BOOK REVIEW: The Floating Feldmans by Elyssa Friedland @ElyssaFriedland @BerkleyPub #thefloatingfeldmans #bookreview

A charming contemporary family drama featuring a highly dysfunctional family with some endearingly quirky characters. Secrets, old rivalries, and resentment abound, bringing in drama caused by holding on to those secrets. I have to admit that if I were in this family, I’d probably keep secrets as well because ono-cohesive family unit is an understatement when describing this family!

About the Book

The Feldmans are a dysfunctional family, as most evidenced by the fact that they have chosen to put as much physical distance between themselves to avoid spending more time to together than necessary. But when the matriarch of the family Annette is on the cusp of her 70^th birthday, she asks the family to go on a 4-day cruise together to celebrate.

As Annette and her husband David, their daughter Elise and her husband, Elise’s two kids, Annette’s son Freddy, and Freddy’s (young) girlfriend board the ship, they have no idea the type of pressure cooker that their family has entered, and more than one secret will be outed aboard that ship!

Elise is hiding a huge secret from not only her parents, but her husband Mitch and her children. But she isn’t the only one! Mitch has something he is keeping from Elise as well. David hides a secret from Annette. And the biggest secret of all might be held by Freddy, whom everyone assumes is a burnout but is actually running a successful business.

On this crowded cruise ship with terrible food and not enough space for all of the Feldman’s and their baggage, secrets come to be revealed and the family realizes that perhaps they aren’t so different from one another after all.

Reflection

This family is SO messed up, but surprisingly endearing! Elyssa Feldman’s characters are vivid and well-developed, creating a novel that feels somewhat like watching a play unfold. The interactions among the family members are among the most memorable scenes, and felt realistic. There was a nice sprinkling of humor to keep a smile on my face while I was reading.

I’ve never been on a cruise before because there was always something that would make me feel a bit trapped on a cruise ship. That claustrophobic feeling that I fear is rampant in this book. It isn’t the most favorable view of a cruise ship vacation, that is for certain! That said, the cover and marketing for this book are absolutely amazing. The nautical colors, the drawing, the port windows all really drew me to the book in an inexplicable way!

Can you imagine a family as dysfunctional as this all being trapped on a cruise ship together? It is a nightmare! They all of major secrets they are keeping from one another, and I found that this environment was the perfect setting for them to be forced to confront the truths that they’ve been hiding. This book highlights the notion that sometimes we struggle to be honest with those we should be the closest with.

The ending for me was sweet and came together well. I really enjoyed this book and I can imagine it would be a great vacation read. Perhaps a family vacation since there is no way your family is quite as dysfunctional as the Feldmans!

Thank you to Berkley for my copy. Opinions are my own.