I have to admit that when I first started reading this I thought Fleishman was a woman and so when I dove into the book and realized our protagonist was a man who was in his "oh woe is me" phase I was ready to put the book down. However, I was intrigued by Taffy Brodesser-Akner's writing and decided to continue reading and I'm glad I did. Though this book took me by surprise at first I shouldn't have been surprised, because this book offered my literary voyeur heart observations that struck at the people we were reading about and about those around us and ourselves too.

this book is well done in that it gets you siding with the imperfect characters. the flaws are apparent and yet, you can’t help yourself. i wouldn’t be surprised to learn it’s being adapted for film.
it’s a story that tackles tough topics and does so very well.

Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher for my ARC in exchange for my honest review. This was an enjoyable book.

DNF. Imay be one of the few folks who wasn't enamored with this book. It didn't hold my attention and I didn't connect with the characters. You may feel different but it wasn't the book for me.

This book is sorta "rich people problems," so I suspect I'll like it better when it's adapted for TV (it still is, right?) than I did reading it, but at the same time I still wanted to know how it all shook out in the end. It definitely has some insight into the complications of success, marriage, and friendship, and also how one person's side of the story isn't the whole truth.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I found it structurally interesting and the plot was intriguing. I read this book a while ago and don't remember a lot of the details, but I definitely would recommend it and look forward to reading more from Brodesser-Akner in the future.

Fleishman Is In Trouble received tons of acclaim when it was published last year, and it is a really masterfully-written book. Toby Fleishman is a Manhattan doctor who has just separated from his wife, Rachel. He quickly discovers that even a short, 40-year-old man is a hot commodity in the new world of dating and hook-up apps, and he starts taking full advantage. Then one day, Rachel simply disappears, leaving Toby saddled with their two kids, whom Rachel was supposed to be taking to the Hamptons.

The twist here is that Rachel, a successful agent, outearns her husband by a significant degree. She wants to play among New York’s wealthy elite, and it is a source of constant outrage to her that Toby insists on working a relatively unglamorous job as a liver specialist. (He turns down a much more lucrative offer from a family friend, who seems to be based on the Sacklers of Purdue Pharma fame, to Rachel’s disgust.) Toby has always been more of the hands-on parent, the one who is home to meet them after school.

The book continues in this vein for about 300 pages—Toby desperately trying to juggle his job, his kids, and searching for his wife—when it suddenly takes an abrupt turn. No spoilers here, but it casts everything we’ve read so far in a wildly different light. I admire Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s skill, but this is kind of a brittle, angry (justifiably so—very justifiably) book.

I really hated this book, the people in it were insufferable and the book was so meandering. Basically nothing was redeeming about it and I regret even having finished it.

I am not sure this book knew what it wanted to be. The Fleishmans are getting a divorce, but they seem to hold equal status throughout the book with Toby's friends. At first it felt distracting and then I realized that it was an ongoing actual part of the overall story. It seemed to divide my attention. I wasn't sure who to watch. Toby Fleishman is presented as a sympathetic, but somewhat passive, character. While still working as a doctor, Toby is the primary housekeeper and caregiver to their two children. I have no problem with this position for a man but it seemed to be presented as an issue. Rachel seems to have mentally abandoned the family and then actually does. So when she is reintroduced near the end of the story, it was incredibly difficult to feel any sympathy for her and her plight. While I generally like a story that keeps me on my toes, it was a bit too much and I just finished the book not caring for the grownups and feeling sorry for the kids.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner is such an interesting writer. She is a keen observer of people, and has really populated her novel with whole characters.

I've been a long time fan of Taffy Brodesser-Akner's profiles and was very excited to read her debut novel - it did not disappoint!

I was looking forward to reading Fleishman Is In Trouble, as it had varied reviews. Unfortunately, I could not finish it, simply because I did not enjoy the style of the writing and the plot. I realize that reading books other than one's usual interests is key in literature, however I had to put this one down.

What a quirky book! I don’t even know what to think other than Fleischmann am my experience with divorce were quite different. It was a fun book but nothing that’s going to stick with me for long other than me thinking that was interesting.

This was a slow burn, but once I got into it, I couldn't stop. It's a feminist novel masquerading as a novel about a man sleeping with a ton of women post-divorce. My only complaint is that I was distracted by the third-person narrator who was also a character in the novel. It was an interesting narrative device, but ultimately distracting. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, though, and I liked seeing their growth throughout the novel.

This book was fairly enjoyable, though I was so indifferent to the main character (Toby Fleishman) that I found it hard to feel any emotions about him. I wasn't even particularly curious about where his life was going - more than anything, I kept reading the book because I was interested in some of the minor characters, and because the writing itself was enjoyable to read. It's possible that this book exposed some realities to people who otherwise wouldn't have recognized them in being almost a parody, but it didn't go quite far enough for me.

Brodesser-Akner has managed to lend her singular voice—honed by her ability to make celebrity profiles and interviews in magazines and newspapers appealing—to this debut work of fiction. From the first pages you can tell you’re in no ordinary book. There’s humor and energy and lots of really great details and observations about the titular Fleishman.

So many of us have troubled marriages. So many of us are trying to work out our differences with our spouse and try to keep our marriage together or work out an amicable divorce. but somehow this book was so hard for me to get through. I started it multiple times and could not get into it.

Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner....



But I was determined and finally came back to it and pushed my way through. I did not like any of the characters. Especially not Fleishman. He is a doctor working in a New York hospital, with a good reputation as a surgeon. he has two young children who he seems to care more about than his wife. His wife who is missing for most of the book, is a social climbing snob, who is working hard to keep up with Jones on the upper West Side of the City. She is not really a warm fuzzy parent. She is working hard at her own job to make money to keep the family living in the lifestyle she has always aspired to. She does not really seem to care if Fleishman or the children want that life. It is what she needs.



So now the marriage is estranged and she is missing and Fleishman has the children for the summer and has to balance child care and work. If that were all it was I would sympathize with him, but the author has added in this, what I think is, sick sex fantasy. He spends his time on dating websites that cater to women looking for sex, but not a longterm relationship. he is constantly looking at texts from women begging him to have sex and sending pictures of themselves. I found this very unrealistic and low. It made the women look bad and it made him look degenerate.



When his daughter gets in trouble for sending a picture of herself to a boy she is trying to attract the camp sends her home, and Fleishman is upset that she would think so unkindly about herself to do what this boy asked her to do. When his son is caught looking at porn sites on the computer Fleishman is also upset. But he never seems to see how they are doing exactly what he is doing and he sees nothing wrong with his own behavior.



The book also tells the story from the viewpoint of an old girlfriend who also has personal problems, smoking pot and drinking, when she should be appreciating the life she has with a loving husband and children. In the end we do hear the story from the viewpoint of the wife, but it may a bit too late, for any sympathy in her direction. But I will admit that once I was reading her view, I could sort of see how the marriage had fallen apart.. maybe they can repair the damage.

I feel like I need more time to think this one over - it wasn’t bad, not at all! What a wonderful debut!!

Absolutely loved this book, what a debut from Taffy Brodesser-Akner. Brilliantly written, cleverly structured, and complex characters that you alternately root for and against. I can't wait to see what she writes next, as this was one of my favorite books of 2019.

There are typically two sides to every story. Taffy Brodesser-Akner tells the story is such a way that you’re sure black is black and white is white until the end when everything revealed is grey. This story has relatable characters doing understandable things, until they’re not.