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A review by checkplease
Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
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.
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.