed’s light touch and irrepressible sense of humor... a canny writer with a distinctive voice.” 
—Boston Globe

Praise for Of Men and Their Mothers:
“The mother-in-law...Does she still have any power left after decades of pummeling? In Mameve Medwed’s new novel, ‘Of Men and Their Mothers,’ she certainly does. Ina Pollack, Maisie Grey’s loathsome ex-mother-in-law, can raise the reader’s pulse with a single phone call.” 
—New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

2020-10-14
One-half of the happiest couple on earth—or at least in the fictional Passamaquoddy, Maine—conceals her terminal diagnosis from her husband.

Despite a tortuous history of pregnancy loss, Annie and Sam have been a perfect match since high school. Well-liked in their Maine hometown, they came back after college to run a sandwich shop with a sub so popular it's a tourist attraction—the totally unhealthy and impossibly delicious "Paul Bunyan," consisting of salami, American cheese, tomatoes, onions, green peppercorns, pickles, and a mysterious sauce holding it all together. Considering the success of the couple's relationship, it's odd that they've never really learned to have a conversation—but that's what sets this kooky rom-com in motion, with additional bold plot contrivances (obscure medical conditions, family secrets, sudden personality changes, magical wealth and influence) also playing their parts. When the local doctor takes a look at Annie's lungs and tells her with tears in his eyes to get her affairs in order, she knows she must break the news to her darling Sam. But when Sam cuts her off and changes the subject, she decides not to tell him at all. Instead, she'll write him a manual on how to manage his life after she's gone. Each chapter of Medwed's first novel in 12 years starts with a quote from the manual—"Women like flowers," "Don't let your underwear become tattered," "Change the answering machine to your own voice"—and longer excerpts are also included, featuring quite a bit of urging that, as a widower, Sam seek comfort from Annie's lifelong best friend, Rachel. Though the doctor continues to insist she tell both Sam and her mother (a famous actress who's been worthless as a parent and is now, after many husbands, this doctor's girlfriend) and also to please, please consult a specialist for a second opinion, Annie sees no rush. If you're gonna die, you're gonna die.

Despite the utter unbelievability of every other plot element, you still end up craving one of those sandwiches.

Kirkus Reviews