Taffy Brodesser-Akner talks about her new novel, 'Long Island Compromise'

After the magnum impact of Taffy Brodesser-Akner's debut novel turned miniseries “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” Long Island readers have been eagerly awaiting her follow-up, “Long Island Compromise” (Random House, $29), which just came out. Inspired by a true story, it traces the impact of a kidnapping on a wealthy Jewish family in a fictionalized version of Great Neck.

While the meaning of the title is something that can't be printed in a family publication, Newsday caught up with the Dix Hills-raised author on Zoom to talk about everything else.

Tell us about your inspiration for the book.

I set out to write a novel about wealth, about the comfortable suburban Long Island Jewish families that I knew, and I thought of Jack Teich, a man my father grew up with. Jack was kidnapped out of his driveway in Great Neck before I was born. After I handed in my first pass of "Fleishman is In Trouble," I reached out to Jack for his blessing. He said, “That's funny. We were about to call you.” He was thinking of writing his own book, and had some questions for me about contracts. Though we briefly considered working together, in the end we each wrote our own books. His is an excellent memoir called “Operation Jacknap,” published in 2020.

So you've read it?

I held off until I finished writing "Long Island Compromise," because I know as a journalist that the truth is always better. Once I was faced with the real details of his story, I knew I would be powerless not to use them. So, their family does not resemble the family in my novel. My people — Carl Fletcher and his wife and children — are disasters, while the Teiches seem to be functioning just fine.

Are you a Long Island native?

I was born in Manhattan but soon after, my parents moved to Dix Hills. After they divorced, my father went back to Great Neck, where my grandmother lived. We were there every weekend and I thought it was such an interesting place, a Jewish version of the American dream.

In the book, the town is called Middle Rock. Why not use Great Neck?

I started out with the real name, but then I looked into Great Neck's founding, and while it was kind of interesting, I felt like it's the novelist's right to try to be funnier. People who are from Great Neck will know that its main drag is Middle Neck Road, and it has a section called Saddle Rock. … They'll get it right away.

In many ways, this is a novel about real estate.

One of the Fletcher children is a land use lawyer who is tasked with getting a certificate of occupancy for what looks a lot like a Target on the east end of Long Island. The town in question is a particularly isolated, corrupt little place whose only imperative is to make sure the rich people don't get in, that they can't build on it to extend the Hamptons. They create hundreds of bylaws to prevent that from happening. But the only people who are more clever than a group of clannish Long Islanders is a group of ambitious land use lawyers.

Who is your favorite character?

I identify most with Ruth, Carl's wife. The one I love the most is Arthur, their family friend and lawyer. He is built out of parts of all the people I love. But the one I sympathize with most is Beamer, the middle son.

Beamer is my favorite, but he is a lot for some readers.

I've seen on Goodreads where people say they had to put the book down once they reached Beamer's section. What can I say? Yes, it's dark and it's offensive and a large segment of the population does not want to read about the extremely problematic behavior of someone grappling with trauma, addiction and some extreme sexual predilections. I'm the opposite, that's all I want to read. If you know many other books like that, please send them my way.

I'm thinking Philip Roth.

The books I've read the most in my life are Roth's “American Pastoral” and Jonathan Franzen's “The Corrections.” You could see my book being a dime-store version of both of them.

And what about “The Great Gatsby”?

“Gatsby” was written in Great Neck by someone who was living there at the time, and it's very much about how to talk about your wealthy neighbors. You recognize that their problems are real, yet they are nothing compared to your own.

Quick, tell us what's next?

I always knew that my third book would be about working at a men's magazine at the turn of the century, right at the end of their relevance. But I have this smaller idea that keeps tapping on my shoulder. It's a short novel, and I think it's a mystery. I don't know if I can pull it off.

Hmm. I think you can.

An earlier version of the story included information about an event with Taffy Brodesser-Akner at Cinema Arts Centre on July 14. The event was canceled after the article went to press.