Long Island Compromise

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 1

Part 1, Chapter 2

Part 1, Chapter 3

Part 1, Chapter 4

Parts 2-3

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Background

Geographical Context: Long Island

As the title indicates, Brodesser-Akner’s novel is set on Long Island, part of the New York metropolitan area. Aside from being one of the most densely populated areas in the state, Long Island is home to some of New York’s most affluent residents, who live in neighborhoods like North Shore and the Hamptons.

Long Island’s relationship to affluence is historical, having attracted wealthy families as far back as the late 19th century. The North Shore saw the creation of new estates by prominent families such as the Astors and the Vanderbilts. By 1925, this neighborhood became the model for the fictional West Egg and East Egg of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. Long Island remains a popular neighborhood for the wealthy; Business Insider named Long Island’s Sagaponack the most expensive village in 2016 (Bruner, Raisa. “The 25 Most Expensive ZIP Codes in America.” Business Insider, 7 Mar. 2016).

The setting of Long Island allows Brodesser-Akner to establish the sheltered lifestyle that the Fletchers enjoy. Crucially, the novel begins in 1980, when Long Island’s wealthy neighborhoods exist at a transitional crossroads in their exclusivity. This period coincides with the first appearance of the “McMansion,” referring to mass-produced housing that enabled upper-middle-class families to penetrate upper-class neighborhoods. For the remainder of the novel, the Fletchers find themselves rubbing shoulders with people outside their social class, such as the Bessers and the residents of the maritime working-class town of Yellowton. The tension between the Fletchers and the changing community around them foreshadows their exodus from the fictional neighborhood of Middle Rock at the end of the novel.

Literary Context: The Northeastern Family Saga

The family saga is a popular subgenre of literary fiction that considers the perspectives of multiple characters within the same family. These perspectives can be used to trace historical developments, social or cultural changes, and even economic upheavals through different lenses. Min Jin Lee’s 2017 novel Pachinko, for instance, largely focuses on the Japanese colonization of Korea in 1910 and its impact on the Korean diaspora. The family saga format enables Lee to repeat the coming-of-age cycle on related characters who live between 1910 and 1989. This simultaneously gives the reader both the distance and the proximity to process history’s echoes on various people, forming attachments to characters who live through different historical circumstances.

Family sagas are usually rooted in distinct settings to show how the location shapes their communal culture. While not a formal tradition in itself, the northeastern family saga can thus be understood as a family saga that responds to the cultural and economic developments that affect the northeastern United States. As the region that includes New York City, the Northeast is characterized by social developments related to mass migration and diaspora, as well as the class divide. Ann Patchett’s 2019 novel The Dutch House locates its central family in a Pennsylvania mansion. Over five decades, the children of the homeowner reassess their relationship to the house in which they were raised, reckoning with the emotional issues that come with their legacy and wealth. On the other hand, the 2023 novel We Are a Haunting by Tyriek White observes three generations of a Brooklyn family who have the ability to speak to the dead. Over four decades, the characters fight against the structural neglect that has affected public housing in New York City. Together, these novels reflect the diverse milieus and concerns that characterize the northeastern United States.

Long Island Compromise follows in this tradition by examining a wealthy New York family on the precipice of an eroding social divide. As various circumstances threaten the Fletchers’ family wealth, each of its members is forced to reckon with how their wealth has shaped them and whether they can exist independent of it. In the case of the youngest child, Jenny, her sense of identity is synonymous with setting. She becomes nostalgic for the life she led in Long Island, which she cannot divorce from her wealth.