Novels No. 49 (LL367)

 

Taffy Brodesser-Akner. Fleishman Is in Trouble. 2019. USA: Random House Trade Paperback, 2020.

Attracted by the blurbs for this author's recent Long Island Compromise, I learned that her debut novel had been a runaway hit, named as one of the best books of the year in many worthy literary reviews. Okay, why don't I read the first novel first? (Not that the second is a sequel.) Toby Fleishman is newly divorcing, and we are plunged into his aftermath world of resentment, regret, memories, job introspection, and new opportunities—the latter stunning him with sexual distraction. For the first time in his life, women are hot for him; his short height had been a lifelong curse. But wait, his about-to-be-ex Rachel went away on a yoga weekend and never returned, breaching their child custody sharing arrangement. Toby has always been the nurturing parent, even though occupied as a top hepatologist, but he's stuck for babysitters until he gets his kids Hannah and Solly into summer camp.

Toby goes overboard imagining what Rachel is doing—punishing him? abandoning all family responsibility? having a torrid secret affair with someone unknown? Had he ever wanted the elite life that Rachel wanted? Most of the myriad thoughts or fantasies in Toby's roiling mind invite humour. How worried should he be? What should he tell the kids? It's all his point of view until the truth no, her story comes forth. The entire book is a testament to human nature, to the self-centred judgments we make unconsciously, to the opinions we form from experience. Brodesser-Akner's dry wit probes all the social growing pains, all the traps we create for ourselves. Narrated by Toby's old friend Libby, the couple's relationship is laid wide open, inspecting the evolving role of each. Even existential anger has its funny side in the author's hands.

Any reader can recognize and relate to facets of this accommodating, stumbling, sometimes neurotic man, or this driven, accomplished, but embattled woman. The insight into children and friends is as compelling as the dissection of a marriage. No spoilers, but the disappearance and the ending—like the whole story—are expertly integrated. Just read it!

Toby

▪ He couldn't seem to convey to her that he was a real person, that he was not a blinking cursor awaiting her instructions, that he still existed when she wasn't in a room with him. (7)

▪ "She was just angry all the time," he told me. (37)

▪ If he was honest, he didn't even know if Rachel would date again, so disgusted was she by the confines of marriage, so ruined had she been by the compromises of another person trying to have an equal say or even just an opinion in her life. (58-9)

▪ "I'm coming out of a fifteen-year relationship with a woman who wouldn't let me pee standing up. I have some healing to do." (73)

▪ Suddenly, from the backseat: "Where's Mom?" Solly asked. It had taken four days for him to ask. (104)

▪ Yes, he was angry. Holy Jesus, he was angry. ... What was ever the merit in pretending he wasn't? What was wrong with being angry? (303)

Rachel

▪ "Toby, Toby, you are so angry. When did you get this angry?" (76)

▪ She screamed at him that he would never see the children again if he tried to leave her, and that he would be left penniless. (107)

▪ Right before you were pregnant, you were a person. The minute you became an incubator for another life, you got reduced to your parts. (314)

▪ Having a child was signing up for enduring her entire childhood all over again. (318)

▪ She always thought divorce would come from hate, but her anger was never based on hate. It was based in disappointment that someone she loved misunderstood her so deeply. (332)

▪ Her success made her poison. (337)

More

▪ He explained to Toby that presence in a yoga class, no matter your ability, was a shortcut to showing a woman how evolved you were, how you were strong, how you were not set on maintaining the patriarchy that she so loathed and feared. (69)

▪ Inside those houses weren't altruistic, good people whom fortune had smiled down on in exchange for their kind acts and good works. No, inside those columned, great-lawned homes were pirates for whom there was never enough. There was never enough money, goods, clothing, safety, security, club memberships, bottles of old wine. (105)

▪ This is what happened when an entire field of medicine was as disrespected as psychologists. They made their own rules, and one of them was that nobody was allowed to have a breakdown during August, and the other was that this was fucking Europe and they got to take a whole month off. (271)

▪ We aren't meant to understand death. Death's whole gig is not being understood. (303)

Toby the doctor

"The people who come to you—they're not here for checkups. By the time they get to you, they know something is wrong. They're sick. They're afraid. Do you know how scary it is for a body you've had your whole life to suddenly turn on you? For the system you relied on to just break down like that? Can you just close your eyes and try to think what that might feel like?" He was filled with disgust for the three of them and the way they looked bewildered. "Maybe you should all go into surgery if you hate people who are awake so much." He walked into his office and before he closed his glass door, he said, "I'm very disappointed." (87)

Colleen Hoover. Too Late. USA: Hachette Book Group, 2023.

