Long Island Compromise: A Novel
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 "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.
New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice - New York Magazine's Beach Read Book Club Pick - Belletrist Book Club Pick "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.
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Community Reviews
Interesting story about a family who can’t seem to get past trauma only the father really had the very physical pain of experiencing. The story is told in an interesting voice, but it’s very inconsistent in the beginning. It was wrapped up very neatly with one of the final pages saying, “that’s just how it goes.” The rich just stay rich and never have to face too much pain because, well, they’re rich. Also, Ike was part of the kidnapping, right?
I mainly enjoyed the unpacking of Carl and Ruth’s stories. I felt like Jenny’s part was too compact and contradictory of her values from her family’s. I hated Beamer at first but by the end, I felt like his storyline was the only one that was fully actualized. Nathan’s storyline had great potential but his was also quickly dimmed by Beamer’s in my opinion. I also read the commentary from the Vulture’s summer book club and they had some great insights into the book. It’s being made into an Apple TV+ series so I’d be curious to see the adaptation when it comes out. The Vulture’s reporting team recommended Jonathan Franzen’s “The Corrections”, which has a very similar concept to Long Island Compromise. I plan to read that later to compare between the two books.
Long Island Compromise shook me to my core. I found myself laughing at times, deep in thought at other moments, and when I would put the book down, I couldn't help but want to learn more. Learned more from a dysfunctional family that, in a weird way, I could understand because their foundation was broken, and they grew roots and traits the best way they found possible.
This book deserves ten stars, without any doubt! I made so many highlights while reading my ebook. The last time I felt something similar was when I watched Succession; funny enough, I can see a lot of parallels.
Kids born to wealth (check)
New York setting (check)
Parental unit/Family traumas (check)
A funny brother who has severe drug and sex addictions. Roman is still my favorite, and so it's Beamer with all of his flaws (check)
A mother whose circumstances made her a bit rough on the edges (check)
This book is so great that even to the end, we get a plot twist that I never saw coming. I felt blindsided and shocked. Each character in this book gets an opportunity to share their raw, most intimate thoughts, coping mechanisms (destructive or not), and the flaws that make me, the reader, connect with them on a personal level. The unspoken family trauma is the main character that sometimes manifests sadly, sometimes in a funny way, and sometimes dramatic, but never less traumatic. As much as I wanted to learn how everything ended, I would be lying if I didn't admit I would miss them.
The description of the video game Mogul reminded me of a weird cross between Sims and Grant Theft Auto. I also learned many aspects of Judaism. This book is a solid recommendation and one that I am glad to have had the opportunity to read in my lifetime.
My recommendation is to get the book, enjoy the journey, and forget about the destination.
Top ten most impactful quotes:
"There is something so dangerous about having too much money and just enough time."
"It was how they don't tell you how long the tail is on self-destruction- how you could self-destruct over and over for so, so long without even coming close to the end, which, of course, is destruction itself.
"First generations build home; second generation lives in it, third generations burns it down.
"What is it about shame that a teaspoon of it weighs so much more than a teaspoon of happiness?
"When you're born with money, you'll always be a rich girl, even if you lose all of it. If you were raised with no money, you'll never feel rich."
"Being around money like that, though. It tends to make people ask questions about fairness."
"Trauma can be inherited in the same way as hair color..."
"To be a normal person, you had to at least see normal people..."
"The body and mind being efficient machines, they bury what they don't need anymore"
"Your poverty will create a great drive in your children. Or your wealth will doom them"
Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Group, for the opportunity to read this arc for my unbiased review.
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