Jami Attenberg: Transient Novelist
Jami Attenberg is a 40-year-old novelist with three books out. Her essay on The Rumpus about having success but having no money is pretttttyyyyy great. It’s framed around the past half-year, as she’s tried to figure out how to live the life she wants, and also live within her means. “I have slept in 26 locations in the last seven months,” she starts. “This was never my intention, this peripatetic life, but looking back now at the age of 40, I can finally see I have been doing it for decades. I wanted so much more for myself at some point, though I cannot even remember what exactly it was that I wanted anymore. Now it is only just to write.” Read the whole thing, it’s gooooood (even if you’re not a writer, mean it).
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Previously on The Billfold
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It’s a very good piece, but so crushingly despairing. It makes me want to get three extra jobs just so I can have luxuries like a stocked fridge.
I really enjoyed this essay. But the whole “oh well, I guess I’ll just work till I die” ending bothers me. Maybe it’s because gerontology is my jam, but often times working until you die is not an option unless you are considering suicide. People have strokes. People develop dementia. While these things may not necessarily stop you from working, they often do. Throwing up your hands and giving up on any kind of planning feels like a cop-out to me, though I do understand that sometimes it feels like the only option.