Reviews

Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

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lonestarwords's review

dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No

4.0

Long Island Compromise has been on my radar ever since it was announced that the author of Fleishman is in Trouble had another book coming out. A huge thank you to @randomhouse for this early copy!
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Fleishman fans will instantly recognize the vibe - Brodesser-Akner’s tone is unmistakable, and she begins this almost 500 page family drama with one of the best opening lines I’ve ever come across.
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Set in 1980s Long Island, The Fletcher Family (Carl, his wife Ruth and their 3 children) live a wealthy lifestyle when Carl is randomly kidnapped. He is eventually released but not before intense emotional damage has taken root. The story unfolds as we go back into the lives of his family to assess that damage and how it manifested itself for each of them. The way this unfolded reminded me of The Bee Sting, in that we know there are wounds that run deep but the layers peel back slowly.
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This is not only a family drama but a story of privilege that exposes how the financial comfort and security of the Fletcher family is left afloat and drifting after their bubble of perfection bursts. Brodesser-Akner explores the random nature of life and fortune in a very off-beat way - this was a page turner, but it will require the specific reader who enjoys a deep analysis of generational trauma. It also illuminates Jewish-American traditions and history.
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There are some laugh out loud sections - family interactions that are so dialed in I wish I could have quoted them, and there are some very cringe worthy ones as well. One of the sons ends up addicted to drugs and sex and it’s just uncomfortable reading - we are spared nothing. My only real issue was at the end of this long novel, the author chose to drive her point home by hitting us a bit over the head with her thesis - that money is the root of all evil. I prefer it when a writer trusts me to intuit what she’s trying to get across.
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The ARC comes with an author’s note where she shares the fact that this is based on a true story from a LI kidnapping, which is fascinating because it seemed so far-fetched as I was reading.
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I do think this is going to be a big summer book (out July 9) and a GREAT beach read.

checkplease's review

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challenging dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I was intrigued by Brodesser-Akner’s debut novel, ‘Fleishman is in Trouble,’ and while I really enjoyed aspects of it, the book never fully clicked for me. I was intrigued to check out her second novel to see if I could more readily embrace it.

Much of what grabbed me about ‘Fleishman’ is operative here as well. The writing is sharp and often funny. In its set-up of a family coming back together in the context of a shiva, it reminded me of Jonathan Tropper’s ‘This is Where I Leave You.’ However, this novel is focused on what the kidnapping of the father in childhood did to his three children. I was drawn in by the intent to look at intergenerational trauma, but I think the concept worked against the narrative, as we end up with three stock trust-fund-sibling characters: the milquetoast older brother Nathan, who is unable to assert himself to any degree; the substance-abusing middle sibling Beamer, who keeps trying to re-enact his father’s kidnapping and numbing himself into oblivion; and the brilliant younger sister Jenny, whose life is organized by a reaction formation of noncommital living and labor organizing.

Your mileage with this book will vary based on how you respond to each of these characters. I found the section focused on Nathan to be interminable as it involves watching him make a compounding series of bad decisions out of a paralyzing fear of speaking up for himself. Whereas Nathan’s life is hampered by constriction, Beamer’s is marked by taking risk after nihilistic risk. This probably makes him the most engaging character, but his story is engaging in a gawking-at-a-car-crash way. The opacity of the father until the very end is both the point of the thing and also irksome.

Brodesser-Akner is a maximalist, and her writing has an unrestrained quality that results in some inventive playfulness (especially in the way she writes dialogue) and laugh-out-loud turns of phrase. However, the prose is also dense, and the book is at least 100 pages too long, with a lot of “we get it already” overwriting and a few head-scratching detours. (There is one sojourn into the familial legacy of a friend of Jenny’s that stuck out as particularly unnecessary.) There is once again a question of the identity of the narrator, which seems like the kind of device you should use sparingly.

As with ‘Fleishman,’ I appreciated the cultural specificity and sense of place. Jewishness is a big feature of this book, and I imagine that will resonate strongly for readers in this year of war and protest. The concerns of the ultra-wealthy that dominated her debut novel are still present, but with a wider lens and greater scrutiny of the damages wrought, both to children who grow up without want and to those who are in their orbit.

But also, as with ‘Fleishman,’ I can see what she was going for without it entirely coming together for me. I suspect others will connect deeply with this book, as is common for sagas of the Great American Family. But after 450 pages, I closed the cover still waiting for something more.