Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Note: Right before our public library closed, I checked out four books. This is the first of the four and I don't know what I'm going to do for reading material once I've read them. I anticipate trying to get electronic copies from the library, but I also anticipate everyone else doing the same thing and the waits to be daunting. I might buy more from the Kindle store or actually pony up for a Scribd membership. I can't imagine social isolation without a steady stream of books, so while I understand and fully support our library's decision to close, it hurts my heart that the thing I will be relying on the most to get me through the next (months? year? more?) is not available.

Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner tells the story of Toby and Rachel Fleishman, a New York City couple with two kids and a troubled marriage. The kids are shuttling back and forth between their parents' apartments a few blocks away from each other. Toby is on dating apps and is having pseudo-anonymous sex and thinking about his newfound sex life when he's not taking care of his patients in his job as a doctor or his children in his job as a father. Meanwhile, Rachel suddenly drops the kids off at Toby's apartment and disappears, not answering her phone and seemingly never in her apartment.

This was a readable book. I thought Brodesser-Akner did a great job of really getting into the characters' minds. You could absolutely feel the anger, tension, and roiling emotions just emanating off the pages. I had a knot in my stomach the whole time I was reading this novel, just watching the marriage crumble, watching the children unravel, and watching mental health decline.  I thought the writing was transparent and effective.

The novel was a compelling critique of a certain class of New Yorkers, social climbing, and the race to the top.  Basically what this meant was that each one of these characters was kind of terrible. Tob was self-absorbed, horny, and thoughtless. Rachel was overly ambitious and neglectful of her husband and children. And the other characters were equally flawed. That made it challenging to want to hang out with them, but at the same time, it was riveting because none of us are perfect people. If you could see inside my head, it would not make me look good, either!

I don't love reading about divorces. It just makes me so sad because I think marriage has been a good deal for me.  But I also think that it's useful to think about what makes marriages fail. And my life is about as far removed from the Manhattan private school, yoga going, bagel eating life that was portrayed in this novel as it gets, but there are still lessons to be learned. Mainly, don't be a jerk to the ones you love.  Check in on them. Show them affection. Listen to them. 

Let's all take a moment to realize that this is going to be a long haul and if we don't love each other, this fictional novel will become our lives.