Dumbfounded

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What fresh hell is this? I stopped, dumbfounded. My grandmother stood at my bedroom door, surprised but not angry. “What the hell are you doing?” she asked. I looked down at my dress. “Playing school.” She began stroking her chin, clearly weighing her options. “Matthew, what are you wearing?” I could see she didn’t want to ask but felt she had to. “A dress,” I replied. “And where did you get this dress?” she probed. “I found it?” I answered. Her sigh indicated disbelief. “So you’ve been wandering around the women’s department at JC Penney?” The only Jewish family in a luxury Fifth Avenue building of WASPs, the senior Rothschilds took on the responsibility of raising their grandson, Matt, after his mother left for Italy. Rearing Matt was no small task, even for his sharp-tongued grandmother, a cross between Lauren Bacall and Bea Arthur, whom Matt grew to love deeply. He secretly wore her dresses, shoplifted Barbies, invented an imaginary midget butler, and got expelled from elite schools—once for impersonating Judy Garland. Eventually, he was sent to boarding school, with his grandmother ransoming a van Gogh for his admission. Amid his humorous antics lay a chubby, lovable kid, sexually confused and abandoned by his mother, trying to fit into the genteel world he was thrust into. Matt Rothschild recounts his childhood with humor, honesty, and unexpected compassion for his eccentric relatives in this entertaining and tender