✯✯✯✯ Review by Astrid Galactic
In today's world of cruise vacations, there are all sorts of themed cruises. Psychic cruises, gay cruises, AA & NA cruises, Oldies music cruises, craft beer cruises and any number of other possibilities can be found if you look hard enough. The one type you probably won't find is a dedicated dysfunctional family cruise. Why, you say? Because that would be redundant - they are all full of dysfunctional people, especially families if you're being honest. Elyssa Friedland takes that concept and runs with it (or should I say, "sails") in her latest book The Floating Feldmans.
Annette Feldman is turning 70 and just wants to celebrate her birthday with her entire family. She and her husband David decide that what better way to do so than to coax her children and grandchildren to come along with them on a fully paid for cruise so they can all spend some quality time together. Just pack your bags and show up. Of course, some of that baggage turns out to be of the family dysfunction variety which finds its way onboard as aired dirty laundry.
As the Feldmans gather round, piece by piece, the dirty laundry makes itself known from themed sweatshirts to porno balloons, each providing the reader with plenty of laughs. Admittedly, the book is as predictable as the itinerary of a Caribbean cruise but, as many often say, the fun is in the trip sailing port to port. Friedland makes that trip ever so fun for us for the entire journey. She allows us to get to know each Feldman with their own personal histories and how they affect each and every other family member. They all have their own problems, as well as virtues, that allow us to see, at heart, they are truly a loving family even when the seas get rough. As with real families, it isn't always apparent but through their foibles, it all comes out in the end.
One could say that this is yet another rewrite of the classic plot of those Thanksgiving with the family gatherings that most don't want to attend but do so out of obligation. Just change the date on the calendar and lock them all up on a Caribbean cruise for a week and you pretty much get the same effect. Why do writers and filmmakers keep using this same old ploy? Because it works, it's often funny and, most importantly, in some way, we can all relate. As long as it's not us, there's something very cathartic, yet humorous about this whole scenario.
To Friedland's credit, she presents us with plenty of juicy detail but never strays to the point of being onerous or boring. Every bit fills out each character and their place within the Feldman family story as well as their crazy, dysfunctional circumstances. There's the shopaholic daughter Elise, the insecure and hopefully college bound teenage grandson Darius and the legal marijuana dealing son Freddy with his hot, young girlfriend Natasha to name just a few. I was also happy that she never took anything too extreme or wrote about anything too unrealistically whacked out which I often take to be an insult to my intelligence. She kept most things fairly credible yet highly entertaining, maybe more so than some cruises if you get stuck on one much like the Ocean Queen, the vessel the Feldmans became sequestered on for their high seas adventure of bad food, obnoxious tourists, irritating announcements and other annoyances beyond all of their family intrigue.
All in all, I very much enjoyed sailing with the Feldmans and getting to know them, warts and all. If by some chance, you must take such a vacation with your own dysfunctional family, The Floating Feldmans would be a great escape for those moments you get to sneak out and poke your nose in a book. Happy sailing!
(ARC)
Fiction
Contemporary
039958689x (ISBN13 9780399586897)
Paperback, 368 pages
Expected Publication: July 23, 2019 by Berkley
Goodreads
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