Sandwich: A Novel By Catherine Newman Book Review
Have you ever felt completely stuck in the chaos of being caught between your aging parents and grown kids? If that sounds familiar, then Catherine Newman’s novel Sandwich might really hit home, or maybe it’ll drive you crazy.
Sandwich is a contemporary novel about Rachel, known as Rocky, a 54-year-old woman dealing with menopause, family tensions, and memories during an annual weeklong trip to Cape Cod with her husband, adult children, and elderly parents. It’s a slow-paced, slice-of-life story full of humor, raw honesty, and some tough topics: miscarriage, abortion, aging, marriage struggles, and the bittersweet grief of watching your family change. The tone shifts between laugh-out-loud moments about those ridiculous menopause mood swings and deeper, heavier moments that make you think about loss, love, and what it means to let go.
What makes Sandwich stand out is Rocky’s voice, she’s unapologetically flawed, sharp-tongued, and bursting with neurotic energy. Newman’s writing brings her feelings to life with a mix of witty, crude, and sometimes painfully real internal monologues. The setting of Cape Cod is almost like another character, with vivid descriptions of seafood dinners, beach walks, and that nostalgic, salty air that perfectly frames this family’s ups and downs. If you’ve been through menopause or know the emotional rollercoaster of parenting grown kids, you’ll find a lot of moments that feel deeply relatable. Plus, there’s a surprising focus on food, especially sandwiches, that adds a cozy, homey vibe to the story.
Now, this book definitely divides readers. Fans love how candid and unfiltered Rocky is, praising the humor and emotional depth, saying it feels like a genuine take on midlife womanhood. Some found themselves laughing out loud and nodding along, feeling “seen” for the first time by a character dealing with all those invisible struggles, menopause, parenting, marriage shifts, grief, and more. Others, though, really struggled with Rocky’s personality, finding her narcissistic, exhausting, and sometimes irritating. Some readers felt the plot was thin, the politics too heavy-handed, or the crude language off-putting. The open and, for some, uncomfortable talks about reproductive health divided opinions, making this a book many either adore or can’t finish.
From my perspective, Sandwich is one of those books that will resonate most with readers who appreciate character-driven stories about real life, especially women in their 40s and 50s who’ve been through these messy, complicated experiences. If you want something light and purely escapist, this isn’t it. But if you’re open to a book that’s funny, heartfelt, sometimes painful, and refreshingly honest about the less glamorous sides of midlife, you might find it really rewarding. Fair warning, if you’re not into frank language or political themes woven into personal stories, this one might not be your cup of tea.
All in all, Sandwich feels like sitting down with a friend who’s brutally honest, hilarious, and a little overwhelmed by life, but deeply loving and real through it all. It’s a novel about family’s messy love, the passage of time, and the hard but beautiful work of holding on and letting go. If that sounds like your kind of story, definitely check it out. And hey, if you’ve read it, let me know what you thought!