Sandwich: A Novel

3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars | 13,809 ratings

Price: 13.99

Last update: 12-21-2024


About this item

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Sandwich is joy in book form. I laughed continuously, except for the parts that made me cry. Catherine Newman does a miraculous job reminding us of all the wonder there is to be found in life."—Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake

“If you like my novels, you will love love love this . . . . I stand in awe, it’s just perfect.”—Elin Hilderbrand, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Swan Song

“A total delight.”—Kate Christensen

From the beloved author of We All Want Impossible Things, a moving, hilarious story of a family summer vacation full of secrets, lunch, and learning to let go.

For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to Cape Cod. Their humble beach-town rental has been the site of sweet memories, sunny days, great meals, and messes of all kinds: emotional, marital, and—thanks to the cottage’s ancient plumbing—septic too.

This year’s vacation, with Rocky sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, promises to be just as delightful as summers past—except, perhaps, for Rocky’s hormonal bouts of rage and melancholy. (Hello, menopause!) Her body is changing—her life is, too. And then a chain of events sends Rocky into the past, reliving both the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers.

It's one precious week: everything is in balance; everything is in flux. And when Rocky comes face to face with her family’s history and future, she is forced to accept that she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves.


From the Publisher

Sandwich
Sandwich
Sandwich
Sandwich
We All Want Impossible Things (Paperback) We All Want Impossible Things (Kindle)
Buying Options
Customer Reviews
4.3 out of 5 stars
5,932
4.3 out of 5 stars
5,932
Price $12.52 $14.99

Top reviews from the United States

  • carilynp
    5.0 out of 5 stars Touching, nostalgic, funny. I LOVE this book so hard!
    Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2024
    I want to read everything she writes. She gets us. There is a nuance to these characters, a depth of emotion so unbelievably real, you can see yourself, you’ll nod your head, laugh along, feel the warmth and intimacy as if you're a member of the family. A mother looking longingly at her grown children, still hanging on their every word, trying to speak their slang, she wants to hug them until they beg to be let go or when she knows she’s annoying them so much yet she can’t stop herself and being smack in the middle of the ridiculously unfair mind and body-altering menopausal symptoms, she can’t help but look back on events that altered her, reflect on her marriage, and other relationships right under her nose, and wonder.

    It's Rocky’s favorite week of the year. She loves every minute of these precious days she gets to spend with her husband, son, daughter, and elderly parents in their tiny rental cottage on Cape Cod. The one they’ve been coming back to year after year. Easygoing Nick, Jamie, who loves to cook, brought his sweet and adoring girlfriend Maya, whom the family loves, chatty, opinionated Willa cringes when Rocky makes inappropriate comments, asks invasive questions but loves her, nonetheless. Secrets are revealed that change the trajectory of how Rocky looks at the past and thinks about the future. It’s board games, conversations with their cat, lazy days at the beach, counting the minutes until they can get to the clam shack.

    Just wait for the custom sandwich orders. While they give the book its title, a sandwich here is a metaphor for a place in time, which Rocky marks by telling us how old her kids were at key moments, rather than how old she was. Holding on to her kids as babies, when they depended on her, now the letting go, her nest is empty, a new phase has begun, menopause has kicked in, her parents are aging. Her time was not her own though every moment with her precious family brings her joy, she needs to process what she’s going through. Reminiscent of Nora Ephron, who used the planning, preparation and enjoyment of food to show pleasure and love, Newman adeptly brings us to the table with exquisite yet simple summer meals of lobster, corn on the cob, tomato salad, and what’s in between those made-to-order sandwiches. Now, that’s love. And drama.
  • Susan Roberts
    4.0 out of 5 stars Sandwich
    Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2024
    I've read a lot of comments about this book on social media so I decided to order it from Amazon to find out what all the hype is about. It was an interesting read about a woman stuck between the generations -- in the middle of her adult children and her aging parents - trying very hard to make everyone happy often trying too hard which makes her unhappy with her own life.

    For the past two decades, Rocky and her family have spent a week at Cape Cod during the summer. This year is no different - Rocky and her husband Nick, their son and his girlfriend and their daughter all crowd into a tiny rental to enjoy the week at the beach and reminisce on their past trips to the same house. The last two days of the week, Rocky's aging parents come to the beach house. With three generations of the family all in one small house, she realizes how sandwiched she is between her almost adult children and her aging parents. Much of the story takes place in her mind as she complains about the changes that menopause is bringing to her body and the effect it is having on her mind. She's proud of her children but misses them being small ad relaying on her to take care of all of their needs. She seems very ambivalent about her husband - it's almost that she loves him but often times doesn't like him much. She's kept secrets from him for their entire marriage and feels justified in it. During this week at the beach, she realizes that its finally time to share her secrets with him no matter what happens as a result.

    There is a character driven story so don't expect a lot of action. It's a look at the life of a family - parents, adult children and aging parents - during one week on their annual beach vacation. The characters are quirky and some of the family interplay is funny but overall, it's a serious look at learning to accept the changes that occur as we age -- whether we want them to or not.
  • JessieBookLover
    3.0 out of 5 stars A vacation week with some very hard-to-take characters
    Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2024
    This is the first book I’ve read by Catherine Newman. She is truly a gifted writer. Unfortunately she has decided to write about one of the most obnoxious families I’ve ever met in a novel. Every female character, except for grandma, is pretentious, clueless, immature, and in need of therapy. The storyline involves the absolute, all-consuming passion the main character has for being pregnant and being a mother (obsessed with her “perfect” children) for instance when she talked about them, saying “I ached with love…and I felt like a gaping wound. If I could have stuffed the children into it, I would have. Into me. To fill the hole. To keep them safe. To keep them,” while also being completely cavalier about abortion. One character says: “I got pregnant in high school. Having an abortion was a super easy decision then. I got it done during a free period between chem and Spanish.” She laughs. “Those were the days!” I am a liberal, a feminist, and I fully believe in women’s reproductive rights and the right to choose but this is obnoxious. I find it difficult to care for characters who speak this way. Newman does write the relationship between the main character and her elderly parents in a very touching and real way. And she can be very funny, but so many times, I just wanted to throw the book across the room. Oh well…not for everyone.

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