FYI: The author first off warns that this book is unlike her previous novels. I'm not a 'follower' therefore unaware of the implication. Sloan is an impoverished university student, grateful that fellow student Asa gives her love and a place to live. She's determined to earn her degree. When social welfare cancels care for her disabled brother Stephen, Asa provides the necessary funding as well, for which she feels deeply obligated. Yet doubts have been haunting her as she realizes that Asa's money comes from a burgeoning drug trafficking business, and their house has become a routine stop for all-night parties. Feeling trapped, Sloan doesn't expect the electric connection she experiences when she meets Carter, who sits next to her in a new class. And it's mutual. But Carter is a fake student, really an undercover police agent investigating drug dealers.

Carter and his colleague Dalton work their way into Asa's trusted network. It's not long before Carter comprehends Sloan's predicament, and the fact that Asa will kill anyone coming near his woman. Totally smitten, Carter must remain in character in order to obtain the evidence that the drug squad needs. And the irony is that despite her instinctive attraction to him, Sloan believes Carter is little better than the mess she's already in. Asa's unpredictable anger keeps the tension level up even after Sloan's reluctant acceptance of his marriage proposal—to deflect any suspicions of Carter. Of the three main characters, Asa is overplayed with paranoia, rage, brutality—Sloan's not the only recipient. In spite of being arrested and criminally charged, he's still a nightmare that won't go away.

Graphically described, it's all a bit excess! While the struggles here may be worthy of a Greek tragedy, the villain's repetitious behaviour becomes almost gratuitous. As a love story, Sloan spends most of her time crying while she and Carter each blame themselves for Asa's psychotic schemes. Nevertheless, the thread of insanity has a creepy reality. An off of writer <groan>.

Sloan

▪ My parents were users and I swore that as soon as I could get away from their dangerous lifestyles, I would leave and never look back. But here I am at twenty-one years old, already living a life that is no better than the one I grew up in. (20)

▪ I cried for the fact that I'm still with him, despite the person he's become. (38)

▪ He pushes me onto the couch and as soon as he releases his grip around my throat, I drag in gasp after gasp of air, coughing and sputtering until I have enough air in my lungs to scream. (103)

▪ But it wouldn't be the first time he's concocted a ridiculously elaborate scheme. (249)

▪ Instead, the hand that's holding his gun swings around and hits me so hard, I fly back onto the bed. (253)

▪ "It's too late to kill me, Asa. You killed me a long time ago." (269)

Carter

▪ My duty is to complete the the job I'm being paid to do ... which is to bust the largest campus drug ring in collegiate history. (5)

▪ Where the hell did this girl come from? And where the hell has she been all my life? (12)

▪ "You are everything Asa doesn't deserve." And everything I want, I think. (99)

▪ "To Asa and Sloan. May love find you in every tragedy you face." (153)

▪ She doesn't even know my real name, and the more lies I tell her in moments like these, the harder it'll be for her to forgive me when she finds out the truth. (169)

▪ And as unstable as Asa is right now, the less Sloan knows, the better. (198)

Asa

▪ She'd be nothing if it weren't for me. I took her in when she had nowhere else to go. (61)

▪ I press the tip of the needle into my arm and apply a little pressure. Once it pierces my skin, I draw the process out as long as possible. (92)

▪ The thought of being able to corrupt something that sweet made me think about her more than anything else in my life. (109)

▪ "It's not your fault, Sloan. He brainwashed you." (252)

▪ I squeeze my hand around the gun. I wrap my other hand in her hair and squeeze. (267)