Kindle Edition Amazon Sheryl Sorrentino's website Amazon Barnes and Noble Category:  Women Publisher: CreateSpace ISBN-10:  1463541187 Type: Fiction Pages: 412 Copyright: July 14, 2011 ISBN-13: 9781463541187 Later with Myself is Sheryl Sorrentino's autobiographical fiction debut whose setting shifts between its protagonist's childhood in New York and her surprisingly well-adapted adulthood in California. Memoir-esque in its clarity and candor, Later with Myself presents a straightforward potagonist, Millie Moskowitz, enduring a highly dysfunctional childhood where she ends up pregnant at age 12 while living in an improbable household with her protective (but often passive and ineffectual) mother and a father who lives a bizarre double life with parallel families. Twelve-year-old Millie Moskowitz doesn’t know that her father has a “Mafia mistress” and an illegitimate son; she only knows that he sleeps elsewhere, carries a gun and comes and goes as he pleases. When Lee Moskowitz is at home, Millie is his personal foot rubber and back scratcher while her mother cooks his meals, washes dishes and irons his shirts. Seeking to escape her oppressive home life, Millie skips school to meet select neighborhood men for a soda in a delivery truck, a cigarette in a supermarket storeroom, or a ride on the school bus to an abandoned house. Millie is empowered by her misadventures, until she finds herself pregnant by a Black man twice her age. Later With Myself: The Misadventures of Millie Moskowitz chronicles Millie's midlife quest for peace and redemption, as she faces her childhood demons with honesty and humor. Excerpt “Millie, your brother told me kids are saying some very nasty things about you,” she began. My stomach tightened. “Jeffery called you some awful names yesterday. That’s why Jacob hit him.” “Yeah, you already told me.” I said. “He got a black eye, defending you.” “I know, I know!” I wasn’t sure where she was going with this, but I hoped she wouldn’t take a lengthy and evasive route getting there. “Do you know what Jeffery said to get your brother so upset?” At this rate, our little “chat” might take all afternoon, and I wanted to get back to my sandwich. “Yes,” I answered. No point in lying. Ma would only recount what kids were saying. I suffered their name-calling every day. I didn’t need to hear it from my mother’s mouth. “He called you a ‘slut’ and a ‘nigger-lover.’” I cringed. “He said you were pregnant by a colored man.” There. She’d finally gotten to the point, and I was strangely relieved, although I winced at the term “colored.” Nobody who knew anything about race relations used that term anymore. Ma was not a racist, unlike my father and brothers, and she rarely, if ever, used the “N-word.” But her characteristic benevolence toward “colored” people did not excuse her daughter being pregnant by one of them. “I want you to know, I don’t believe it. I know it can’t be right. But it’s not good for a girl to be talked about that way. I can’t understand why people are saying these things about you.” “How can you be so sure it’s not true?” I asked. My eyes immediately filled with tears. Large droplets rolled from my face and fell heavily onto my pink, flannel nightgown. My mother gasped in disbelief. “You mean to tell me. . .” Her voice was barely above a whisper as her eyes fixed on my stomach. I must have been nervous, because it gave a weird twitch right then. “You’re pregnant?” I nodded silently. “And the father is…” Franny could hardly form the words, “…a colored man?” I nodded again. She fidgeted and her eyes flashed in anger. “Millie, you’re only twelve years old, for God’s sake! What do you want, a man already?” In a rare moment of insight, I shot back angrily, “No, I want a mother!” That caught her off guard, and for a second she was taken aback. But then she raised her voice and said sharply, “You got some nerve saying that! You got a mother! And a damned good one!”

Sheryl Sorrentino Has Outdone Herself!
was sold on "Later With Myself" the moment I read the opening sentence. The words jumped off the page, and I knew right then and there this was going to be a good book. Sheryl's writing has punch, grit, and is downright funny at times. Her ability to infuse humor into a story as heart wrenching as "Later With Myself" is a testament to her talent as a writer. The story about 12-year-old Millie Moskowitz, who grows up in New York with her two brothers, her mother, and her abusive father, will have you glued to its pages wanting to know what's going to happen next in the lives of this dysfunctional family. Sheryl's characters are so fleshed out and three-dimensional you'll feel like you've known them all your life and Millie, who looks for love in all the wrong places and ends up pregnant by a man twice her age, will capture your heart. All through the book I found my mouth open and my eyes bugged in reaction to the startling events that are brilliantly and masterfully described by Sheryl. One scene in particular that involves a dirty mattress in an alley brought me to tears while I was on the Stairmaster at the gym. Another scene that takes place at a piano recital made me laugh so hard I almost peed my pants and a scene involving Millie and her pregnancy made me so furious I wanted to reach into the book and choke Millie's father. That's what Later With Myself will do. It will take you on an emotional rollercoaster ride. Like Bette Davis once said, "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night," and it will be well worth the price of admission. It's a must read. Get it sooner than LATER!

A Wonderful Read - Disturbing Yet Entertaining
Sheryl Sorrentino has an obvious flair for telling a gritty story with wit and aplomb. This is pretty amazing when you consider that "Later With Myself" is based on her own troubled childhood. Portions of this book will tie your stomach in knots, while others will have you laughing out loud. Although this is an entertaining read with colorful-yet-believable characters, Ms. Sorrentino does not shy away from tough social issues about racism, abortion, and the insidious effects of male domination. "Later With Myself" makes a bold case for laughing at oneself while owning our own worst actions. I will be looking for more from this author.

Great Story With a Wonderful Narrator and Interesting Characters
Wow!!! Sheryl Sorrentino's style is perfect for this story and these characters. So often authors' (even really successful ones') being in love with their own writing gets in the way of the story, the characters, and the relationships (which is what I read for). That was not a problem here. I loved Millie as a young girl. What a great voice for this book. She reminded me of the wonderful narrator Callie from "Middlesex". Just a kid out there trying to figure it all out, not getting any help, and yet managing to get through it. Despite all the problems and the totally dysfunctional life, she was just an enormously charming, endearing person. Somebody to root for. And the parents are amazing characters. Both of them. Lee is a horrific person and Franny is almost as bad. The scene where Franny chooses Lee moving back in over Millie because it means she wins over Cassie was painful. Throughout the book I kept hoping that Franny would "get some balls" in dealing with Lee, but it almost never happens. This was a great read. There was nothing in this book to remind me that I wasn't reading fiction from my favorite authors (like Franzen, Chabon, etc.) This should be read by people that love really good writing and a great story. I look forward to Sheryl Sorrentino's next one.