The Feldmans are a happy family. They get together for major holidays and birthdays, or most of them do anyway. They’re not exactly estranged. It’s more like they’re just disconnected. There are secrets and lies, distance and division. But the family matriarch isn’t standing for that anymore. Annette Feldman wants to get her family together again, both physically and emotionally.
That’s why she booked the cruise for her 70th birthday.
Annette’s daughter Elise is anxious about the cruise, but she’s looking forward to it too. She’s been keeping a big secret from her husband and two kids. She' just doesn’t know how to tell her husband that she has a shopping addiction and has spent her son’s entire college tuition account because of it. Her husband Mitch has secrets of his own—he wants to take early retirement from his steady newspaper job and instead start his own humor website. He hasn’t talked this over with his wife at all, and he is concerned about how she’s going to take the news about him losing his salary until the website is up and making money.
Annette’s son Freddy has been mostly out of touch with the rest of the family for many years. While Annette was the smart one, the good student, the beloved daughter, Freddy just wasn’t into school. He ran with a crowd of friends that his mother didn’t like. He may have spent some time imbibing in a substance that wasn’t legal at that time. And after college, he disappeared to Colorado. This will be the first time that he’s seen most of the family in many years, and he has a big surprise or two for them.
So during this trip, all this family togetherness will either bring them together again or drive them apart forever. Hopefully they don’t take the whole ship down in the meantime . . .
The Floating Feldmans is a study of family, of the relationships that nurture us and make us crazy. The people who we are closest to and keep secrets from. The ones we love so much and worry that we will disappoint so badly. Elyssa Friedland has written a novel that explores all the aspects of family relationships, from several different perspectives. Told with warmth and wit, intelligence and understanding, The Floating Feldmans is the story of the ultimate family vacation.
I had a lot of fun reading this book. It made me laugh. It made me tear up. It’s heart-warming and charming and a smart alternative to going on a cruise with your own family!
Galleys for The Floating Feldmans were provided by Berkley through Penguin’s First To Read Program, with many thanks.