I absolutely loved this book! I've followed Brodesser-Akner's various magazine articles and have always loved the way she writes, often leaving her articles with changed feelings about the subjects she is writing about. When I found out she was writing a novel I was so excited! When I found out it was on NetGalley, I was even more excited. I was immediately taken by the plot. I loved the way she writes in a stream of consciousness at points. I laughed out loud a lot. I will be making sure to recommend this one to everyone who will listen! A legend in non-fiction is now a rising star in Fiction! Great debut!

This is a big, messy book about big, messy everyday lives and struggles, a big messy stew of a troubled marriage, frustrating careers, the challenges of parenting, sexual politics, the ever-confounding search for identity and What It All Means. Taffy pulls laughs and empathy and big. messy observations out of this sprawling tale.

I really enjoy Brodesser-Akner's nonfiction pieces/ reporting, and I could see the aspects of what I like in those in her first novel. It's a very close examination of a failed marriage, but in how we love and age and resent with time, all while having children and living with gendered expectations. In some ways I would have wanted The Themes to be subtler-- the narrative structure allowed for a lot of introspective commentary on the whys of it all, and I might have preferred to draw my own conclusions on Toby and Rachel and Libby's motivations and biases.

I loved reading Fleishman Is in Trouble for so many reasons: first off it's hilarious commentary on the state of marriage in contemporary upper class America, a raucous he said-she said that segues into dark discourse on the precarious plight of working women today, and throughout it all, the characters, the arguments, and the story are stupendously well-written. Author Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a comedic genius.

Toby and Rachel Fleishman's marriage is all but over, and their children Sollie, Hannah (and even the talent agency Rachel established) are suffering for it. Everybody in the family deals with social isolation, social media mishaps and various forms of interior decay from the moral to the psychological. I laughed out loud at the family's many quirks and quips, and the author's well-placed questions (How miserable is too miserable? Getting used to things and enjoying things wasn't the same as wanting things. Was it?) Toby reunites with his old friends Seth and Libby, and the book is narrated by the latter, a married writer mom who provides an edifying counter perspective to those of the Fleishmans. I can't wait to read more by this writer.

I had such a love hate connection with this book. I loved the story that Rachel was the evil ex wife but once you heard her story, it was really Toby who was kind of awful and not understanding. I didn’t enjoy the parts when Libby narrated and found it hard to realize it was her until a few paragraphs in.

Insightful, with good writing, this ambitious, complicated, take on modern family and marriage is often excellent. It navigates complex relationships and characters with ease and pleasure, and provides insights into the often hilarious often heartbreaking landscape of contemporary families

II love Taffy Brodesser-Akner's writing in other places, so I was excited for this book. Unfortunately, I found it to be absolutely unbearable. There's something to be said for unlikable characters, but I couldn't find a single redeeming thing to enjoy about any of the characters. The narration changed perspectives without warning, the descriptive sentences were repetitive and long, and the way women are talked about and written about was just so off-putting that I couldn't get past it. I got about 20% through and gave up. It surprised me that I found this to be truly awful, since I like Brodesser-Akner's journalistic pieces, but sadly, this was unreadable for me.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner's first novel is a considerable undertaking, giving us a detailed account of Toby Fleishman's life story, after fifteen years of marriage to Rachel. The narrator of the story is one of his college friends, Elizabeth, a journalist who lives in New Jersey. Libby is also married and questioning her satisfaction with life. The third friend, Seth, has yet to find a wife and enjoys a life of freedom and fun.

Toby is a hepatologist (specialist in liver diseases) and earns a good salary, but he feels second- rate compared to his Upper East Side neighbors, lawyers, and bankers who are millionaires. Even Toby's wife makes much more than Toby and likes to remind him that her lack of presence in their home is because she makes the money that gives them the lifestyle they live with private schools for their two children, lessons of all sorts, and expensive vacations.

Toby decides that after fifteen years of a lifeless marriage, he wants a divorce and moves out of the expensive apartment that Rachel chose a few years ago. He rents a place a few blocks away so he can be close to Hannah (miserable pre-teen) and introverted son, Solly. The action in the novel begins when Toby sees the kids off to sleep-away camp. He feels that now he has the freedom that he has always envied Seth for and puts more attention to the many "dating" apps on his phone.

This novel, narrated by Elizabeth goes back quite a bit to when the three were in college together, reminiscing about the good old days and how they anticipated grown-up lives. The situation is that now when they have reached their forties, they feel sorry for themselves. There are many regrets and a good dose of irony in this lengthy, commentary of life for the educated and upper-middle-class Americans.

I didn't have much empathy for the characters, but I enjoyed the flow of the narrative and marveled at the astute revelations in the novel's conclusion. TBA has crafted an excellent story in her first foray into fiction.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC (June 18).

I'm sorry but this was a straight up NO for me. This book was filled with so much sex it made it uncomfortable to read. This was almost worse than Fifty Shades. Fleishman is a 40 something man who has never had much luck with the ladies. All the sudden that changes and every woman seems to want him. The way "he" describes these women is nothing short of sexist most of the time. Just a huge turn off for me. Do not waste your money on this one when it comes out
Would not recommend it to anyone.

Overall, this book provided an interesting perspective on marriage and how things can change.

Toby Fleishman is a short, 41 year old jewish doctor who lacks self-confidence. He's a wonderful doctor and father. He is soon to be divorced from Rachel, an ambitious career woman who seems to be less committed to her children. Both Toby and Rachel were unhappy in their marriage for different reasons. They are both struggling to make a new life for themselves. Toby is amazed at how easy it is to find sex on the internet and becomes preoccupied with it. Rachel yearns for a wealthy life and makes bad choices seeking to impress others.

I enjoyed parts of this book and initially getting to know Toby as the main character. However, I soon tired of all his sexual escapades. I think this part could have edited more.

Rachel seems shallow and selfish for most of the book until you get her perspective at the end. I was glad I hung in to reconsider events from her view.

There were other perspectives offered from friends of Toby's but they seemed to confuse the story in my opinion.

This story and the primary characters have a lot more depth than I initially gave them credit for but it took getting to the end of the book to realize it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of Fleishman is in Trouble. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a wild book! I found myself sympathizing with nearly every character (after a time). Toby, who struggled when left alone with his children, missed having a normal life for which he strived. His mysteriously missing ex-wife, Rachel, pretended to be more than she was and also spent unnecessary amounts of money to keep up with social groups, which decreased her appeal to others. Neither of Toby's two closest friends seemed to change much at all, but at the same time were fighting their own battles within society norms. I have to say that this novel allowed a peek into the minds of almost all major personality types and seemed to create sympathy for all of them. They all became human and their actions understandable. Very well done. (The only confusing parts were when the point of view changed between characters sometimes.)
Thank you to NetGalley and Taffy Brodessor-Akner for the ARC!!!

This is overmined material. A family trying to deal with a separation that seemingly comes from out of the blue, surly teenage daughter, dissatisfied wife, NYC. Initially focussing on the father, elevation-challenged doctor who finds the single life not all its cracked up to be despite lots of action on the dating sites. Been there. Read that.

5/7/19
Fleichman is in Trouble
Review

I enjoyed this book. It is an engaging story about Toby’s life, dating, and sex after divorce, with flashbacks as to how he found himself alone. The author has some terrific insights about human behavior and clever observations of everyday life that made me laugh out loud! The book touched on so many relatable themes – love, marriage, work, parenting, friendship. The characters were interesting. As the story developed, Rachel became more complex and layered and I could really feel her becoming unglued.

The biggest problem was the way in which the story was structured. It was supposedly told by Libby, one of Toby’s best friends. But it made absolutely no sense that she could be an “omniscient narrator.” It was jarring, in fact, when suddenly the narrator referred to herself. There was no way for her to know some of Toby’s most inner thoughts and private actions. It was completely confusing. Plus, I did not find that her character was even likable. She was not nice to her husband, ungrateful, disrespectful and just generally unpleasant.

I’m fine reading books that are not neatly tied up at the end, but I found this ending to be abrupt and therefore unsatisfying.

My thanks to NetGalley for an Advanced Readers Copy of this book. All opinions are my own and not biased in any way.

I put off writing this review because even though I enjoyed it and would recommend it, I don't really know to to describe my reaction to it. I think I took the beginning too literally and therefore was jarred when perspective changed, but I thought this was mostly a funny and also interestingly contemplative portrait of two people and how their perspectives are totally different.

Single dads will likely relate to this book, I, unfortunately, did not. It did, however, make me laugh out loud at times, and has some surprise twists!

This tedious tale of Toby, a forty something doctor still reeling from a divorce and trying to balance his career with his responsibilities to his kids, whom his ex-wife has suddenly and without warning dumped on his doorstep, might have worked in the hands of a writer who could turn otherwise stereotypical characters into believable people. . day, Philip Roth or John Updike, among others who have turned over fresh earth while digging in the same garden. But this author had none of their skill, and her efforts come to naught in this boring novel There

It was difficult to keep my interest in this book but I bungled through since I had requested the ARC. The characters were a confused group of age 40 something adults who had no clue what they were doing with their lives. It was told from a variety of viewpoints from the characters,trouble was, you had to take a guess as to who's voice it was being told. It may have been easier to comprehend had there been a header over each person's musings. A lot of unnecessary descriptive sex and repetition of thoughts. A long version of "he said","she said" is constant with mostly unlikable characters.
I received this book as a complimentary copy for an honest review.The opinions expressed are my own.

Toby [Fleishman is in trouble. He and his wife, Rachel, are in the middle of a divorce and while on-line hook-up apps have provided him with plenty to distract him, he's left with caring for two kids who aren't doing well with the divorce when his wife drops them off at his new apartment and disappears. He's also the financially disadvantaged spouse, being only a well-established specialist at a prestigious hospital, which in the wealthy enclaves of Manhattan, makes him contemptuously low-income. This is the challenge that debut author Taffy Brodesser-Akner has set for herself; how do you write a scathing send-up of an Upper East Side family in which the reader is invited to feel sorry for the handsome doctor who is getting laid regularly, but who has to make do with a bare third of a million a year to live on? There's only so much sympathy that can be pulled from Toby's below-average height and chronic insecurity.

For the most part, though, Brodesser-Akner pulls it off. The writing is smooth and having the narrator be an old friend of Toby's, who is now a New Jersey housewife, does ground the story somewhat. The final chapters of the novel are also far more nuanced and better written than the first three quarters, making me wish that the author had included the portions telling Rachel's story throughout the novel. One's enjoyment of this novel will depend entirely on one's tolerance for reading about the troubles of people living wealthy lives in Manhattan, but this does look like the literary vacation novel of the summer. It's an impressive debut that reads like the work of a seasoned author.

This book was not for me. I finished it because I hoped it would get better and because I had been given a review copy. It had some good parts, such as when Toby Fleishman, who is a liver specialist, lectured his medical students about the importance of looking patients or family members in the eyes when giving them unpleasant news; or when Libby, after spending so much time listening to Toby complain about Rachel (his wife) and then listening to Rachel recount her descent into a nervous breakdown, as well as Libby reflecting on the things that had not gone as planned in her career, realizes how lucky she is to have a husband (Adam) who loves her for who she is. However, overall, the main characters are not particularly likable and the storyline is depressing.

This book was surprisingly funny, and I enjoyed the Jewish aspects of the story. The main character is a Jewish doctor who is going through a mid-life crisis. He gets divorced and realizes that he is now besieged with sexually aggressive women, and although he enjoys the attention he is not quite sure what to think about the tactics. I also could relate to his attempts to co-parent with a narcissist, self-centered ex who just disappears based on her own whims and doesn't focus on the children's needs at all. Life is a struggle.