Long Island Compromise

A Novel

De: Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Narrado por: Edoardo Ballerini, Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Duración: 15 h y 23 m

Resumen del Editor

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An exhilarating novel about one American family, the dark moment that shatters their suburban paradise, and the wild legacy of trauma and inheritance, 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 big, juicy, wickedly funny social satire . . . probably the funniest book ever about generational family trauma.”—Oprah Daily

“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.

©2024 Taffy Brodesser-Akner (P)2024 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Brodesser-Akner is a steady, imaginative, insightful writer, and there are riotous passages, haunting dybbuks, and unseen twists that make it thoroughly discussable. Readers will get lost and found in its universe of wealth, family, faith, and other fallible securities.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Easily avoids the sophomore slump with another incisive and witty portrait of New York Jewish life. . . . 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)

“Another tale of modern neuroses, told with bombastic appeal . . . Brodesser-Akner’s sweep and verve is masterful; there are echoes of Philip Roth here in her examination of American Jewish identity, the promise of America, the thrill of reinvention, the prison of privilege. 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

Great story.

Not only was the story amazingly plotted out, the turns of phrase along the way were wonderful. My wife and I have already been dropping quotes on each other and laughing.

Fantastic Narration!

Truly excellent narration and a complex, often hilarious and sometimes tragic family saga. Highly recommend!

excellent narration and compelling story

The narration is extremely good. Compelling story. I listened straight through, in spite of having an early meeting . Worth it.

Thinking Person’s Beach Read

Best book I’ve read this summer. Relatable but heightened family drama. Hope this one gets made into a miniseries.

Surprising

Long Island Compromise was surprisingly powerful. I was annoyed at times, most of the time, at the portrayal of stereotypical Jewish mothers as, disappointed, overbearing, emotionally distant, and controlling women. But, the characters were so well developed that by the end of the book I was a bit dazed. I will ponder my feelings and reaction before I start a new book.

The audio book hasn’t been edited. Repeated audio throughout

It’s astonishing how many times the narrator’s second (and third) take of lines are left in.

The Best Book I’ve Read in Years

I loved this book - not just because it was a page-turner and so exquisitely beautifully written - but because it made me think, and its characters were so flawed but so relatable and sympathetic. The inability of a family to process a bizarre and devastating trauma so early on in the life of that family has ramifications that impact its members so crushingly for years. But in the end - well, I won’t spoil it, but the insight, the depth, and the hope is staggering.

As great a book as this is, the performance of one of my favorite narrators, Edoardo Ballerini, so enhances and communicates the depth (and humor) of this story in a way few voice actors do (and I listen to a lot of books). A superb performance of a story I won’t soon forget.

I wouldn’t listen again or recommend to friends

Rambling description with uninteresting details about unsympathetic people, too much graphic description of kinky sec