Long Island Compromise - by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

About the Book

"In [1980], a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway in the nicest part of Long Island, brutalized, and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, only slightly the worse for wear, and the family begins the hard work of trying to move on with their lives and resume their prized places in the saga of the American dream, coming to understand that though their money may have been what put them in danger, it is also what guaranteed them their safety in the end. But forty years later, when Carl's mother dies and the family comes home to mourn her, it becomes clear that nobody ever really got over anything"--

Book Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - An exhilarating novel about one American family and the dark moment that shatters their suburban paradise, from the New York Times bestselling author of Fleishman Is in Trouble

New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice - New York Magazine's Beach Read Book Club Pick - Belletrist Book Club Pick

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Oprah Daily, The New Yorker, Time, The Washington Post, NPR, Vogue, Town & Country, New York Post, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Parade, Kirkus Reviews

"Joins the pantheon of great American novels."--Los Angeles Times
"Exuberant and absorbing . . . a big old-fashioned social novel."--The Atlantic

"Were we gangsters? No. But did we know how to start a fire?"

In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway, brutalized, and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, only slightly the worse, and the family moves on with their lives, resuming their prized places in the saga of the American dream, comforted in the realization that though their money may have been what endangered them, it is also what assured them their safety.

But now, nearly forty years later, it's clear that perhaps nobody ever got over anything, after all. Carl has spent the ensuing years secretly seeking closure to the matter of his kidnapping, while his wife, Ruth, has spent her potential protecting her husband's emotional health. Their three grown children aren't doing much better: Nathan's chronic fear won't allow him to advance at his law firm; Beamer, a Hollywood screenwriter, will consume anything--substance, foodstuff, women--in order to numb his own perpetual terror; and Jenny has spent her life so bent on proving that she's not a product of her family's pathology that she has come to define it. As they hover at the delicate precipice of a different kind of survival, they learn that the family fortune has dwindled to just about nothing, and they must face desperate questions about how much their wealth has played a part in both their lives' successes and failures.

Long Island Compromise spans the entirety of one family's history, winding through decades and generations, all the way to the outrageous present, and confronting the mainstays of American Jewish life: tradition, the pursuit of success, the terror of history, fear of the future, old wives' tales, evil eyes, ambition, achievement, boredom, dybbuks, inheritance, pyramid schemes, right-wing capitalists, beta-blockers, psychics, and the mostly unspoken love and shared experience that unite a family forever.

Review Quotes

"Joins the pantheon of great American novels . . . Long Island Compromise is an exploration of intergenerational trauma and an unabashed critique of income inequality . . . Brodesser-Akner has written a humane, brazen, gorgeous novel whose words dance exuberantly on the page."--Los Angeles Times

"Is this book as good [as Fleishman is in Trouble]? It's better. Sprawling yet nimble, this is [Brodesser-Akner's] Big American Reform Jewish Novel . . . Brodesser-Akner is empathetic to her characters' pathological inability to know themselves, but she is also merciless when it comes to the idea that acknowledging confusion is not enough."--The New York Times

"Comprising immersive, tragicomic deep dives into the Fletchers' personal pathologies and inner demons . . . Long Island Compromise is ingeniously plotted, its various storylines building toward several extremely satisfying plot twists . . .The potentially corrosive nature of wealth has rarely been explored with such humanity."--The Atlantic

"Brodesser-Akner is a keen observer of class aspiration as a survival method."--The New Yorker

"An outlandish, rollicking family saga"--ELLE

"Relatable but never dull . . . Brodesser-Akner, who twists her knife with more relish, begins with actual crisis (a mysterious kidnapping and release), then leaps to the surprising ways it stamps fear into each member of the wealthy family."--Chicago Tribune

"In her savage, hilarious follow-up to Fleishman Is in Trouble, Brodesser-Akner takes on capitalism, wealth and generational trauma through a sharp satiric lens . . . Brodesser-Akner's commentary about affluence and its effects resonates."--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Another tale of modern neuroses, told with bombastic appeal . . . I can't think of another living writer better at crafting tales of acute and searing pathos, all while pleasing readers in the process."--Vogue

"Funny, raunchy and very, very Long Island."--Newsday

"The wizard Weisenheimer behind Fleishman Is in Trouble is back with a big, juicy, wickedly funny social satire. . . . As weird as this may sound--Brodesser-Akner has written probably the funniest book ever about generational family trauma."--Oprah Daily

"Readers will get lost and found in its universe of wealth, family, faith, and other fallible securities."--Booklist (starred review)

"Brodesser-Akner's latest combines the smarts of Sarah Silverman's stand-up, the polymath verisimilitude of Tom Wolfe's novels, and the Jewish soul of Sholem Aleichem's stories. This is a comedic feast."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Generational trauma has never been so funny as when Brodesser-Akner writes it. This book is a must-read for those who like witty, observational novels, family sagas, and sharp dialogue and characterization."--Library Journal, starred review

About the Author

Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and the New York Times bestselling author of Fleishman Is in Trouble, which has been translated into more than a dozen languages. She is also the creator and executive producer of its Emmy-nominated limited series adaptation for FX. Long Island Compromise is her second novel.