About the Book

Title: The Floating Feldmans

Author: Elyssa Frieland

Publisher: Berkley

Date published : 23 July, 2019

Review

The Feldman matriarch Annette Feldman is turning 70 and it is her wish to have her family around to celebrate her milestone birthday. Her dysfunctional family, consisting of her son, daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren, would rather be elsewhere than spend time with her and her husband David.

To compel them to visit, she arranges for an all-expense-paid cruise trip for 5 days and 4 nights. However, the trip does not go as she has planned.

The story revolves around the Feldman family, their lives and their secrets. After years of not communicating properly, the Feldmans, who generally paint a happy picture to the world, fall apart wanting to connect but ego and misunderstanding tearing them apart.

This story is true to what we see in a big family. Expectations, despair, secrets, misunderstanding, land up turning a family into a bunch of strangers.

The characters are so true to home, it felt that they are me or the next-door neighbour. Overwhelmed with empty-nest syndrome Annette becomes a beauty buff and her daughter Elise a shopaholic. This is so common among at-home mothers. Teens find themselves in a different world thereby distancing themselves from family, even siblings. This difference often grows up to adulthood in the form of ego.

So beautifully have the characters been sketched that the story does not seem fictional at all. An eye-opener to the fact that how much ever we deny, at the end of the day we need our family, our dear and near ones.

Rating: 4/5 🌟

P.S. I have received this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher