I really wanted to like this book but had trouble relating with the characters and found it repetitive or wordy in places.

This is not what I was expecting. What starts as the incredibly sexual exploits of a middle aged man going through divorce turns into a meditation on just about everything- gender, marriage, work, midlife crises, parenting, and don’t forget sex sex sex. It’s raunchy and nasty but as the story unfolds (and the narrator is more fully revealed) everything we take for granted at the start becomes more complicated.

I couldn’t stand Toby, but this is a book that I couldn’t stop reading. It was just pitch perfect without being preachy. Also, it’s hilarious. 5 stars.

Fleishmans are Us

Fleishman Is In Trouble, the debut novel by magazine writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner, reflects a troubled group of forty-ish New Yorkers questioning the choices that lead to the unsatisfying lives they live now. Toby and Rachel Fleishman are so freshly divorced we are witness to many of their first interactions with faux sympathetic friends–”how are you” is always really “what exactly happened?” A surgeon with low ambitions and two preteens, Toby takes over all of the parenting responsibilities from their ambitious and suddenly completely absent mother Rachel when a granola weekend away turns into an AWOL sitch. And while Toby and family inhabit an upper crust NY world filled with private schools, bat mitzvah lessons, and yoga classes, he hates it and himself for taking advantage of the privileges paid for by his very wealthy now ex and scrolls his “dating” (hooking up) apps enjoying a quite lively single sex life for the first time ever.

Rachel’s story takes over the second half of the book, all the while our omnipresent narrator is Toby’s college friend Libby (who never moved out of the friend zone) who is experiencing her own identity crisis out in New Jersey with her own two kids and a seemingly perfect to the point of boring husband. She sees her unhappy self fairly clearly but is unable to do more than rebel with cigarettes and nights in Manhattan like those of her youth. Her character tells more than the story here and Brodesser-Akner delves deep while keeping an energetic pace with astute observations that paint a realistic and completely entertaining picture of four (the fourth is college friend Seth: a boy-man money-maker experiencing his own midlife issues) lives falling apart just at a time when stuff should be settling into perfectly good place.

Wendy Ward
http://wendyrward.tumblr.com/

Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a slow-building tale about Toby. He's recently separated from his wife of fifteen years. He's dealing with the newness of dating via apps and texts, co-raising his two young children, and working as a busy doctor. Suddenly his life is turned upside down when his former wife unexpectedly drops his children off and fails to return to pick them up. Lots of ups and downs in this novel. Read and enjoy!

I’ve started and abandoned several dysfunctional family dramas lately and so I stuck this one out even when I wanted to give it up.

This is a novel about many things, the brave, new (some would say horrible) world we live in, the expectations placed on women, the way marriage, middle age and motherhood can really mess with your head and sense of self. This book has a ton of sex but it is not sexy...

It is very much about being in your early 40s and having a kind of mid life crisis.

At times it was too painfully familiar... particularly the pressure of motherhood stuff.

Great book, with a great turn at the end that I didn’t see coming but really appreciated and made me think twice about my own assumptions.

This is a great exploration on coping with changes in life changes, gender roles, how relationships evolve, etc. At first it seems odd to be so focused on the husband, yet narrated by his college friend who he's barely seen in 20 years, but later it becomes clear -- still it's a bit odd that she knows as much detail as she does.

Other than that, there are some amazing scenes and lines as Toby and Rachel navigate their marriage, careers, ambition, parenthood, etc. How the words themselves can be interpreted so many different ways in conversation -- one person's rational is another person's angry, and the lack of empathy and understanding keeps building until the breaking point.

The perspectives on striving vs. complacency and how dynamics work with strains like money, social pressure, work demands and everything else are very vividly portrayed, and having Toby's many worlds -- college friends, school parents, work colleagues, online dating hookups, etc. provide many outlets but also demands on him.

A very well-written and plotted novel about how far we still have to go even in modern, well-meaning areas to overcome political maneuvering, gender stereotype roles, and just understanding each other without stereotypes and bias getting in the way, and finding the perspective to understand how one's expectations and memories put pressure on people as they evolve in relationships.

I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the story as well as the viewpoints from different sides of the narrative. But was extremely confusing to me when narration would switch from third person to first person. This happened frequently throughout the book and I always had to ask myself who this first person was. Spoiler alert, it is always Libby. Not sure why the author chose to write in the style but it made it very jarring to read.

This was a dark read. I really enjoyed it. Characters were complex and well developed . The antics of Manhattan's wealthy elite society is not all that it appears to be.

I love this novel. It is heartfelt yet really, really funny at times. Juggling life effectively is a challenge at times and this brings light to the struggle in a very real and touching way.

I'm sorry I could not get into this book. Unfortunately it didn't capture my attention and also the Kindle formatting kind of stunk to be honest.

An incredible book that breaks rules about point-of-view in a confident manner that has readers asking, why do we even have these rules to begin with? Groundbreaking, yet perfect for these times, Fleishman may be in trouble, but the lessons he learns benefits all of us.

This is a terrific book about a marital breakup that features some definite surprises. The writing is sharp and compelling, which is not surprising to those who read the author's profiles in the NYT and elsewhere. Recommended.

Dr. Toby Fleishman is separated from his wife, Rachel, a workaholic talent agent. They have 2 kids, an 11-year old, Hannah, and a 9-year old, Solly. In the midst of their divorce, Toby moves into a mediocre apartment while Rachel stays in their high-end one. In between working at the hospital, where he’s up for a promotion, and remaining a steady father to his kids, Toby ventures into the world of online dating. He’s shocked and intrigued by the forwardness of many women now, as he’s been out of the dating game for years. One morning he wakes up to find his kids at his place — Rachel dropped them off while Toby was sleeping. After an impromptu day of taking care of them, Rachel doesn’t return. After a few odd days where she remains M.I.A., Toby realizes: he’s in trouble.

Relationships are complicated and 41-year old Toby is forced to take a hard look at his, with his ex-wife, his children, friends, and others. While I can relate to the ambitious career-driven woman, Rachel was incredibly unlikable and my feelings about her character didn’t change much. I had no idea where Fleishman is in Trouble was headed or how things would turn out, but for the most part, enjoyed the journey. I also liked the way the book was written - Smart and impactful.

Fleishman is in Trouble is the story of Dr. Toby Fleishman a father of two and who is separated from his wife Rachel who at first is trying to navigate this new world of single fatherhood and dating. The story quickly changes dynamics when Rachel leaves their children with Toby for the weekend and does not return. Toby who immensely cares for his children has to figure out where Rachel is, what to do with his kids, work and maybe keep a few scheduled dates.


Akner has a keen sense of humor to tell this story. You can hear this with many of the interviews she has given. She does a wonderful job portraying divorce, the world of dating by apps and everything that goes along with having children in this technological age. Toby really cares, maybe too much about everything that surrounds him. Toby would be a great discussion that could go on for hours in a book club. 


This was an enjoyable story, it will tear at the heartstrings at times, make you laugh, and everything in between. Believe all they hype that you have heard on this one. Akner is such a good writer, and I can't wait to read what else she writes. 


Thank you NetGalley and Random House for an Advanced Reader's Copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

This story about the marital and financial angst of people who make well over six figures and choose (voluntarily!) to live in New York left something to be desired. While the premise is intriguing, Taffy Akner’s storytelling (which is far more suited to the exposition-friendly profiles that made her famous) doesn't offer enough insight to make it worth suffering through these characters’ misery and self-pity. Sadly was hoping for more from this much-praised book.

I received Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner as an ARC from NetGalley. This is an interesting book about marriage and divorce. Toby and his wife Rachel have separated and are sharing custody of the kids. Rachel drops the kids off for the weekend and then disappears leaving Toby on his own with the kids and no clue as to what has happened to Rachel. Brodesser-Akner uses humor to tell the story of how Toby struggles with the kids, his job as a doctor and his love life while also trying to find out what Rachel is doing. I found this book to be very entertaining.

I really ended up enjoying this book more than I thought I would after firs starting it.
At first, even though this book is extremely insightful and smartly written, I wa snot sure I was going to enjoy it, if I was going to relate to it, whiny sad doctor going thru midlife divorce and marital upheaval in NYC. But, the author is very sure-handed, and subtly guided me though my ambivalence.
The story is mostly told from the POV of a man who is recently separated and then his wife "disappears", all the attending emotions attached to his view of self, his views on marriage, womanhood, motherhood, fatherhood, childhood. And they constantly changed, and I think this is what I loved best about it, it never remained static. He was never only ONE character, on man, he was, but he is also very much in the moment, and his emotions and how each situation affects HIM, his thoughts are always in flux.
The prose is truly delicious. I can't describe it any other way. It is jam-packed with honest assessment of life, and it's not just from those who are affluent, as many in this story are, privileged, but really, just very current snapshots that really hit home on a visceral level.
Dizzying, almost.
So, although my bias against all books set in NYC and its angst and its elitism and selfness sets off alarms of wariness, I would say that this story took me beyond that, ultimately, to its shared humanity.
Glad I stuck with it! I do recommend this for anyone, stuck or not stuck, you will recognize yourself in a number of thoughts that fly by.

A remarkably entertaining, perceptive and wise read. It's almost impossible to imagine this is Brodesser-Akner's first novel. A rare delight that keeps as good company as it packs a solid, smart punch.

I really like Taffy Brodesder-Ackner's writing. You can tell she spends a lot of time observing people then mulling them over. She's able to capture in her characters at very human and honest moments. Hating them is because you see some of yourself reflected back and you don't like to be made to look at it.

That said, I don’t think this I was the target audience for this book. I don’t have much to compare marital strife or living in a big city or pressures with kids or almost anything the characters go through to. The protagonist (I guess), Toby Fleishman, is completely and totally insufferable. Hats off to Taffy for writing someone this unlikeable and obliviously self-centered. All of her characters have some flaws, but he seemed to have every single flaw at once. And this is a realistic depiction of a type of person who actually exists. I just found it difficult to care about his life.

And that was kind of the crux of it for me. Fleishman Is In Trouble is a wonderfully written composite about a character I don’t want to know more about. A lot of the revelations are crushing and bleak. It really only reenforced my feelings about marriage, which are basically AVOID AT ALL COSTS! Part 3 was a lot easier for me to get through, but it’s only about 80 pages out of 373. I wanted more about Rachel and Libby and the kids and even Seth. The 3rd person perspective kind of reads like a voice over in a movie, which removed me yet another layer from the events occurring. Eventually I finished, and I’m glad I did, but I was fighting my instinct to abandon ship and watch more Netflix.

Though, none of this will discourage me from picking up whatever she decides to write next—as long as it’s absent one Toby Fleishman.

I wanted to love this so much because I love her other work but this felt flat. I didn’t like the main character at all and I don’t think he seemed very realistic at all. I thought it was supposed to be funny and clever but it was a dry, depressing slog.