Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Published 2019 · 401 pages · 100,250 words · about 7 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction
How hard is Fleishman Is in Trouble to read?
Fleishman Is in Trouble scores 49 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 42 out of 100
- Brodesser-Akner writes in sharp, contemporary prose with the vocabulary of New York professional life—medicine, media, marriage. The language is smart and accessible.
- Sentence structure: 45 out of 100
- The prose is propulsive and often funny, with sentences building momentum through accumulation. The style is readable and modern, with complexity residing in perspective shifts.
- Abstraction: 50 out of 100
- The novel stays grounded in the specifics of upper-middle-class Manhattan life while excavating deeper truths about marriage, ambition, and disappointment. Ideas emerge through situation.
- Information density: 50 out of 100
- Brodesser-Akner packs considerable social observation and backstory into her narrative. The world of competitive parenting and professional striving is rendered in rich detail.
- Narrative indirection: 55 out of 100
- The unreliable narrative perspective is the novel's central device. What the narrator initially presents as Toby's story becomes something else entirely as her own perspective emerges.
- Symbolic density: 45 out of 100
- The novel works through social observation rather than heavy symbolism. Its insights come from precision about class, gender, and marriage rather than metaphorical machinery.
- Ironic distance: 50 out of 100
- Sharp satirical edge marks the treatment of New York privilege and dating apps. But the irony gives way to genuine pain as the narrator's own stakes become clear.
- Resolution withholding: 50 out of 100
- The novel reframes its own story dramatically in the final section. What seemed like resolution for Toby becomes something more complicated for the narrator.
- Structural complexity: 50 out of 100
- The three-part structure and shifting narrative perspective require recalibration as you read. The first two parts look different once you've reached the third.
How Fleishman Is in Trouble is regarded
Fleishman Is in Trouble holds a literary regard score of 61 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.