Fleishman is in Trouble

So many of us have troubled marriages. So many of us are trying to work out our differences with our spouse and try to keep our marriage together or work out an amicable divorce.  but somehow this book was so hard for me to get through.  I started it multiple times and could not get into it.
Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner....

But I was determined and finally came back to it and pushed my way through.  I did not like any of the characters.  Especially not Fleishman.  He is a doctor working in a New York hospital, with a good reputation as a surgeon.  he has two young children who he seems to care more about than his wife.  His wife who is missing for most of the book, is a social climbing snob, who is working hard to keep up with Jones on the upper West Side of the City.  She is not really a warm fuzzy parent.  She is working hard at her own job to make money to keep the family living in the lifestyle she has always aspired to.  She does not really seem to care if Fleishman or the children want that life.  It is what she needs.

So now the marriage is estranged and she is missing and Fleishman has the children for the summer and has to balance child care and work.  If that were all it was I would sympathize with him, but the author has added in this, what I think is, sick sex fantasy.  He spends his time on dating websites that cater to women looking for sex, but not a longterm relationship.  he is constantly looking at texts from women begging him to have sex and sending pictures of themselves.  I found this very unrealistic and low.  It made the women look bad and it made him look degenerate.

When his daughter gets in trouble for sending a picture of herself to a boy she is trying to attract the camp sends her home, and Fleishman is upset that she would think so unkindly about herself to do what this boy asked her to do.  When his son is caught looking at porn sites on the computer Fleishman is also upset.  But he never seems to see how they are doing exactly what he is doing and he sees nothing wrong with his own behavior.

The book also tells the story from the viewpoint of an old girlfriend who also has personal problems, smoking pot and drinking, when she should be appreciating the life she has with a loving husband and children. In the end we do hear the story from the viewpoint of the wife, but it may a bit too late, for any sympathy in her direction.  But I will admit that once I was reading her view, I could sort of see how the marriage had fallen apart..  maybe they can repair the damage.