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Synopsis (From Goodreads):
Sink or swim
Too bad her kids didn’t get the memo.
Between the troublesome family secrets, old sibling rivalries, and her two teenage grandkids, Annette’s birthday vacation is looking more and more like the perfect storm. Adrift together on the open seas, the Feldmans will each face the truths they’ve been ignoring–and learn that the people they once thought most likely to sink them are actually the ones who help them stay afloat.
Review:
I've never been on a cruise, but judging from The Floating Feldmans, by Elyssa Friedland, I don't think it would be for me. I actually loved this book, but it will make me think twice before I book such a vacation. With fun characters and a nightmarish setting, this novel was a fun, fast read.
What I Liked:
Setting:Nothing says fun like a family vacation, right? The cruise ship, with its forced socialization, makes for several funny situations. The daily activities, people fighting over the buffet (they seem to forget that there will be enough for everyone), and nightly themed dinners are all opportunities for the author to make us laugh. Oh, I did laugh out loud over many of the antics in this book.
Characters:
Elise:
I really connected to the character of Elise. Not her shopping addiction (okay, I sort of have a book buying addiction...), but her stress over her family. She's in a place in life where the kids are moving on to college, and she is left wondering what her purpose will be in the future.
Freddy:
Elise's brother, Freddy, is the family screw-up. Everyone expects the worst from him. He is constantly put down. The family thinks he is getting into debt on the cruise in order to impress his beautiful, young girlfriend. Little do they know he is a wildly successful businessman.
Annette:
The family matriarch, Annette, is a control-freak (much like her daughter). So a cruise seems like a perfect setting for her to corral her children to spend time with her and her husband, David. But even having everyone in the same place is no guarantee that they will notice each other. I found her to be a very sympathetic character.
Darius:
Darius (Elise's teenage son) is much like Freddy. Everyone expects him to mess up. He's under pressure from Elise to finish (start, actually) his college essay. But he can't seem to get started. Wow, this has been my own life! Guiding one's kids through the college application process is incredibly stressful, and this book captured the tension, and absurdity, of all of it.
Story:
Getting all the members of the Feldman clan on a boat was a genius way to force confrontations and expose secrets. And wow, do they ever have some secrets! Elise has a shopping addiction, which could ruin her husband's plans (which she knows nothing about), and force her son to go to a (gasp!) community college. Her brother, who everyone assumes is a screw-up, is actually a multi-millionaire marijuana distributor. And one of the grandparents has a life-threatening illness. All their dirty laundry gets aired out over the course of the book.
Rating:
Release Date: July 23rd, 2019
Author: Elyssa Friedland
Publisher: Berkley Press
Genre: General Fiction
Page Length: 368 Pages
Source: NetGalley
Format: E-Book
Recommendation: Fun family vacation antics on the high seas. An entertaining summer book.
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