#BlogTour ‘Fleishman Is In Trouble’ by Taffy Brosneker-Akner

About the book…

Recently separated Toby Fleishman is suddenly, somehow–and at age forty-one, short as ever–surrounded by women who want him: women who are self-actualized, women who are smart and interesting, women who don’t mind his height, women who are eager to take him for a test drive with just the swipe of an app. Toby doesn’t mind being used in this way; it’s a welcome change from the thirteen years he spent as a married man, the thirteen years of emotional neglect and contempt he’s just endured. Anthropologically speaking, it’s like nothing he ever experienced before, particularly back in the 1990s, when he first began dating and became used to swimming in the murky waters of rejection.

But Toby’s new life–liver specialist by day, kids every other weekend, rabid somewhat anonymous sex at night–is interrupted when his ex-wife suddenly disappears. Either on a vision quest or a nervous breakdown, Toby doesn’t know–she won’t answer his texts or calls.

Is Toby’s ex just angry, like always? Is she punishing him, yet again, for not being the bread winner she was? As he desperately searches for her while juggling his job and parenting their two unraveling children, Toby is forced to reckon with the real reasons his marriage fell apart, and to ask if the story he has been telling himself all this time is true.

Published in paperback, hardcover and ebook formats, ‘Fleishman Is In Trouble’ is the debut novel by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. Huge thanks to Anne from Random Things for the blogtour invite, and Wildfire books for my gifted review copy.

This book comes pre-loaded with amazing reviews by fellow bloggers and writers for whom I have the hugest of respect. As a result, I was so very keen to read it, and have to admit, it is an extremely well written and very clever novel. For example, the character about whose disappearance the book is centered on, is not given her own voice until a fair way in. It sets your reader’s perspective on who she is by establishing her very absence

That said, the characters are inherently unlikable(I think this was supposed to be the point?) and what results is a bitingly sharp social satire and meditation on the breakdown of a marriage, social conventions and mores.

Toby, (possibly the Fleishman of the title, it could refer to Rachel his wife) is adrift in a post divorce sea of lost identity, child pickups and thwarted career advancement. Short-and don’t we know it-but with his own hair, he has discovered dating apps and a sea of endless hook ups. He has his own place, a career in specialist medicine, has split from a wife who he perceives as unloving, unsatisfactory and that none of his friends liked, so why is he so unsatisfied?

He treats sex as a given and ties his self worth up in the amount of sexting from eager women ‘revelling’ in a newly found sexuality-in reality it comes across as desperately sad and a bit pathetic. His friends Seth and Libby with whom he spent a year in Israel (discussed at length in flashback)are totally supportive and by the way always felt Rachel was a bit of a cold fish (surprise surprise, this is more of a ‘I told you so’ and relates to their need to pick up the pieces than genuine empathy imho).

And suddenly, he wakes up anticipating a day of sexual hookups and finds his children (11 and 6) are in their beds in his appartment, his ex-wife has brought them there and subsequently left. He, totally forgetting that she had text and rung him to say she was going away for the weekend, is annoyed that he has lost a day’s worth of meaningless sex by her actions rather than being annoyed with himself for forgetting his children.

When Rachel and Toby split, the youngest child, Solly, cries himself to sleep for worry that Toby could die of a heart attack, or a myriad of other lonely deaths,and no one would know because they are no longer a family, The 6 year old shows more empathy than his grown father, who is a perfect example of the modern malaise of grown men-children. This is further illustrated in his annoyance at his ex bcause doesn’t she have all the time in the world now? Isn’t all her time hers  now that they are apart?

Because Rachel has vanished, he now has to face looking for the woman he lost in plain sight, the wife whom he disregarded his entire married life is now massively inconveniencing him which is why he needs to find her. He doesn;t really care for the why’s and wherefore’s of her going missing, just the inconvenience of not having her there to take the children away. His selfishness is so absolute he looked upon his marriage as a thankful end to having to look for a suitable partner and the inevitable ennui of the dating scene.

The prose is bitingly sharp with acid lemon aftertaste of bitter sherbert cocktail, a pin prick of conscience skewering with immaculately chosen words.

Which Fleishman of the title is in trouble is for the reader to decide, personally, I felt Rachel was far better off without Toby and she would be in trouble if he actually found her , he was such unlikeable a character that I amazed she stayed married to him aslong as she did. Toby had no idea how much she put into their marriage until it was over and then her absence created a space he never knew existed.

Thought provoking, huighly literate and unusual, this was a very intriguing read.

About the author…

Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine. Prior to that, her work appeared in GQ, ESPN the Magazine, Matter, Details, Texas Monthly, Outside, Self, Cosmopolitan and many other publications. Fleishman Is In Trouble is her first novel.

Links-http://www.taffyakner.com/

Twitter @taffyakner @annecater @Wildfirebks