Six Degrees of Separation: Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

#6degrees

This month’s starting book is

 

I haven’t read this one, so here is part of the Amazon blurb:

“Toby Fleishman thought he knew what to expect when he and his wife of almost fifteen years separated: weekends and every other holiday with the kids, some residual bitterness, the occasional moment of tension in their co-parenting negotiations. He could not have predicted that one day, in the middle of his summer of sexual emancipation, Rachel would just drop their two children off at his place and simply not return. He had been working so hard to find equilibrium in his single life. The winds of his optimism, long dormant, had finally begun to pick up. Now this.”

My Chain

The first book that came to mind was one of a husband’s treachery. The wife is always the last to know, right? Just deserts await. Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan.  Link to my review.

 

 

Of course, there are even worse Dad’s out there. After all, Tara lived to tell her story. I chose Educated to tell how badly a Dad’s craziness can impact the family making everyone wish for a divorce. Educated by Tara Westover [I did not review this book because I never finished reading it. It didn’t shock me–I’ve studied religious cults who do even worse].

 

Combining father [figure] and education and [imagined] abuse brought me next to the Headmaster’s Wife by Thomas Christopher Greene. Link to my review.

 

 

Next to mind came Fathermothergod: My Journey out of Christian Science by Lucia Greenhouse. A father and husband who leaves his wife to die before her children inch by inch in the name of faith.

 

I truly HATE this new cover, by the way

My fifth book came to mind from both the first book and the fourth. Here is a wife from a failed marriage who must step-up and help her ex-husband when ALS strikes. Every Note Played by Lisa Genova. Link to my review.

 

 

Alice wakes up to find herself 10 years older than she remembers being. She had been 29, happily married and expecting her first child. Now she’s 39, has three kids, and her marriage is falling apart. How did she get here?  What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. Link to my review.

 

 

You can read the rules for 6 Degrees of Separation here. Why not join in next month?