Fleishman Is In Trouble is a novel about a marriage and perspective, as a recently divorced man tries to balance his life and work out what is going on with his ex-wife. Toby Fleishman's marriage is over, his ex-wife Rachel is a busy, successful agent, and he is trying to balance his work as a doctor with his new life, looking after his kids part of the time and meeting women on dating apps. When Rachel suddenly disappears after being away at a yoga retreat, Toby has to do everything full time, and resents Rachel and whatever she's up to. The problem is, he might not be the only one with an opinion on their marriage and what happened.

This is a clever novel that pokes fun at a protagonist who really believes he is a protagonist. The narrative voice is at first confusing, but then starts to make sense, and by the end the novel comes together to show what was missing, and where Toby was really only seeing his self-centred version of events. The book isn't about some grand, dramatic happening or reason for a divorce, but more takes a sharp look at perspective in relationships and the way someone who thinks he is a 'modern' man may not be the case after all. People who've been married, and possibly even more so people who've been divorced, may find the book more cutting and funny, and the privileged New York life everyone lived lacked a real sense of trouble, but it is an interesting story of modern relationships and roles.

Toby Fleishman and his wife Rachel are going through a divorce. One morning Rachel drops their kids off to Toby for the weekend and doesn’t return to collect them. Toby has to juggle his work as a Dr, his childcare and the many women he is meeting on his dating app. As well as coming to terms with the fact he has no idea if and when his ex wife is coming back.

I like that Toby was given the more traditional ‘female’ role....he has main responsibility for the kids and earns less than his ex wife. I enjoyed the bits with Toby and his kids and his work. I didn’t really see the purpose of the sex in the story .

I love the final part when we see things from Rachel (the ex wife’s) perspective and I liked the fact that I suddenly had a lot of sympathy for her.

I didn’t really understand the point of Libby as the narrator and the bits about her life and marriage felt a bit weird and pointless!

Overall I enjoyed most of the book and would recommend it. I am aiming to read all the women’s prize long list so pleased I managed to read this.

This is a novel of our time. It takes a good look at what the middle class is now contending with.. having completed what society has pushed forty-somethings towards, fulfilment is still no where on the horizon.

Narrated by Libby, we learn that Tony Fleishman is soon to become divorced. He seems to have it all, a new found freedom to live his life, his way, two children he adores, a well paid job and discovering the delights of dating apps where no dating needs to be done! However when his ex-wife Rachel fails to collect the kids one day, we begin to realise that the facade can often crumble and often those who seem to have it all, don’t.

I liked this novel. It confused me as to why there was a third party narrating it. I also felt somewhat concerned at times as it made me question my own views on what fulfilment entails as a woman hedging towards her forties. I also liked how the author made us question where our loyalties lay with these characters. Do you switch sides as the novel unfolds? Most likely. Overall it’s well
worth the read.

Well, both Rachel and Toby Fleishman are in trouble, but it’s mainly their own fault. These people are exhausting and exhausted from their constant keeping up with the mega-wealthy when they themselves are only extremely wealthy.

Toby and Rachel are in the process of divorcing. Toby is coping with this by heavy use of dating apps and vast amounts of masturbation. Rachel is (not) coping by entirely absenting herself from her life. The two children of the marriage are mostly sent to camp and left to their own devices.

There is also an omniscient (how?) narrator who is an old college friend of Toby’s who I didn’t even realise was there until she started telling her own story of the time she was a student in Israel apropos of nothing.

I did finish the book and it did have literary merit, but I ended with an overwhelming sense of irritation for the characters, their immense privilege and their first world problems. If I’m going to spend time with the wealthy elite in New York, please can there be more glamour and less masturbation?

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

I found this book to be multi-layered. It deals with marriage, Familia relationships, male and female viewpoints. I can see why it was so critically acclaimed. It's the type of book that at times can be hard to make headway in, stays with you long after you read the last page. Personally, I think this is a great pick for a library book club and will be purchasing multiple copies for our library.

Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction this year, Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s debut novel can come across like an upper scale cushy New York couple facing aggravated marital discord in the midst of a mid life crisis but there’s a great deal more unraveling. Fleishman Is in Trouble is a sharply twisted thrust into the facades of social and individual expectations from marriage, divorce, parenting, motherhood and women with careers.
The main story has Toby Fleishman, a 41-year-old hepatologist as the narrator taking readers through how he has come to be estranged from his high income, highly socially connected wife Rachel. The story plays out from their two kids having been dropped off by Rachel, at the homeToby lives in (but paid for by his wife), with a casual text message that she has gone to an upscale retreat. What unfolds from this point on is a whirl of playing victim; how chasms develop in a marriage bound by children and what is socially expected from a couple; therapy sessions and career battles. A minor character shows up much later but shakes up how the reader has perceived the characters and the narrative.
One might feel tempted to say, ‘oh well! This one talks about posh people and their problems’ but believe me, the brutal honesty that the author digs into to bring us the man-woman roles is something that will stay with you. Recommended only if you are game to reading without taking sides.

Fleishman is in Trouble is a incisive, sharply observed and humorous novel that examines the nature and anatomy of a American marriage, family, divorce and identity at the privileged end of the social and economic spectrum, set in New York. The Jewish middle aged hepatologist, Toby Fleishman, and his wife, Rachel, are getting divorced, retaining joint custody of their children, 11 year old Hannah and 7 year old Solly. Whilst this is an entertaining read, there are aspects that grate and irritate, it is overly repeating and in some of the portrayed sex life of Toby. A surprised Toby now discovers he is a much desired man, wanted by many women, which is in sharp contrast to his younger days when disappointment and rejection were more his lot. Nowadays, the modern world of online dating and apps have him plunging in enthusiastically, keen to expand his sexual experiences.

His ambitious wife, Rachel, was the primary bread winner in their marriage, with her successful talent agency, and her efforts to push him to be equally go getting were rebuffed by him. Toby's world shifts considerably when Rachel unexpectedly disappears, leaving him with the children to look after, he becomes increasingly frustrated as he is unable to locate the elusive Rachel. Left with all the responsibilities of parenting in the modern age of mobile phones and problematic social media, Toby's professional career begins to suffer. Toby is to find that his thoughts and beliefs regarding his marriage are not necessarily so. In a narrative related by Toby's old friend, Libby, a former magazine features writer, herself married with a daughter, the author is partially successful in her use of the literary 'trojan horse' device to lay bare the unacknowledged realities that women face in society through role reversal, the issue is that there is an insufficient focus on the women.

We become privy to Rachel's perspective on her marriage and Libby's inner thoughts and feelings in the exploration and analysis of gender differences amidst the differing social and cultural attitudes and expectations when it comes to women in comparison to men. This is a multilayered read on the complexities of life, the challenges of marriage, the inequalities, parenting, the differing experiences of ageing faced by men and women, middle aged angst, identity, and the self inflicted further pressures placed within marriages, parenting and family. I found this a particularly thought provoking reading when it comes to looking at and evaluating the concept of marriage in our complicated modern contemporary realities. Many thanks to Headline for an ARC.