Review: Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
A Jewish-American saga that covers three generations of the Fletcher family, much happens in the novel which reminds readers that life is far more complicated than it often seems
Long Island Compromise, Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s second novel, starts with the author asking, “Do you want to hear a story with a terrible ending?” The dramatic beginning is followed by the news that Carl Fletcher, a rich businessman living in Middle Rock, Long Island, has been “kidnapped from his driveway on his way to work.” The kidnappers torture Carl and demand a hefty ransom. He is released after a few days, but he does not return to his usual self after the incident. Carl’s kidnapping is a significant episode in Long Island Compromise, an intergenerational story of a Jewish American family used to affluence – before a twist in the tale.
A staff writer for The New York Times, Brodesser-Akner’s 2019 debut novel Fleishman is in Trouble became widely popular. It focuses on Toby Fleishman, a 41-year-old hepatologist whose marriage to Rachel, a celebrity agent, has crumbled. The story about midlife crisis as seen through the lens of a failed marriage is well-observed, wonderfully written and occasionally relatable. Brodesser-Akner’s incisive characterisation – not surprising because she writes excellent celebrity profiles – is the primary reason for its appeal.
Long Island Compromise is different. More ambitious and multilayered than the author’s debut novel, the Jewish-American saga covers three generations of the Fletcher family. Zelig Fletcher, a Jewish man, flees from Poland and arrives in the United States. His only significant possession is a stolen formula for polystyrene, a synthetic polymer. Zelig marries Phyllis and the establishment of a polystyrene factory becomes the source of wealth for the Fletcher family. Carl, their son who is married to Ruth, owns the factory after his father’s death. However, a lot changes for him and everyone else after he is kidnapped, tortured, and eventually brought back home.
While the Fletchers become “extraordinarily, absurdly, kidnappably rich” because of their business, Nathan, Bernard and Jenny, the children of Ruth and Carl, fail to rise above the ordinary. Nathan, a lawyer who hasn’t made an impact in his profession, suffers from chronic anxiety. Bernard, also called Beamer, is a motion picture screenwriter who writes second-rate screenplays. Moreover, his drugs and sex addiction consume many potentially productive hours of the day. Jenny, a bit of a drifter, seeks an identity outside of affluence and eventually becomes a student union organizer.
Long Island Compromise gives Brodesser-Akner another opportunity to create well-crafted characters, which she does. Her detailed depiction of the three grandchildren is particularly impressive, although her indulgence in describing Beamer’s sexual experiences is rather unnecessary. The story of the rise and fall of the Fletcher family is summarised in a few unforgettable words, “…the people who rise to success on their own never stop feeling the fear at their door, and the people lucky enough to be born into comfort and safety never become fully realised people in the first place.” The lives of the three grandchildren illustrate the observation’s implications in the novel, which is what it is because of how the characters evolve.
Brodesser-Akner’s wit was another highlight of Fleishman is in Trouble. The same quality is on display in Long Island Compromise, and it is difficult not to giggle when one of the characters describes every third home in Middle Rock as “a Frankenstein of architectural indecision or an effigy of an important building in another country….” Beamer marries Noelle Albrecht, a German girl who is an “OK model” and a minor actress. He and his wife name their daughter Liesl, which, Beamer’s mother Ruth tells her son, is the name of the oldest daughter of the Nazi in The Sound of Music, the musical. (Beamer does not tell her that the Nazi is not her father, but her boyfriend). The conversation between Beamer and Ruth might have many readers in splits, as could another one after the couple names their son Wolfgang.
Hebrew words are sprinkled throughout the novel. A stroke of bad luck brings to mind a dybbuk, an evil spirit that possesses a human body in Jewish mythology. While Carl’s kidnapping at the novel’s start suggests that wealth can invite trouble, the end of the guarantee of a quarterly dividend check because of earnings from the polystyrene factory indicates that prosperity without hard work and enterprise does not last forever.
A surprising twist towards the end ensures that a financial setback does not hurt the Fletchers irreparably. Phyllis and Zelig had found ways to ensure that a possible calamity would not affect those after them sometime in the future. Much happens in Long Island Compromise, in other words, whose eventful plot with more downs than ups is a reminder that life is far more complicated than it often seems.
Brodesser-Akner’s observational prose proves invaluable when she describes the humorous as well as unsettling moments in the story revolving around the wealthy but flawed Fletchers. Nobody will fall in love with these characters, but it won’t be easy to forget them either.
Biswadeep Ghosh is an independent journalist. Among his books is MSD: The Man, The Leader, the biography of former Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni.