Dumbfounded: Big Money. Big Hair. Big Problems. Or Why Having It All Isn't for Sissies.

By Matt Rothschild

Book Overview

What fresh hell is this? I stopped, dumbfounded. My grandmother was at my bedroom door. "What the hell are you doing?" she asked, surprised but not angry. I looked down at my dress. "Playing school." My grandmother began stroking her chin. Clearly, there were several ways she could take this conversation. "Matthew, what are you wearing?" I could see that she didn't really want to ask this question but felt she had to. "A dress," I said. . . . "And where did you get this dress?" she asked. . . . "I found it?" My grandmother sighed. "So you've been wandering around the women's department at JC Penney? Do you expect me to believe you couldn't find a better dress than that?" The only Jewish family in a luxury Fifth Avenue building of WASPs, the senior Rothschilds took over the responsibility of raising their grandson, Matt, after his mother left him for Italy and a fourth husband. But rearing Matt was no small task-even for his sharp-tongued grandmother, a cross between Lauren Bacall and Bea Arthur, and a lady who Matt grew to love deeply. Matt secretly wore his grandmother's dresses, shoplifted Barbies from FAO Schwarz, invented an imaginary midget butler who he addressed at dinner parties, and got kicked out of nearly every elite school in Manhattan-once for his impersonation of Judy Garland at a recital. He was eventually sent to a boarding school (his grandmother had to ransom off a van Gogh to get him in). But as funny as his hijinks are now, at the time they masked a Jewfroed, chubby, lovable kid, sexually confused and abandoned by his mother, trying to fit in among the precious genteel world he was forced to live in. Matt Rothschild-the man David Sedaris could have been if he'd grown up in an esteemed family on Manhattan's Upper East Side-tells the story of his childhood with humor, honesty, and unlikely compassion for his eccentric relatives, including his mother, in this bitingly entertaining and unexpectedly tender memoir of family dysfunction.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307405427
• ISBN13: 9780307405425
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Crown
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.1" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

Great Read, Funny and Occasionally Poignant

This is a great book you don't have to be gay or jewish to enjoy. The characters are developed really well. I'm a 20 yr old dude, but I'm not gonna lie, my eyes got watery at more than one point in reading this. There's a lot of genuinely funny moments as well, and I laughed out loud and probably looked like moron to everybody around me, but overall this was an awesome book, i'd definitely recommend this to anyone.

Dumbfounded--rare Laugh Out Loud prose!

Matt Rothschild's prose created mental pictures that made me reluctant to put the book down--even for chocolate! In describing his sixth grade attempt to get sympathy--rather than punishment-- from the teacher he writes: "I bit my lip and and scrunched up my face in a look of pure constipation, the closest expression to agony I could muster." Pure giggles. The stories of eccentric relatives, odd neighbors, and a kid trying to fit in all resonate with honesty and humor. Even the painful parts of growing up a Rothschild are described with a tongue in cheek humor that brings a grin. My busy life forced me to read the book over a period of a couple of weeks, and I was pleased that I could dive right back into Matt's life each time. A perfect read for the nightstand!

No white Rolls Royces After Labor Day !!!

Learn these 'aristo' tips & more in this ADDICTIVELY laugh-out-loud debut novel. I started this book & couldn't put it down...As someone who loves men who love Judy Garland & who lives in Vero Beach, Fl surrounded by the 'ladies who lunch' crowd this novel hit home. I read more than your average bear & I can honestly say that this is the best book I have read in years! A perfect read, especially those nights when everything on tv is as non-sensical as Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin preaching abstinence. Now if only Hollywood would option the rights....I can see Matt playing himself with me as his hairdresser. Of course a flatiron & straightening gel would simply HAVE to be included in the budget due to the Jewfro. PS: my dog Beauregard the Beagle loved the author photo featuring Matt with his adopted boxer. The dog's name? Why Baron, of course !

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

So you think being raised by wealthy Jewish grandparents in a Fifth Avenue apartment, twelve years of prep and boarding schools, regular trips to FAO Schwartz, chauffeured limousines, or visiting Mom at her husband's Italian villa also means a life on easy street? Then you haven't read Matt Rothschild's family memoir, DUMBFOUNDED. In his memoir, Matt paints a lush and detailed portrait of life as a complex, awkward outsider in a world that demands conformity and simple definition. Despite growing up in a completely different environment, I felt a constant sense of familiarity and kinship with Matt, whether he was describing the painful silence that greeted his a capella rendition of "Get Happy" for the sixth-grade talent show, spinning tales of his midget butler, Little Saigon, in the hopes of pleasing his fickle grandmother, or confronting an ever-increasing awareness that his sexuality might not fit society's definition of "normal." Matt's story runs the gamut of human emotion from laugh-out-loud hilarity to chest-aching heartbreak. DUMBFOUNDED is first and foremost a book about people, and it reminds us that once stripped of all our ideological constructs (wealth, race, faith, gender, orientation, nationality, etc.), at our core, we're all pretty much the same. Reviewed by: Cat

Immediately Absorbed

This memoir draws you immediately in with humor and unique characters. while I believe Dumfounded, by Matt Rothschild to be true, it is obvious he takes liberty with conversations--dialog that couldn't possibly be remembered. In fact, the book reads--in a good way--like fiction. Rothschild is raised by his wealthy grandparents in New York City. He is constantly getting in trouble, usually in school, and often unfairly blamed. His grandparents are eccentric and a joy to get to know. Less joyful are the bits about his mother, living in Italy. Rothschild writes a very funny, sometimes sad, memoir about his childhood that is extremely readable. Recommend.