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Sad and funny divorce story

Reviewed in Australia on 23 July 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Toby Fleishman likes being a liver doctor. He’s a good father too - he cooks and makes sure to be there for their events and activities. He’s present to them. His wife Rachel is driven: she’s made a success of her agent business and is now high profile, but this is not a 9-5 job. A couple once so right for each other has descended into anger and misunderstanding and it’s official: they’re getting divorced.

The book is narrated by Toby’s old friend Libby, who with Seth formed a triumvirate in their young days in Israel. Libby has a good marriage, great kids and a nice home in the suburbs, but she’s having a “Is this all there is?” kind of summer and she immerses herself in Toby’s story. Naturally she roots for him but as an intelligent observer she can see his faults. Toby - as is usually the way in such situations - feels more sinned against than sinning and at first we’re inclined to agree with him. Then comes Part 3, when Libby accidentally connects with a very out-of-it Rachel and our perspective shifts. The writing style has charm and insouciance and there’s a lot of amusement to be had, but the book also explores the delights and dangers of smartphone sex; wonders whether “You can have it all” second wave feminism is a giant con; skewers the shallow rich and effortlessly deconstructs the sad truth that with more understanding of each other’s perspectives and ruthless honesty about themselves, Toby and Rachel could have stayed married. The ending allows for that as a possibility. Terrific work, with some beguiling metaphors that underline the novel’s themes.

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Maree979

Questions asked but not resolved though entertaining

Reviewed in Australia on 12 September 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

‘Fleishman is in Trouble’ feels largely autobiographic including maybe experiences of close friends. Nothing wrong with that as it raves its way through a range of issues to do with valuing woman, power between the sexes and the ultimate spinoff. It cleverly winds its way ironically through the main couples present and past relationship. Ninety percent is from the male’s perspective. Traditional genders are flipped contrasting an ambitious career driven social climbing female against a non-macho seemly family carer, although professional male. Through this scenario with its associated characters, female issues and consequences for both sexes are highlighted although in the end not resolved. The issues are psychological within social management frameworks of an evolved western culture, i.e. NY City. Whilst psychological realism under bright lights allows for identity connectivity of experiences and is quite entertaining, resolution of sexual balance is better advanced through a major paradigm shift as expressed by Shakespeare in his 1609 Sonnets. Shakespeare’s philosophy is nature-based and acknowledges the priority of the female. He plays this philosophy out across all his plays critiquing the last 4000 odd years of male dominated belief structures which work to maintain gender power. Read ‘William Shakespeare’s Sonnet Philosophy’ and ‘Shakespeare’s Global Philosophy’ by Roger Peters to fully understand Shakespeare’s profound philosophic understanding. It is why his complete works are still relevant to a 21st century audience. It is the philosophy we live by, whether we think we do, or not.

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Didn't ring true to me

Reviewed in Australia on 1 January 2020

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I found the description of female online dating behaviour with a 5ft 5 male a little ridiculous and hard to believe.
Some sparkling dialogue and some great observations on male female relationships none the less.

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stuart mcarthur

Brilliantly witty detail

Reviewed in Australia on 15 January 2020

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Definitely worth it for the laughs and the witty insightful details and the irony and the philosophising. But it’s odd with its first person viewpoint, which almost seems ghostly and un-nerving or just NQR, and the ending doesn’t honour the novel properly as it descends into circular naval-gazing, loses its way, then just tizzles out.

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professor Bruce

People in sharp relief

Reviewed in Australia on 16 October 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

My ex asked me to read this book and tell her if the males were real. I read the book and to be honest I'm not sure. They are more self 'reflective than me and Tobys obsession with sex is more chronic than my passing whims. It comes down to my expending different. The book is engaging and made me think about important themes. Not sure you can for more for $15

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A

Best fiction in 2019

Reviewed in Australia on 28 December 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

A great read about growing as adults and finding yourself - and the effects of this on your closest relationship. I found the characters relatable and the writing so descriptive. The only book I've read in 2019 that had me hooked from the first page and had me genuinely look forward to reading. I only wish there were chapters instead of the book being split into three parts.

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Stephen Clark

Fast and furious

Reviewed in Australia on 10 November 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

A eviscerating story of middle age angst. Divorce and breakdown and regret. Somehow manages to be all that and also funny. Characters I wanted to succeed but was also able to see critically.

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Julie

Reviewed in Australia on 2 October 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Absolute corker of a story. Beautifully written. Highly recommend. Best book of 2019. Able to present perspectives with precision and empathy.

One person found this helpful

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Top international reviews

amantedofado

A good writer who needed a much better editor

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 August 2019

Verified Purchase

I was drawn to this book through the New York Jewish magazine Tablet, where it was described as similar to Philip Roth (my favourite writer). The similarities are there: an engaging prose style with clever insights and a lot about sex. It started with great promise, but it turned out to be far too long. As the author of 26 novels, some bestsellers, I have been edited by top editors in London and New York, and I know only too well how a good editor can pull an author back from major problems with characters, plot, and length. I read this to the end, but got very fed up long before the end came in sight. Basically, very little happens, the same issues are duplicated again and again, there is even a deliberate repetition of three passages, the author introduces herself under a false name further on, and nothing advances the plot. A good editor would have told her to go back to the start, map out a meaningful plot, shorten the text by about 50%. Even the endless displays of the writer's cleverness needed to be cut to the quick. The basic question for Ms Brodesser-Akner would be whether she would work with a strong editor who could teach her how best to handle what is basically a long short story that has grown out of all proportion. She can handle prose better than most new authors, but if she wants to build a writing career beyond journalism, she needs to work a lot harder at novel-writing, and a starting point for that would be to find a better publisher who employs a serious editor. I'm afraid I have to agree with many of the negative commentators here.

22 people found this helpful

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Huckle

Funny sad and so well observed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 July 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

When I absolutely love a book it always surprises me to read a poor review.
I thought this book was amazing. The insight into how women feel about their lives and ultimately what they have to accept was nothing short of miraculous. This is not intended to sound sexist but I am not sure a man can really understand the female angst within this book.
This book is anything but boring. in my view it is an exceptional novel and may it receive all the plaudits it deserves.

17 people found this helpful

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Chris Jennings

V poor

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 July 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Such a boring book. It goes precisely nowhere. Hard to like, let alone love, the characters and so you give up caring what happens to them. Three quarters of the way through there’s a feminist agenda thrown in which feels out of place and badly thought out. Can’t understand the hype, neither could those in my book club.

15 people found this helpful

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Bridget Proust

Self-congratulation

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 July 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Dreadful, self-obsessed, whinging. None of the characters came to life, they were all mouthpieces for the author’s self-congratulatory insights and observations, some of the sharp and amusing. Full of fashionable received opinions about parenting. Much too long and verbose.

12 people found this helpful

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The Bagster

This is what men must seem like to a woman who's never met one. Very poor

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 September 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I bought this book because India Knight gave it a good review in the Sunday Times. It was a sad mistake. India Knight seemed to think that it was a perfect portrayal of how men think and it probably is - if you happen to be a woman who imagines she understands men but doesn't actually have a clue. The lead character is as true to life as the Loch Ness Monster. Poor. Very, very poor.

10 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Thought provoking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 July 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I struggled to begin with to understand the narration but this book is about life and what happens and how we feel about what happens to us but also how others see and feel the same things. An excellent read and would recommend to anyone to read it. It is thought provoking but I’m also relieved to be content in my life now!

8 people found this helpful

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H. Pettifer

Boring, sex-obsessed with un-relatable characters

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 November 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I hated the first page, which didn't help, and then the first third of the book got no better and just continued to go on about sex. Is this really what it's like in the New York Jewish community? Most of it didn't add anything - didn't move the story along and was unnecessary detail. I ended up skimming entire paragraphs and the rest of the book didn't get much better. Even the children are sex-obsessed.
Once there was a mystery, things got a bit more interesting and we finally hear a different side to the whole story (but not till nearly the end) but that was also pretty one-dimensional.
The third person/first person narrative was really confusing, told by a minor character...this is explained later but didn't make much sense and was confusing for most of the book.
I didn't like any of the characters - none of them seemed like real, complex people, however they were written about (and we're told all about their problems, which are :sex, money, popularity). I don't think you need to know much about Judaism to know what's going on, but this gives a poor impression of the community. Maybe I got it wrong, but I didn't think sleeping around, working 24/7 and being rich were traits of the religion (although the last is stereotypical I guess).
I only finished the book as it was a book club choice. I feel cheated out of £8.

4 people found this helpful

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G. Owen

Not for me

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 July 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Didn’t take my interest at all, no empathy for the main character.

6 people found this helpful

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ReaderWriter

A curate's egg of a novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 January 2020

Verified Purchase

I had read / heard a lot about this book - some good, some bad - before I decided to make up my own mind and buy it. What I discovered is that Fleishman Is In Trouble is a mix of both good and bad, but I awarded it four stars because despite the negatives, I did enjoy it.
First the positives. The writing is very New York savvy, very Jewish savvy, very middle-aged angst savvy. It is essentially the story of the end of a marriage, and all the bitterness and recrimination that entails. Fleishman is a 41 year-old-doctor with a chip on his shoulder about his height (5'5"). He and his more successful wife are separated and she leaves the children with him while she goes on a yoga retreat. This puts a dent in his rampant, online-driven sex life - a graphically depicted series of lurid copulations with women who are as desperate and lonely as him. Things go awry, however, when Fleishman's wife, Rachel, doesn't return from her trip, or contact anyone to say why. Most of the book is devoted to this period, and the contempt / simmering rage / loathing etc, that Fleishman feels towards her. Their two, chalk-and-cheese children - Solly like his dad, Hannah like her mum - suffer too, as the three of them endure the limbo of not knowing what has happened to the absent-without-leave Rachel.
All is revealed in the final part of the book (it has three parts - no chapters) and without spoilers, all I can say is that she is not the selfish monster her husband would have us believe. She has made her own sacrifices and received little but criticism and resentment in return.
I don't think I have ever read the break-up of a family in such unsparing, tortuous detail, and it won't be to everyone's taste. Why use one metaphor / simile / analogy, when ten will do? This brings me the greatest negative of this book, which is that it's horribly over-written. The story, such as it is (it's character-driven, not plot-driven), is constantly being held-up by pages of backstory, anecdotes (from childhood, school, college), reflections on the meaning of life etc. I quickly tired of these great slabs of ancillary information and tended to speed-read them, or skip them altogether. They would have served the story much more effectively if they hadn't gone on for so long. I get it - Fleishman considers himself above avarice, more socially conscious, a better dad than Rachel is a mum, New York is a rat race - but I am beaten to death with this information over and over.
Also, the book's structure was slightly mystifying. Toby, the main character, was written in the third person, but there was also a first person narrative from his old college friend, Libby. It was very uneven - much more Toby than Libby, and I really didn't care about Libby. I assume she was there because at the end, she is instrumental in solving the mystery of Rachel, but she was so unlikeable (selfish, moaning, navel-gazing, drowning in self-pity) I speed-read her sections too. A few times I wondered if she was actually the voice of the author, who wanted to rant and rave about how unfair life is for women in general, but particularly creative women who are a bit overweight after having had a couple of kids. This was really the whole point of the book - to show how impossible marriage is, how elusive happiness is, how (scream, shout, scream some more) much these affluent, privileged people SUFFER!
Overall it was a good read - funny in parts, insightful in others. It will be interesting to see what her second novel is like.

One person found this helpful

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Brian Jennings, Dublin

Witty,poignant and clever

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 August 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book has me hooked from the start. A tale of misunderstanding of the people closest to you, regret at paths not taken and the realisation that what you think you wish for may no be as wonderful as you imagined. It's moving and hilarious at times in its accurate examination of small moments in human behaviour including for example a pre teen girl who is perfectly captured in all her misunderstood stroppiness and her father, Fleishman, who is shocked by the revealing images women send to him over dating apps. Hilarious and moving. A book for everyone

4 people found this helpful

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Carl

Illuminating if somewhat dark

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 October 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Up front I really enjoyed this book.

The last section is really an essay on ageing, frustration and disappointment. Actually the whole novel is counterpointing the frustrations of life with youthful expectation.

More, it also presents a very well observed analysis of how perceptions are personal. Toby doesn’t listen literally and emotionally but we only really get the message with the revelation about Rachel’s own struggle to manage her life, the pressures of being mother and provider. She of course didn’t or couldn’t articulate her troubles suppressing them. They are both obsessed with their own worlds of trial and tribulation.

A modern day morality tale where no one communicates and is left to stew in their own self obsession. The narrator, Libby, is no exception.

There is also a very well made feminist argument about marriage and society not being equal. I think the author embeds her theme with skill, not entirely making it a feminist tract. I ended up with sympathy for Rachel, a degree of annoyance with Toby and Seth, a degree of pity for the kids and unfortunately thinking Libby was a bit of a self-indulgent prat.

I’m not sure we get any resolution to any of this other than it’s simply the human condition: misery, frustration competing with fleeting periods of happiness.

A good read, I would recommend it.

I’m off for a stiff drink!

2 people found this helpful

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Ailsa Mclellan

The best book I have read in ages

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 September 2019

Verified Purchase

It might be down to my own circumstances (marriage break down, resentment at the way women are held back by society and themselves, each other etc), but I loved this book. It hit many chords with me, was well written, heart breaking and funny.

4 people found this helpful

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Girl Friday 1263

Would rather read the back of a cereal packet...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 February 2020

Verified Purchase

After hearing all the rave reviews about this debut novel, as well as hearing the author interviewed on Radio 2, I couldn’t wait to order it and start reading.
It starts off so full of promise, with humour, wit, the element of mystery with seemingly very real characters and the subject of a marriage breakdown so very close to many. However not long into the book, it wanders off losing pace and certainly my interest.
It is rare that I give up on a book so early into the read, so I stuck with it, hoping that it would improve... Alas it did not and at page 210 I had to give up! It was boring - nonsensical pages of words going nowhere...
I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed I was with this book. Utter drivel, but hats off to anyone who read it til the end! Maybe it did eventually get back on track but with so many other wonderful authors out there and exciting books to read, I’m afraid, for me, Fleishman really was in trouble!
I am an avid reader and have to say that there have only been a few books in my lifetime that I have not read to the end. Unfortunately this book now joins the list, sorry...

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Hugh Cummins

Rubbish, not a patch on Wolfe

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 August 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Waste of space. I read the reviews in the Sunday Times, and others, but was dreadfully disappointed with the reality. Boring, self-absorption, NY Jewishness. Who cares? Lost all interest about 25% through.

5 people found this helpful

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Frank Avocado

Home going

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 February 2020

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is a book about the effort of love amid twenty first century accelerated liberal capitalism from a female perspective. It appears, first, as a sort of Rabelaisian satire on contemporary issues but some clever structural shifts deepen and expand that conceit into something more deeply satisfying. The writing is taught and jangling. The characters, while not entirely likeable, are very human.

One person found this helpful

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