BOOK SYNOPSIS:
"A finely observed, timely exploration of marriage, divorce, and the bewildering dynamics of ambition from one of the most exciting writers working today
Toby Fleishman thought he knew what to expect when he and his wife of almost fifteen years separated: weekends and every other holiday with the kids, some residual bitterness, the occasional moment of tension in their co-parenting negotiations. He could not have predicted that one day, in the middle of his summer of sexual emancipation, Rachel would just drop their two children off at his place and simply not return. He had been working so hard to find equilibrium in his single life. The winds of his optimism, long dormant, had finally begun to pick up. Now, this.
As Toby tries to figure out where Rachel went, all while juggling his patients at the hospital, his never-ending parental duties and his new app-assisted sexual popularity, his tidy narrative of the spurned husband with the too-ambitious wife is his sole consolation. But if Toby ever wants to truly understand what happened to Rachel and what happened to his marriage, he is going to have to consider that he might not have seen things all that clearly in the first place.
A searing, utterly unvarnished debut, Fleishman Is in Trouble is an insightful, unsettling, often hilarious exploration of a culture trying to navigate the fault lines of an institution that has proven to be worthy of our great wariness and our great hope."
Title: Fleishman Is in Trouble
Author: Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Publisher: Random House
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Four
Review:
"Fleishman Is in Trouble" by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
My Rationalization:
This was quite a read of a 41-year-old man who was in the process of divorcing, a Jewish doctor, trying to be there for his two kids, however, he was also caught up in wanting to hook up with women thru via dating apps. As the story opens up we find that Toby Fleishman ex-wife [Rachel] has dropped the kids off at Toby's place without his knowledge and disappears leaving him to have to shoulder all their needs 24/7. Now, at this point I know one is asking why did she do this? What was going on with Rachel? We find Toby is left to ponder what went wrong with his marriage, his work, and his life.
I felt like this was a good story of a marriage that lets the reader see both sides of the coin. I did feel that the story was a little lull in the beginning, however by the end [part three] I was pulled back into the story which did explain quite a bit about the two main characters. I don't want to leave out the side characters that were so important in their own way to the story. I will say you will have to keep up in this literary read because the storyline will have several different stories going on which did bring out 'the meaning of commitment even as people grow older and do change.' There is definitely a story of lessons on 'marriage, sex life, motherhood, and family life.' What got me about the story was how I was left thinking that this mother didn't really focus on the children's needs at all. Be prepared for a good read about 'divorce, family life, dating and dealing with relationships' even from a man's viewpoint.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an early release in exchange for an honest and fair review
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