Fleishman Is in Trouble is a remarkable work of ventriloquism from the New York Times Magazine journalist best known for her revealing profile interviews with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Jonathan Franzen. Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s debut is ostensibly the story of Toby Fleishman, a 41-year-old hepatologist whose estranged wife Rachel drops off their kids at 4am one night and then, with a casual text message, disappears out of their lives. Toby is an angry man – and understandably bitter about Rachel’s self-centred hostility – but somewhat cheered that, since he was last single, there is suddenly internet dating. All of New York is “now crawling with women who wanted him … Women who would fuck you like they owed you money.” It is a promising start, especially for fans of Franzen or Philip Roth, or the type of contemporary writer who can often be found on the shortlist for the Bad Sex in Fiction award. But Fleishman Is in Trouble is so much smarter than a Great American Novel wannabe written by another clever man.
What Brodesser-Akner has achieved here is to quietly reveal the souls of the women in the story
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