Taffu Brodesser-Akner is one of the great writers of our time, and I would pore over her grocery list. The premise of this book didn't really excite me, but her prose is, as always, exceptional.

One of the best books I’ve read this year . Divorce , family life and dating this book has it all. Highly recommend! Thank you to netgalley for providing me this book in exchange for an honest review.

Toby Fleishman is in trouble. He is going through a divorce with his wife of 15 years. We follow along as he is introduced to the world of datings apps, sexting all the while figuring out his new life with his children and his ex-wife Rachel. I really enjoyed this book. It was interesting to see a debut female author right from the male perspective. It was a little confusing when you realized that the story wasn’t all being told from Toby’s POV but still captivating. You learn that there are always two sides to every story and relationships be it, marriage, friendship, parent/child are all complex. This book kept surprising me and was so thoughtfully written, cant wait to see what this author does next!

Thank you for me ARC!

This book is the story of a marriage, and pushes the reader to see both sides of the story. While the characters are not particularly likable, they're realistic, and I quickly found myself invested in their lives. It also nicely contemplates dating in a digital age, both easing and complicating relationships. My interest faded in the middle, but I found the ending pulled me back in. It is told through the perspective of a secondary character, for reasons that I didn't understand until late in the book, but in the end I found the side characters important in their own ways. There was a lot of sexual content-- more than I thought was necessary, but easy to skim if desired. While there were sometimes several different stories going on, I didn't find this confusing, because they eventually lend perspective on the others-- on the meaning of commitment even as people grow and change.

Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

What appealed to me about this was that it sounded like the kind of quirky novel I absolutely love!

Here’s what you need to know:

Dr. Toby Fleishman wakes up each morning surrounded by women. Women who are self-actualized and independent and know what they want – and, against all odds, what they want is Toby. Who knew what kind of life awaited him once he finally extracted himself from his nightmare of a marriage? Who knew that there were women out there who would actually look at him with softness and desire? But just as the winds of his optimism are beginning to pick up, they’re quickly dampened, and then extinguished, when his ex-wife, Rachel, suddenly disappears.

Toby thought he knew what to expect when he moved out: weekends and every other holiday with the kids, some residual bitterness, tense co-parenting negotiations. He never thought that one day, Rachel would just drop their children off at his place and never come back. As Toby tries to figure out what happened and what it means, all while juggling his patients at the hospital, his never-ending parental duties and his new, app-assisted sexual popularity, his tidy narrative of a spurned husband is his sole consolation. But if Toby ever wants to really understand where Rachel went and what really happened to his marriage, he is going to have to consider that he might not have seen it all that clearly in the first place.

I haven’t finished reading it yet but so far, I like it and the characters have me intrigued.

Due out on July 19.

I have a feeling this will be my favorite book of the year. And it's only April.
I've never read a book like Fleishman Is In Trouble. It’s raw, ridiculously funny, razor-sharp, and I purposely read it slowly to absorb every word. Every character - especially Toby and Rachel - is deeply flawed and unlikable, but simultaneously endearing.
Solly is the only exception. What a darling child.
I had no idea where the book was taking me when I started reading it, and the ending was such a brilliant twist that I went back and re-read Part 3 after finishing.
It's a brilliant book.

Fleishman is a semi-happily married, forty-something, doctor in hepatology. Somehow being a doctor has fallen out of favor with the wealthy and elite in New York City. His wife, Rachel, is clearly not pleased with his vertical trajectory and feels the need to constantly remind him of that fact. Rachel is in fact the larger breadwinner as a talent agent with her own large firm. Rachel’s obsession with reaching the pinnacle of success, wealth, and social status has worn on poor Fleishman, and now he’s headed for divorce.

Meanwhile, his college buddies Libby and Seth have their own issues to contend with. Libby is a suburban New Jersey housewife who gave up her journalism career to be a stay-at-home mom to a successful attorney. Seth has never married, being more seduced by multiple women and hosting lavish theme parties filled with pot, booze and hookups. The three reunite when Fleishman finds himself alone in his less than satisfactory new apartment. The summer that follows finds Libby keeping track of Fleishman’s hookups and spiral into hedonism, post-separation.

Fleishman is in Trouble is Libby’s story about what happens when two people who love each other dearly in their 20s move forward on different paths as they age. Each one thinks they are doing what is best, but somehow they’ve diverged. Brodesser-Akner has created a gritty, honest story about what it’s like to be that couple. The couple that have the careers and the 2 kids and everything looks great on the outside, but inside it’s a mess. This novel deals with the reality of what it costs to be successful and at the top of that social heap. The effects that it has on your spouse and kids and eventually your own sanity.

Well-written, this page turner kept me engaged through each story. The view from every angle and the eventual end. Filled with a little bit of humor, a little bit of sex and social media, and a lot of “midlife” crises, it is a book worth taking the time to read.


This review will be posted at BookwormishMe.com close to publication date.

While I enjoyed the content and subject matter of this novel (marriage, divorce, relationships in the digital age), I had difficulty with the presentation of it--told from a friend of Toby's during most of the book. It felt more like a "report" of things that happened to him instead of the reader being involved. So it was slow going for me at the beginning. Clearly the author is a talented writer and the pain of divorce and custody arrangements are certainly relevant given the ease (and burden?) of dating in the age of technology where apparently women are available at all hours of the day, regardless of whether they've met you in person. I just didn't feel invested in the characters enough to love this book but I would definitely read more by this author.

"Fleishman Is in Trouble" focuses on a trio of high-achieving, upwardly mobile college friends who reconnect one summer as one of them faces the aftermath of an ugly divorce. They're rich, successful people who nevertheless feel like something's missing from their middle-aged lives. Is it love? Understanding? More fun? Less time with their children? They're by turns angry, jealous, insecure, horny and, in the end, not even sure what's wrong with themselves and their partners. How did Toby's marriage fail? Can Elizabeth just relax and be happy in her own? Should Seth ever marry at all? They revisit their time as study abroad students in Israel and their early dating lives in search of answers. Taffy Brodesser-Akner, author of some incisive magazine pieces on subjects ranging from the diet industrial complex to Gwyneth Paltrow, brings these characters to life and tracks their miserable paths through New York and its suburbs. No one is perfect here, but Brodesser-Akner gives you just enough information to empathize with everyone. There's more than a nod to "The Great Gatsby" as she lays bare the levels of wealth, class and sophistication on display in their lives.

I unequivocally loved this book. Brodessor-Akner's writing sucked me in and kept me going early on. I was sympathetic towards Toby but also wary that he deserved it as every now and then something slipped through that made me cringe at him. It's not a light read, but I did have fun with it.

I consider this book a social commentary on marriage, divorce, mid-life dating and raising a family and as I find common in the social commentary genre it was a bit strange. My reading experience was a roller coaster ride - It has a strong opening, then it had a lull and I almost stopped reading it but it was just interesting enough to keep me turning the pages and then it got better and better and I didn't want to put it down. Unexpectedly in part three, the plot stopped working for me and I lost interest again. I must say I definitely found myself rooting for Toby throughout the book.

The roller coaster ride made this a hard one to score on a 5 point scale! Due to my love of the middle I gave it a 4. If you like social commentaries I'd definitely give this one a read.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an early release in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner was troubling and interesting and haunting all at once. Following the main character's tumultuous life was a little difficult, especially once I realized it was being told from his friend's point of view instead of his own. Either way, I enjoyed the boy and was glad for the cliffhanger at the end.

Loved it. Funny, moving, and that third section is quite the gut punch. Will be recommending to everyone who needs a summer read.

It took me a long time to start writing this review. This was an extraordinary novel in many ways, yet it could have been more. Three interconnected college friends are into their early 40s. Toby, a doctor with a liver specialty, is still trying to come to terms with being short and having been fat as a child. He is in the process of divorcing Rachel, his wife of 15 years. He is a wonderful doctor and father to his two children. And yet he is miserable.

Elizabeth, Libby, drifts in and out of this novel like a ghost. You must remain alert to spot where Toby's narrative ends and hers begins. Also a wife and mother of two, with a husband who loves her, she still pines for the days of her youth.

Seth has it all, except that he doesn't. Still unmarried, he has serial erotic relationships. He is successful, making lots of money, until he isn't, and with all that he was given (height, looks, hair) is still unsatisfied.

Could all this be due to a curse put upon these three by a beggar woman in Israel? Unlikely, unless you believe that we make prophecies come true. And yet, and yet...

Rachel finally appears in her own narrative in time for us to see that she has lost it, lost her sanity in a nervous breakdown that causes her to abandon her children and destroy her huge money-making business. Funny, that, since Toby only ever wanted a wife who wasn't crazy.

