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Dumbfounded: Big Money. Big Hair. Big Problems. Or Why Having It All Isn't for Sissies. | 
 enlarge | Author: Matt Rothschild
Publisher: Crown
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $9.95
You Save: $14.00 (58%)
New (35) Used (16) Collectible (1) from $8.27
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 242162
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 0307405427
Dewey Decimal Number: 974.710049240092
EAN: 9780307405425
ASIN: 0307405427
Publication Date: August 12, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Dumbfounded--rare Laugh Out Loud prose! October 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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!
Plainly Terrific October 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The perfect combination of humor, pathos and insight. EVERYONE can relate to this story! It crosses all demographics. Congratulations, Matt. Be sure and look for the upcoming "BEHIND THE MASK . . . No More" by Byron Nease. Many parallels.
 Feisty, opinionated grandmother made him the man he is today October 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When Matt's single mother became pregnant with him, it was his Old-World charming grandfather and New York City-savvy feisty grandmother who insisted she would have the child, and raised him while his mother continued her carefree life of partying in Europe. Matt never knew his father, and subsequent contact with his mother consisted of terse phone conversations on birthdays and some holidays.
Not that life with his nonpracticing-Jewish grandparents was especially carefree. While financially well-off, they were as emotionally distant and dramatically confrontational as the rest of his family, resulting in Matt developing a chronic need for attention and approval as a substitute for the love he felt lacking. While his grandfather was the head of the household, most decisions were ultimately made by his sarcasm-prone, judgmental grandmother, who Matt learned to ally himself with, as his defender when he had his numerous behavior problems in school, showed a flair for female impersonation, or got caught shoplifting. Even when apart from his grandmother for any reason, his life was largely controlled by their influence, to the point where they began to depend on each other more and more, a relationship that somewhat angered some of their more colorful relatives.
It's coming-of-age (and coming out) in a 14-room luxury apartment opposite Central Park, and trying to fit in with friends at a series of exclusive boarding schools ... not a life many of us can identify with, but the author makes it a hilarious, painfully honest and heartwarming experience for any reader. Four stars out of five.
Humor and humanness nicely melded together September 30, 2008
The tone of Matt Rothschild's new memoir, Dumbfounded, falls somewhere between the demented, sidesplitting satire of David Sedaris and the earnest pathos of Augusten Burroughs. Like Burroughs' memoirm Running With Scissors, Dumbfounded is a coming-of-age story told by a boy who has been both emotionally and physically abandoned by his mother.
Helen Rothschild left her son with her Jewish parents--her sharp-tongued, independent mother, and her gentle, ailing father, a man who worries so much about the family's reputation that he bristles at the notion of riding in their white Rolls Royce after Labor Day. The family dynamic provides for entertaining analysis.
The vignettes that make up Dumbfounded evoke mixed emotions. Though only loosely chronological, the stories are embellished with vivid descriptions of Rothschild's youth and his teenage development. It is tempting to slide into a kind of rueful sympathy for the young boy when learning about his effort to emulate Judy Garland, singing "Get Happy" without accompaniment at a high school talent show. After his best friend Elaine coaxes Matt to participate in a shoplifting spree, then abandons him to face the punishment alone, the reader is torn between anger and amusement. The impenetrable suffering of first love is sweetly depicted in a chapter about a one-sided boarding school romance.
The book's most moving accounts describe how Rothschild faces his grandmother's Alzheimer's disease, and how he wins the affection of an awkward, anti-social student shortly after taking his first job as a kindergarten teacher.
Dumbfounded successfully weighs the foibles of adolescence, the craving to belong, and the fear of failure, all against the hard lessons of growing up and accepting responsibility. Anyone who has suffered the childhood taunts of bullies, or longed for independence from authority, will find satisfaction in reading about Rothschild's roller coaster journey.
Armchair Interviews says: A memoir with a theme familiar to many people.
Not Dumfounded, Stunned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! September 23, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Rothschild, Matt. "Dumfounded: Big Money, Big Hair, Big Problems. Or Why Having it All Isn't for Sissies". Crown, 2008.
Not Dumfounded, Stunned!!!!
Every once in a while a book comes along that makes me cheer and Matt Rothschild's book is one of those. I am giving advance warming that I am going to praise this book.
Rothschild was quite the kid. He grew up on Fifth Avenue, New York City in a building where his family was the only Jewish family in "a building of WASPS". He was raised by his grandparents after his mother took off for Italy and pursued her fourth husband. His grandmother, "a cross between Lauren Bacall and Bea Arthur" had a sharp tongue and a lot of love.
Matt's childhood is a story in itself. He was booted out of almost every private school in Manhattan, he wore his grandmother's dresses and he shoplifted Barbie dolls. Eventually he was sent to boarding school in order that he learn something. He tried hard to fit into the world but itas not easy for a fat little Jewish boy who was confused sexually to fit into the genteel society in which he was raised. He came from a high-faluttin' family--he was a ROTHSCHILD.
He grew up in an atmosphere that seemed perfect, an exclusive location, a good name and lots of money. He could have had anything but he was precocious. He was so precocious that one of the elite New York schools agreed to take him only if his grandparents would donate one of their Van Gogh paintings to the school. When his mother returns and tries to reunite the family, disaster looms. He was forced to take care of his grandmother who was suffering from Alzheimer's when he was just a teen.
Matt's childhood was anything but typical but he also suffered from a lack of responsibility. Forcing him into caring for his grandmother and make adult decisions isn't really for a teenager to do and so he missed his teen years when others were enjoying them. It was then that he came to a decision that changed his life.
The book draws us in from the first sentence and the humor keeps us going. We learn that growing up in the lap of luxury does not guarantee that life will be easy. Rothschild's life is complex and he was an outsider in a world of privilege and which demands fitting the mold. I could not help but identify with so much of this book as I also grew up in a Jewish family in which I lacked very little, The story shows all human emotions and with the hilarity there is also heartbreak. Like Matt, I wondered if I would ever be considered "normal". But the book also has a strong message in that it allows us to think about who we are once the trappings and societal constructs are taken away. When the labels are no longer there, there is not much difference between us.
Matt's story is powerful and intense and we laugh and we cry. Many of us know how hard it is to try to fit and fail, His thoughts of his family are irreverent and biting and honest. Rothschild has drawn some unforgettably rich characters (who we understand are real) and we love them and hate them. Above all we love Matt Rothschild for not only the book he has given us but having the courage to write it.
Where is he today? In his own words, he "currently lives on the cusp of gentrification in Orlando, Florida with his adopted Boxer, Baron (I love that). He teaches English and journalism at an urban high school".
On a personal note I want to thank Matt Rothschild for this wonderful book. I am so glad to see men finally putting their stories in print. Recently we have had both Robert Leleux
and Joel Derfner tell us their stories as well. I hope it is a trend.
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