4thace reviewed Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
I think this book will stick around
5 stars
This novel is amazing, I realized partway through it, and then again towards the end when I saw what the author was going for after all. It's a bit confusing if you don't get the conceit that it is structurally a story told in first person by the character Libby who uses her capabilities as a journalist to obtain a kind of omniscience into the inner life of the character of Toby Fleishman, who is portrayed for long stretches in what seems like the kind of third-person limited viewpoint where you are allowed to experience the inmost thoughts of the protagonist. It seemed at the beginning like a book motivated by the phenomenon of app-mediated hookup culture among non-monogamous people, which is entertaining enough in its strangeness (to me) to sustain a book. But the story very very gradually turns into a novel with much bigger game in its sights. …
This novel is amazing, I realized partway through it, and then again towards the end when I saw what the author was going for after all. It's a bit confusing if you don't get the conceit that it is structurally a story told in first person by the character Libby who uses her capabilities as a journalist to obtain a kind of omniscience into the inner life of the character of Toby Fleishman, who is portrayed for long stretches in what seems like the kind of third-person limited viewpoint where you are allowed to experience the inmost thoughts of the protagonist. It seemed at the beginning like a book motivated by the phenomenon of app-mediated hookup culture among non-monogamous people, which is entertaining enough in its strangeness (to me) to sustain a book. But the story very very gradually turns into a novel with much bigger game in its sights. In the end, I realized that what I understood about Toby was a flawed picture seen through his own biased eyes, that what I knew about his ex-wife Rachel was also riddled with ambiguities, and by extension even Libby has been living a life that doesn't fit together properly when considered using the sensibility the author has built up as a critique of our culture. At least that is one reading of the theme. There is a medical drama in there, too, which echoes the overall movement in miniature, one what casts a sense of foreboding on everyone touched by it. Motifs are woven into the story in a way that amuse as they recur even as they change in meaning. My own life story is not much like any of the characters here, and yet I feel like there are lessons here to apply, if I chose to.
The audio narration was superb too, not giving away too much so that the listener can be lulled into going down one path, only to be jerked into sudden realization of where things were actually headed. It all felt like the kind of book that would spark spirited discussions in college English classes, if they still do that kind of thing nowadays.
