Fleishman Is in Trouble

A Novel

By: Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Narrated by: Allyson Ryan

Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST • “A masterpiece” (NPR) about marriage, divorce, and the bewildering dynamics of ambition

Now an FX limited series on Hulu, starring Claire Danes, Jesse Eisenberg, Lizzy Caplan, and Adam Brody

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Entertainment Weekly, The New York Public Library
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, The Washington Post, USA Today Vanity Fair, Vogue, NPR, Chicago Tribune, GQ, Vox, Refinery29, Elle, The Guardian, Real Simple, Financial Times, Parade, Good Housekeeping, New Statesman, Marie Claire, Town & Country, Evening Standard, Thrillist, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, BookPage, BookRiot, Shelf Awareness

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.

Alma’s Best Jewish Novel of the Year • Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize for Best First Book

©2019 Taffy Brodesser-Akner (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“This glorious debut has the humor of Maria Semple, the heart of Meg Wolitzer, the lustiness of Philip Roth, and a voice that is pure. It’s wild and wonderful and goes in so many directions, each with profundity—my favorite thing that novels can do. How does one's favorite journalist become one's new favorite novelist? With this book.”—Emma Straub

“When his ex drops the kids off and doesn’t come back, a father of two revisits the choices that led to this moment. He searches for answers, hilariously and heartbreakingly avoiding the darkest questions. Brodesser-Akner’s debut is a referendum on marriage, friendship, and how we live (and love) right now.”—People

“Whip-smart, gleefully scatological . . . [Brodesser-Akner] aims a perfect gimlet eye at the city’s relentless self-regard. . . . But her best trick may be the novel’s narrator: An elusive presence identified at first only as an old friend of Toby’s from their study-abroad days, she turns out to be both the book’s Trojan horse and—in a brilliant third-act pivot—its greatest gift, transforming a fizzy comedy of manners into something genuinely, unexpectedly profound.”—Entertainment Weekly

How Disappointing

I started this book optimistic since the excerpt that was featured on The Cut was very interesting. But with each passing section I found the charters less and less likable. Toby reveals himself to but such an asshole that I had to stop the book multiple times. Maybe him being “flawed” was the point of the book, but in other novels when a charter is that unlikable there is usually one trait or relatable thing that keeps you around...not here.

Overall, the book is a contrived narrative on what a middle aged woman thinks people who get divorced feel, while trying to make “deep” charters. I was very disappointed, and feel like I just wasted all the time I invested. Don’t waste your time or money, just think about how people going through a midlife crisis act and mix in a little divorce.

Wow, much darker than expected

I am a Taffy Brodesser-Akner fan and had eager anticipated this book. In the beginning, it exceeded all expectations— it was the type of book I did more housework so I could keep listening to. But then...it went from funny to repetitive to depressing to annoying. Maybe I, a 40-something married woman, am not the intended audience. Or maybe I couldn’t emphasize with the characters because I don’t live in Manhattan and their lives seemed so...self-absorbed. At any rate, in the end it came off as a shallow, whiny, bitter repeat of all the cliches of midlife crises and upper middle class angst.

Tedious

Unlikable characters, long repetitive sentences, disgusting midlife behaviors. For those reviewers who found this "genious," good for you for finding value that completely eluded me.

Beautiful, funny, and moving

6/5 stars. Perhaps the best book I've read so far this year. I'm so glad I disregarded the negative reviews.

If you don't like Roth, Updike, or even Frantzen, you should skip this one.

SO BAD

A woman narrating a poorly written book about a guy and his “boners?” The writing is just awful. What was the publisher thinking? I stopped the book 40 minutes in and returned it to Audible.

Fleishman is trouble

This was one of the worst books I ever listened to.
Went nowhere,repetitive, boring .
Story was awful, not a bit funny.
Completely unremarkable, I do not know how it is getting any buzz.
I feel used that I completed it.
Do not wasted your time!!!

14 hours I can't get back

Truly such a waste of time. These characters were self-involved, whiny and unsympathetic. The book essentially went nowhere. I kept waiting for something substantive, but there was nothing.

Not uplifting but still complex

Despite this being listed in the comedy section, I did not find myself laughing at this book. For starters the narrator spends most of the book speaking like an angsty, sarcastic teen which took quite a bit to get used to. The writing itself was very repetitive.

Now onto the good stuff:
It takes a long time for this book to reveal what it’s about. It takes an unapologetic look at what it’s like for a women to be successful and how that impacts society and marriages. I think it speaks to some greater truths that take a while to unfold and when they are it’s in a delicate and artful manor.

The most annoying book I have ever listened to!

After listening to the first series of chapters going on about the sexual encounters of the protagonist, read in the dullest voice ever, you want to shoot yourself.
You feel that somewhere there might be a story, but the writer can’t get to it. Where is the humor in describing an army of women whose only need is to be touched by a man who according to his own standards is not worth to be looked at twice.
It is sad and annoying! If anybody manages to get to the point where something of interest happens, let me know. My first 4 hours listening to this book were a complete waste of time!

Characters are self-absorbed jerks

after all the hype of the book, i thought it would be better. the characters were self-absorbed jerks. sad commentary on married life.