Long Island Compromise
by Taffy Brodesser-Akner· 2024
A sharp and poignant exploration of legacy, family and wealth, charting four decades’ worth of repercussions that follow the kidnapping of a New York businessman.
In 1982, wealthy businessman Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway in the nicest part of the nicest part of Long Island. He is brutalised, held for ransom and then returned to his family. Carl, his wife and his three kids all try to move on with their lives, and resume their prized places in the ongoing saga of the American dream.
But nearly forty years later, when Carl's mother dies, the trauma that has been bubbling beneath the Fletchers' lives all this time surfaces at last. Finally, Carl allows himself to acknowledge what happened to him all those years ago, and face the question that's been idling in his mind for a quarter of a century: where did the ransom go? And if he were ever to find the money, would it finally give him and his family the closure they've been yearning for?
Long Island Compromise spans generations, winding through decades of history all the way through to the wild present, dealing along the way with all the mainstays of American Jewish life. And through it all, it addresses timeless questions about wealth, trauma, and the American soul.
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A sharp and poignant exploration of legacy, family and wealth, charting four decades’ worth of repercussions that follow the kidnapping of a New York businessman. In 1982, wealthy businessman Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway in the nicest part of the nicest part of Long Island. He is brutalised, held for ransom and then returned to his family. Carl, his wife and his three kids all try to move on with their lives, and resume their prized places in the ongoing saga of the American dream. But nearly forty years later, when Carl's mother dies, the trauma that has been bubbling beneath the Fletchers' lives all this time surfaces at last. Finally, Carl allows himself to acknowledge what happened to him all those years ago, and face the question that's been idling in his mind for a quarter of a century: where did the ransom go? And if he were ever to find the money, would it finally give him and his family the closure they've been yearning for? Long Island Compromise spans generations, winding through decades of history all the way through to the wild present, dealing along the way with all the mainstays of American Jewish life. And through it all, it addresses timeless questions about wealth, trauma, and the American soul.