Book Review: "Long Island Compromise" by Taffy Brodesser Anker

I very almost bought this as an e-book on eBay at one point because I was dying to read it but I stopped myself and would wait until I could actually afford the book itself. I waited, I waited and I waited. I had waited for a few months before I decided that: well, you only live once, so let's go. I bought it despite my financial state. Long Island Compromise was the book that people kept recommending to each other and so, it was only natural that someone was going to recommend it to me to which my response was: I just bought it, at least let me read it first. It was all very exciting because it opens with a kidnapping. Yes, a kidnapping. With a lot of reviewers having mixed opinions or not even finishing the book, let's see what I thought of it.

I am not sure why so many people hated this book because to be honest, it was fairly interesting. No it was not perfect, but there were enough positive points to keep me going.

A wealthy Long Island businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped. It’s the 1980s and everyone wants a slice of money. Within the week though, he is returned to his family and eventually, the two conspirators die in prison: one in a riot and the other from cancer. So, as the reader we can assume that the big problem is solved, right? Wrong. This is just the start of the big problems. As we move through the novel, we get a deep and intimate look at a family who never quite recovered emotionally and financially from the crime. This manifests over four decades.

Carl’s wife, Ruth, becomes the emotional backbone of the family. She devotes her life to protecting Carl’s fragile emotional state. This comes at a personal cost, as Ruth puts her own ambitions and personal growth on hold, sacrificing much of her own potential in service to Carl’s recovery and well-being​. I thought that this was interesting because it shows us a whole new angle on the kidnapping and it is no longer just about the victim or the criminals. There are so many sides that the author shows us and perhaps, this is the most interesting one. It starts to really get underway when the youngest child, Jenny, is born.

Looking at the idea of being wealthy at a time when The American Dream was hanging by a thread, we can see the true state of panic when the family are informed that their wealth is quickly depleting. It sends the emotional turmoil into overdrive as even the children have been negatively impacted by the kidnapping of their father some years before. As we move in and out of the past, we can safely say that there should be a point where the camel’s back breaks and this might be one of those points. It is written well into the story but I also think that it might overload it as well.

This novel has its advantages of being interesting but it is often mired in bland writing. I have to say I did not enjoy this book as much as the author’s last one because of the writing. The writing style for me was a bit dry and lacked general feeling. You probably know my taste in literature by now which is usually sentimental descriptions, bits and pieces of philosophy and basically anything that reads like it was written whilst the writer was drinking absinthe and laying on a divan surrounded by Persian teas.

However, I think this book here simply lacked the drive to keep going, which brings me to why so many people did not actually finish it. It was not just the writing style for my personal tastes, but the book did not actually seem like it was going anywhere because there wa absolutely no tension whatsoever. The pace barely changed throughout the book and so, the reader is left kind of alone and without a ride to go on.

All in all, I thought the premise was clever. It had a real concentration on things apart from the crime and how criminal behaviour can change a victim’s family for the rest of their lives. It is also interesting to see the opinion of how money can bring no comfort because it definitely can. To conclude, though it was a good book, it could have been a lot better as a reading experience.