Fleishman Is In Trouble is the debut novel you didn't know you needed
This novel, by up and coming author Taffy Brodesser-Akner, earned itself a spot in my top five favorite reads in just 30 pages. As a devoted fan of the character-driven novel, I crave a thoughtful storyline composed primarily of juicy character introspection, and Fleishman is in Trouble gave me just that and more. If you’re searching for a novel that will make you question the meaning of life, the validity of human connection, and the possibility of a happy life pre/during/post marriage, then look no further.
This story of a man turned divorcee turned befuddled co-parent is gripping from the first pages when we meet our unlikely hero, Toby. Toby is spectacularly ordinary at first, but soon becomes the likable protagonist we didn’t know we needed. The hepatologist and father of two is too hopeful to admit that he made a grave mistake marrying the power-hungry talent agent, Rachel, but things get even more dicy when the two settle into the post-marriage anguish of trying to manage the scheduled parenting that accompanies a less than amicable divorce. Toby struggles to remember why he ever married her in the first place and chooses to cope by throwing himself equally into intense online dating and parenting his damaged kids.
With Rachel finally, and then alarmingly, out of the picture, Toby begins to experience happiness that can largely be attributed to his staggering success with women and life without being humiliated by his ex-wife. But his joy is not without periods of dread, and we get to see him navigate his complicated feelings toward love, money, marriage, and Rachel while juggling his attempts to make pre-divorce messiness up to his kids, sneaking off to have play dates with his many excitingly-salacious pursuers whenever he can. As the book progresses, his life is tempered often by an existential loneliness as he settles into his newly untethered status and an unpreventable concern for his stony ex-wife. As he gets swept up in balancing this impossible lifestyle, his old friend and narrator, Elizabeth, gets swept under the rug. Readers get to strap in and experience Toby’s self-realization through the increasingly aggrieved Libbie, wondering when things will come to a head and Toby’s naive disregard will no longer be tolerated by the people that remain in his life.
Taffy Brodesser-Akner and her debut novel are onto something with this story of ruminative Fleishman. She has managed to write a novel with more heart than Dickens and more character complexity than Woolf, with 2019’s most endearing character to boot. Between Toby’s astute observations about women -- noticing that a potential sexual partner’s foundation was far too thick and musing about private school moms that wore identical leggings and shirts with cringy workout quotes -- and the occasional glimpse into his medical prowess, I felt like I wanted to know Toby in real life. Peeling back the layers of this complex middle-aged man felt like peeling open birthday presents. This page-turner was gleefully refreshing through and through, and one I’ll be revisiting sooner than I probably should.