Fleishman is in Trouble

Here's the thing. When I was reading Radiance or The Curse of Chalion earlier this month, all I wanted to do was read. I was neglecting other areas of my life so that I could read just one more page. And while I enjoyed Fleishman is in Trouble, I didn't feel that same urgency with it. I wasn't compelled to keep on reading at the expense of the rest of my life. It was enjoyable, but if I wasn't reading this for book club I probably would have abandoned it pretty quickly.

Ultimately, I'm glad I stuck with it. Once I got to the last section of the book, where Fleishman's wife finally gets to tell her side of the story, I did become engrossed and ended up staying up way too late to finish the book. But it was a bit of slog to get there.

This book tells the story of a divorce, mostly from Toby Fleishman's point of view. He and his ex-wife share custody, but then one day she leaves the kids at his house and disappears. It sets Toby up as the sympathetic party, as he scrambles to juggle care for his kids with his demanding job and his nascent dating life (okay, it's just hook ups, no dates involved). But as the story goes on, he becomes less and less sympathetic, and the mystery of what happened to his wife looms larger and larger.

By the end of the book, I can't say that I really liked any of the characters in it. They all had their issues, and the book presents a rather bleak view of marriage. But it made for some interesting conversation, which makes it a great book club book.