Jackpot Summer by Elyssa Friedland on June 11, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Family Life / General, Fiction / Humorous / General, Fiction / Women
Pages: 384
Format: Audiobook
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In Elyssa Friedland’s new novel, Jackpot Summer, the Jacobson siblings are thrust into a whirlwind of drama, laughter, and unexpected challenges when they win a life-changing lottery prize. Expecting their chaotic lives to magically transform into a fairy tale of luxury and ease, the siblings quickly discover that money can’t fix everything—in fact, it might just make things worse.
Raised by frugal parents who taught them to value every dollar, the Jacobson children are well-acquainted with scrimping and saving. Their mother reused tea bags and refused to pay retail, while their father drilled budgeting into their heads before they even learned to ride bikes. Yet despite their thrifty upbringing, the siblings’ adult lives are a far cry from financial stability or personal satisfaction. They are each grappling with their own struggles: Matthew is stuck in a soul-crushing corporate law job, longing for more time with his son; Laura’s marriage is falling apart in spectacular fashion; Sophie’s once-promising art career has stalled while her boyfriend’s success overshadows her; and Noah, the youngest, is still trying to get his life together, scraping by doing tech repair.
The siblings reunite at their Jersey Shore childhood home, which their newly widowed father has decided to sell. Faced with the bittersweet task of packing up their past, the Jacobsons bring with them the emotional baggage of their present. When Noah, always chasing a quick fix, suggests buying a lottery ticket for a Powerball drawing, his sisters reluctantly agree. Matthew, the pragmatic lawyer, opts out—but fate has other plans, and the siblings hit the jackpot.
What should have been a dream come true quickly turns into a nightmare as the sudden influx of cash brings simmering rivalries and buried secrets to the surface. With their father off playing pickleball in a Florida retirement community and their mother no longer around to keep the peace, the once close-knit siblings find themselves drifting further apart, each seeking solace in expensive toys and temporary pleasures rather than in each other.
Friedland’s portrayal of the Jacobson siblings is both hilarious and heart-wrenching, capturing the messiness of family life with wit and warmth. She skillfully navigates the complexities of sibling dynamics, showing how deeply entrenched roles and resentments can fester and flare when tested by life’s challenges—or, in this case, a sudden windfall. The novel delves into the idea that wealth is not just a matter of dollars and cents but of emotional connection, understanding, and the bonds that tie families together.
As the story unfolds, the Jacobsons learn that money cannot buy happiness, nor can it heal the wounds of the past. Their attempts to fill the void with material possessions only serve to highlight the real issue: without each other, they will never feel truly rich. It’s only when they begin to confront their individual struggles and come together as a family that they start to find the contentment they were searching for all along.
Jackpot Summer is a delightful, laugh-out-loud exploration of family, money, and the myths we tell ourselves about what it means to be successful. Friedland’s sharp, relatable storytelling and her keen eye for the absurdities of life make this a must-read for anyone who has ever dreamed of winning the lottery—or realized that the true prize lies not in what you can buy, but in the people who stick with you through thick and thin. As the Jacobson siblings learn, sometimes the greatest fortune is having a family to weather the storms of life with—even when that family is complicated, messy, and not at all the picture-perfect image they might have hoped for.