Taffy Brodesser-Akner Writes Real People — Not Likable Ones

Fresh Air

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Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 8 July 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

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Summary

Brodesser-Akner's novel centers on the kidnapping of a rich businessman, and the impact, decades later, on his grown children. She channeled what she learned as a journalist writing celebrity profiles for the book: "I think that the goal of all writing is to humanize those that we can only see from far away." Her previous book, Fleishman Is in Trouble, was adapted into an acclaimed FX/Hulu series.

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0:00.0	Support for this podcast and the following message come from Dignity Memorial.
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0:17.8	This is Fresh Air, I'm Tanya Mosley.
0:20.6	Long Island Compromise is a new novel by Taffy Brodiser Actner and it opens with a kidnapping.
0:27.0	The year is 1980 and Carl Fletcher, a wealthy businessman, is taken for ransom from the driveway of his
0:34.7	palatial home on Long Island. After his family pays the ransom, Carl returns to
0:40.2	his wife and kids, determined to continue their privileged lives.
0:44.0	Forty years later, however, they're anything but normal.
0:47.6	Anxiety, sex addiction, and depression have taken hold to all three of his children, and as their family fortune dwindles,
0:54.8	it becomes clear that none of them have faced their family's biggest trauma.
0:58.9	Long Island Compromise is Taffy Brodiser Actner's second novel.
1:03.0	She adapted her first best-selling book, Fleshman is in trouble, and to the FX on Hulu series,
1:08.0	under the same name, where she served as the writer, showrunner, and executive producer.
1:13.0	Taffy is also a staff writer with the New York Times.
1:16.0	Taffy Broder Sir Actner, welcome back to Fresh Air.
1:19.0	It is so great to be here, Tanya.
1:21.0	Thank you for having me.
1:22.0	So Taffy, thank you for having me.
1:22.7	So Taffy, this book is loosely inspired by something that really happened to someone that you
1:29.6	grew up hearing about.
	...

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