Welcome to Litsy!

I would not recommend this book to a lot of people, even those who loved Fleishman Is In Trouble like I did. If you need likable characters, or atleast unlikable characters to learn a lesson, get their comeuppance, or a twist where you realize maybe the weren‘t so bad as you thought, this book is not for you. But it was for me, the way each child dealt with their generational trauma in wildly different and equally unhealthy ways was fascinating.

2/3 of the way through. Fleishman Is in Trouble was one of my favorite reads of last year and while this book is nothing like it (sans New York and Jewish main characters) I still find it delectable. There was a lot more room for sympathy in Fleishman whereas it‘s hard to feel bad for any character in the Long Island Compromise. But I don‘t mind reading about people making bad decisions and I‘m a big fan of plots about living a split/secret life.

Totally insane, with a perfectly unsatisfying ending

SUCH an annoying bunch of people who keep ignoring their telephones and keep making stupid, hysterical decisions. All because of the kidnapping of their father decades earlier? I don‘t even want to know. I feel as irritated as I did when reading Fleishman. Although I managed to finish that one.
Note to self: ignore future works by this author!!

#ToB25Longlist

#weeklyforecast 02/25

After the fabulous Intermezzo I like to stay in Ireland a bit longer and am starting the third John Boyne in his Elements series. It‘s supposed to be very dark but I‘m sure I‘ll love it. It‘s short so I‘ll soon start the tagged book too, which is another from the #ToB25Longlist.
I kind of hated Fleishman so my hopes are not too high!

Tfw you finish a book that you wish you hadn‘t… The first third was pretty good but then it just got annoying. I kept thinking the author might be able to bring the magic back but it never got there for me and the ending was kind of like a slow fart. I wouldn‘t recommend it.

Another #ToBlonglist book ticked off, although I‘ve been meaning to read this for some time.

If you like dysfunctional family stories where all of the characters are pretty awful, then this one‘s for you! Like many ‘family sagas‘, it worked well for me on audio as I think it may have been a touch too long / wordy in print and I would have been tempted to start skim-reading.

Whilst I liked Fleishman as well, this was better.

Taffy is so good at teasing apart family relationships and finding what makes characters tick. I wish the ending hadn‘t wrapped so quickly, though.

A wealthy father is kidnapped and tortured for a week. He comes back a broken man to his wife and young children. It affects each of the three kids differently into adulthood. When the family money dries up, they have a reckoning with what their lives have become.

Where‘s my dysfunctional family fans?? This is our type of read!
In this messy, wealthy Jewish family in Queens, three siblings and their parents live under the shadow cast by the defining event of their lives: matriarch, Carl was kidnapped when the children were young (one not yet born). Explores how religion and wealth create family dynamics but most of all how trauma presents itself in many different ways. I loved it! #ToB25 longlist

“The soldiers played cards and blew smoke out the open windows. They talked to Pop and how they would soon be shipped overseas any day now and were missing that girl of mine already, and my grandma's apple pie.“