At its heart, this novel is a feminist cry against how far we have come as women and how we will seemingly never be the equals of men. From the gynecologist who traumatize s Rachel during childbirth, to the journalist who can never make it writing for a men's magazine, to a sensitive, caring doctor who can't understand that being a loving, involved father doesn't mean he can understand his wife's feelings, how far have we really come?

Written in a contemporary raunchy style. Taffy Brodesser-Akner captures 21st century mid-life mores. She's a gifted writer who will give you a lot to think about.

When you read the Rachel chapter, you will think there has been an oversight in editing when the same paragraphs appear on several different pages. That and the lack of identifying the narrator are my only criticisms of an original an thoughtful book.

Toby Fleishman is newly separated and on the prowl. His job keeps him busy but not too busy to have sex with any female and see his two kids who he adores. While re-discovering himself sexually, which seems like he is doing with half of Manhatten, his ex-wife drops the kids off at his place and disappears. While she has never been the mother of the year, she is still taking care of the kids half the time and now has left Toby to shoulder all their needs 24/7. Summer camp helps as does a few days off of work but he still can't locate her so hence the book's title- he is in trouble. When he doesn't find her he must come to the realization that he has to make this work for his kids. All of this just makes him still ponder what exactly went wrong with his marriage, his work and his life. Sometimes you have to be thrown into chaos to find the important things. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

It is rare that I do not finish an ARC, but unfortunately this one I have to put down. Right now the only thing going through my mind is thank God I don’t have to date in this day and age. All these dating apps and descriptions of pictures and posts make me cringe. Gross. Aside from that, the characters here are just not people I can care about. I think I can see why some can connect to it, for the humor aspect. For me it just fell flat and I found it to feel almost a little desperate.

I love when a debut from a new author is just what you've been looking for. I also love when a woman writes from a man's point of view and you have to keep checking the cover to see if it really is a woman writing flawlessly about a mans journey. The use of specifics and detail make reading about Toby so enjoyable and so relatable even though I am a different age and gender than the main character. I particularly enjoyed the reoccurring references to the ridiculous workout tank tops we stuff ourselves into daily- so funny. While the topic of middle age divorce has certainly been covered, the way the author navigates the details is both fresh and entertaining. The author does not follow the typical gender stereotypes, she sheds light on dads in the more traditional mom roles and wives in the more traditional husband roles. I also appreciate the role of Elizabeth as she relates to Toby and navigates the same season of life. I found it a little confusing to go back and forth between characters, but not enough to be distracted or put off. I look forward to future reads by this author.

I was given an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This will be a tough book to read, esp. for those in their 40s and 50s who have recently been through a separation or divorce. The parents at the center of this book are hyper-successful New York upper East Side Jews who are so finely drawn you probably know people like them in your own lives. The descriptions are quite intimate, taking you inside their heads, thoughts, feelings and motivations. There is a lot of conflict between the ex-partners as they come to terms with the,selves and changes in how they view the world, their changing love for each other, their affairs -- both in business and in love -- and how they move from a long-term marriage into the confused current state. I probably couldn't have read this book in the years following my own separation from my first wife, because there is a lot of raw emotion, vitriol and anger as the couple tries to work things out. This book reminded me of a modern day Philip Roth novel, but set in contemporary era of smartphone dating apps and constant Internet presence.

I tried to finish this book but I realized I didn’t care anything about the characters whether they could work out all the crazy issues. I’m not a prude at all but there was too many blowjobs for me

Toby is going through a divorce from his wife of 15 years. We watch him discover the whole new world of dating apps and struggle as a single dad. We hear about Rachel, his shrew of an ex-wife. But then, one day, Rachel disappears. Is she dead? Missing? Having an affair? We eventually learn the truth—and discover that there are two sides to every story and that everything isn’t always how it appears.
I loved this book. I was excited to read it, because I absolutely adore Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s celebrity profiles in the New York Times (her story about Gwyneth Paltrow is legendary). I had no idea what it was about when I picked it up, but wow—it was amazing. It delighted me, it hooked me, it made me laugh out loud, it made me think, it made me highlight particularly insightful passages in the book, it made me feel. This book is about divorce, yes, but so much more. It’s about marriage, feminism, ambition, workplace struggles, New York City, parenthood, friendship, and on and on. It’s incredibly smart and one of the best books I’ve read in quite some time. Highly recommend.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2766964367?book_show_action=false