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j0s1eg 's review for:
Long Island Compromise
by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a book about unresolved family trauma: layered, inherited, constantly morphing. The Fletchers, a VERY wealthy Jewish family from Long Island, are each coping with the long shadows of a 1987 kidnapping that reshaped the course of their lives, even for those not yet born when it happened. The trauma radiates outward: from a grandfather who fled the Nazis, to a father still defined by his abduction, to children raised by emotionally unavailable parents too focused on keeping him intact.
Brodesser-Akner tells this story with wit and an almost conspiratorial tone, like hearing it from a sharp-eyed neighbour who’s been watching the family for years. The narrative shifts between characters, beginning with the youngest son and working its way through the siblings and eventually to the parents. It’s a clever structure that slowly deepens your understanding of the family’s dysfunction, desires, and disappointments. Every character feels fully realised. Some of their inner lives (including, spoiler alert, one son’s various fetishes) are presented with unflinching intimacy.
This was very much my kind of book: emotionally intelligent, structurally smart, and often darkly funny. Highly recommended if you like character-driven stories that pry into the uncomfortable spaces families tend to paper over.
Giving it a 4.5 star rating because I did find myself checking the page numbers frequently - maybe this was a little toooooo slow for me, or a little too character-oriented at times vs plot/action?
Brodesser-Akner tells this story with wit and an almost conspiratorial tone, like hearing it from a sharp-eyed neighbour who’s been watching the family for years. The narrative shifts between characters, beginning with the youngest son and working its way through the siblings and eventually to the parents. It’s a clever structure that slowly deepens your understanding of the family’s dysfunction, desires, and disappointments. Every character feels fully realised. Some of their inner lives (including, spoiler alert, one son’s various fetishes) are presented with unflinching intimacy.
This was very much my kind of book: emotionally intelligent, structurally smart, and often darkly funny. Highly recommended if you like character-driven stories that pry into the uncomfortable spaces families tend to paper over.
Giving it a 4.5 star rating because I did find myself checking the page numbers frequently - maybe this was a little toooooo slow for me, or a little too character-oriented at times vs plot/action?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Kidnapping