I got to review Taffy Brodesser-Akner's new novel, Long Island Compromise, for the East Hampton Star. Brodesser-Akner wrote Fleishman is in Trouble, which became a TV series on FX, with Jesse Eisenberg and Claire Danes as the battling couple. Brodesser-Akner works hard to avoid the sophomore slump with Compromise.
The book is about a wealthy family on Long Island. The father is kidnapped, and let go like five days later.
The Fletcher father is OK, but his abduction messes up the family for generations.
The book is set in the fictional Long Island town of Middle Rock. The Fletchers have a 16-acre estate there, thanks to the styrofoam manufacturing business Carl’s father Zelig launched after emigrating from Poland.
Brodesser-Akner writes about Zelig discovering Middle Rock, and envisioning his family settling there: “He had been in America for years by then. When he arrived at what is now known as Cobbleway Park, he realized he’d gone too far. He got out of his car, and looked out onto the Sound. He heard the wind whispering to the trees, and beyond that he heard nothing, and, for the first time, he didn’t miss Poland, or at least the Poland of his childhood. He saw how he could live and be happy in this place.”
Long Island Compromise is a unique novel, if a bit too long. I recommend it.
