This book is set mostly in the 1950s, in New York City. Fanny is a young widow, bringing up a child. She works as a secretary for a company that creates scripts for radio series.

I love the mother-daughter relationship, as well as the relationship Fanny has with an older, very forward-thinking aunt. All 3 characters were realistic. Both of the women are strong, in different ways. Sometimes Fanny is a little too principled for her own good.

I learned some interesting facts about the writing of scripts for radio soap operas. And how sound effects were made. It’s always good to come away from a book with new knowledge.

As a baby boomer myself, I found the values of the era brought back memories. Times have changed.

The McCarthy era plays a part in the storyline. McCarthy was a senator who headed a witch hunt in the US for Communists. Many people in the entertainment industry were affected.

As always, I love the mention of real places in any story. This one included The New York Society Library and Longchamps, a very trendy restaurant. Of course, I had to Google both.

In conclusion, it was a good story, very reminiscent of the times. It was interesting and enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

I read an advanced reader’s copy of the ebook and also listened to the audiobook. I found the historical pieces in this book interesting, but the pace of the book from the onset was rather slow. Additionally, I had trouble connecting with the main character. Overall, this was just an “okay” read for me.

I'm a bit torn, because the line level writing in this book was really good and I learned a lot from the historical context of this story. Even scene by scene, it wasn't bad, it just overall really failed to hook me, up until the end. Partly it seemed to not quite know what it wanted to say—was it a story about grief, feminism, anti-communist movements, all, none? Not that a story can't be about all those things, but they didn't quite feed into each other in a cohesive way. It made it so I could never quite tell where the story was going, which made it feel slow and hard to get through. Even the main romantic lead was someone who I was never quite sure if I was supposed to like him or not for way too long. The main character also did a lot of waffling and denial until almost the very end, and I got tired of it. Basically, the whole thing just didn't quite come together for me, but it had its good parts.

I have never read a book by Ms. Feldman before, but after finishing this book, I am going to make a point of reading more of her work.

"The Trouble With You" pulled me in right from the start and kept me enthralled. I never knew that much about the McCarthy Era, and this book taught me quite a bit. Not all I needed to know, but just enough. I never liked politics much in my reading, but this book just touched on it enough to bring it to light and to make it personal to the characters.

As you can see by the book description, it is about a young widow with a child. This woman, Fanny Fabricant, has been taught from the cradle right up through college that her career is going to be as a wife and mother. But destiny has other plans for her, and she takes a job as a secretary at a radio soap opera. Her life goes on, but as I said, fate throws a monkey wrench into her life. And this is where the book gets really interesting. Two men, pulling the wool over the HUAC's eyes, a wonderful career, and then a daughter who takes after her mother and Aunt.

Wonderful writing, identifiable characters, and a great story.


*ARC Supplied by the publisher Macmillan/St. Martin's Griffin, the author, and NetGalley. My thanks to all for this opportunity.

Set in New York City post World War II, the author vividly paints the picture of the social mores of the times. Fanny Fabricant is happily married to Max, who returned from the war to die shortly after of an aneurysm. Left to raise and support her daughter, Chloe, Fanny starts to work at a radio station editing scripts for soaps, where she meets Charlie Berlin. As Fanny moves from secretary to writer, she is impacted indirectly by the House Unamerican Affairs Committee and the McCarthy era blacklisting. Faced with marrying Ezra and becoming a traditional housewife, vs, involvement with co-writer Charlie Berlin, Fanny faces difficult choices. Well written and recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

The injustice of the McCarthy trials of the 1950s is a major part of this story along with the narrow views of working women. At that time in America being suspect to having anything to even remotely connected with communism posed an enormous threat to everyone. It led to blacklisting of hundreds of people. Women were raised to only be housewives, not to contribute to the work force nor the family.
I honestly had to look up the McCarthy trials and was shocked by the injustices running rampant in the country.
The blend of the two topics creates a telling novel of the times and of the theoretical hardships in the novel. An excellent novel.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Trouble with you by Ellen Feldman is a delightful book. I am a huge historical fiction reader. The book was very entertaining. Ms. Feldman is an excellent writer who draws the reader into her story.

The story starts in the 1940’s New York City and follows the characters for approximately the next decade and a half. I was thrilled with the setting of this book. New York City after the War was a hub. Radio was the king of entertainment. I appreciated the descriptions of the apartments, the offices, and the streets. I also appreciated the historical information regarding the ‘red scare’ where many writers, actors, and actresses were blacklisted as having communist ties. The other historical issue explored was women’s rights. Should they stay home with the kids? Should they have a job? Should they know how to balance a checkbook?

The main character Fanny Fabricante is an unforgettable character. Fanny came alive for me. You worry when she worries, you sob when she sobs, you laugh when she laughs. You find yourself cheering Fanny on. You feel like Fanny could be your friend. To me this is a mark of a gifted writer. It was so interesting to follow the evolution and growth of Fanny. The secondary characters are likeable and believable. I especially liked Fanny’s Aunt.

I so enjoyed this story. There were many things I could relate to. I was a child of a woman who was outstanding in her field. She did something she loved. It is extraordinary as a child of a woman in the 1950’s see their mother shine. There were times when I couldn’t do this or that after school because my mom was working. I could relate to Fanny as well as her daughter.

This is my first book by Ellen Feldman but I assure you it will not be my last. I can’t wait to see what she has in store for us next. I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin Griffin and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book and the character of Fanny and the post WW II setting.. I will do a review on my blog closer to the publication date.

Three generations of independent woman told from their perspective of life and the world around them including expectations and experiences. Wasn’t exactly my taste, but I liked it enough to finish it.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Publishing for the ARC of "The Trouble With You" in exchange for an honest review.
It took no time at all for this book to engross me fully and keep me flying though the pages until its end. While I've read any number of recent books that take a deservedly angry gaze at women diminished, patronized and marginalized by a patriarchal society, this one really hit home with its on-target historical context.
And the book accomplishes all this by placing its romantic triangle in the midst of post World War 2 America. It's an era when you can detect the beginnings, those inevitable tremors of societal change that will erupt into earthshaking changes for the decades to come.
Dutiful wife and young mother Florence 'Fanny' Fabricant suffers a cruel twist of fate when her doctor husband, who survived his war service, dies suddenly at home, leaving her a single mother to her toddler Chloe. Forced into a provider role she's unprepared for, Fanny takes a job re-typing soap opera scripts for a New York radio network.
Her work puts her in constant contact with the network's most prolific and talented writer, the brash, witty, devil-may-care rebel Charlie. But beneath his wisecracking cynicism, he silently rages at the vile 'red-baiting' of Senator Joseph McCarthy and the inquisitions of the House on Un-American Activities Committee, destroying lives and careers of writers and actors.
It doesn't take long for Fanny to find herself overwhelmed by the true events of the post war era. Charlie and her actress friend Ava are blacklisted by so called patriotic investigators, making them unemployable.. In addition to Charlie's 'frenemy flirting (which Fanny matches with her own inherent wit), Chloe's alarming, but temporary health scare amid the rampant, Polio epidemic touches off Fanny's budding romance with Ezra, Chloe's pediatrician.
The dramatic stakes (and Fanny's own conflicting emotions over the two men in her life) take an even more urgent turn when she agrees to use her name as a 'front' on Charlie's scripts so he can sell them. By that time, she's gradually discovered she's as talented a scriptwriter as Charlie. But Fanny's emerging abilities, self-worth and newly found independence do not sit well with Ezra, whose traditional view of marriage gender roles will consign her back to the job of full-time housewife. It's lucky Fanny relies on the bluntly direct, common sense mentoring and advice of her beloved Aunt Rose, a seamstress with a rebellious history of her own
Everything going on around Fanny kept me glued to this book.....the triangle, the surge of history and Fanny's own self revelations, which put her among the vanguard of women determined to pursue lives and careers that at the time, were thought of as only the province of men. There's real snap, crackle and pop in the dialogue exchanges, that would make this story a natural for any film or TV mini-series adaptation. The wit and insight stays rooted in Fanny's journey right up the final, more than satisfying finale.
An absolute 5 star item, and among the fastest, most ambitiously entertaining reads I've enjoyed this year.

The Trouble with You by Ellen Feldman

Fanny Fabricant, wife and mother, married to the man she loves, a man she can argue with, sleep apart from, and come together again with in the morning, just as in love as ever. The man she's going to grow old with, maybe have another baby with, their future full of the unknown but they'll meet it together. And then it's over, Fanny is alone with their almost five year old daughter and her world has fallen down on her head.

During this time in the book, Fanny felt so distant to me. Of course, part of it is that I'm looking in on her life before I've gotten to know "this" Fanny, the Fanny that is/was living a traditional life of a wife and mother. Married to a doctor with the future only getting more financially stable and secure. Later on, Fanny will look at this time with heartache but also knowing just how naive she was to think that life could be so predictable and comfortable. Now she knows she can lose everything instantly. Of course she'd seen it happen to others thanks to the war but when her time of loss came, it was after the war...all should have been safe.

We follow Fanny, deep in grief, tending to herself, her daughter, and their tiny apartment, moving through a haze of grief that seems permanent. But she does have her Aunt Rose who won't let her stay in that haze forever. And she does have her cousin Mimi, who also has had to move on, to at least show her one way that it is done. Eventually Fanny gets a secretarial job for a company that puts on radio programs and through the actors/actresses, script writers, and her boss, she becomes more aware of the blacklisting that ruins careers and lives, especially when a few of her friends are hit hard with the blacklisting stick.

It's during this time that my understanding of Fanny seems to blossom. As Fanny comes to know herself and what she is willing to risk, even if she keeps her risks hidden from others, I grew to like Fanny more and felt like I could intuit her choices even before she knew she was going to have to make choices. Eventually there are two important men in Fanny's life, Ezra, the doctor who wants to marry her and Charlie, one very much blacklisted script writer whose very presence in Fanny's life could get her in very deep trouble. Trouble for Fanny is one thing but Fanny risking her daughter's future is a step Fanny is not willing to take.

I really like the way the story is told. At first I felt so distant from it but once Fanny starts her job and meets others, spreads her wings, and loses some of her naivety, I was hooked on Fanny and her life. Aunt Rose is a wonderful character but so are others, even if they play much smaller parts in the story. I had faith in Fanny and she didn't let me down, nor does she let down her aunt or her daughter. Life can't and shouldn't be lived by the rules of others and I enjoyed watching Fanny take charge of her life and I like that she allows herself time to think things through. Thinking things through, taking the time to be sure, makes Franny seem real to me.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin, and NetGalley for this ARC.

It's post WWII in New York and Fanny Fabricant's husband returns from the war, having served as a doctor. She was one of the lucky few. But Max's unexpected death leaves her in a delicate situation, she has to find a job to support herself and her young daughter at a time when women were expected to stay home and raise their families.

She eventually gets the position of secretary typing corrected scripts for a radio series (soap opera). Despite her degree in literature, she feels unqualified to actually write herself. She's seen how writers and publishers in the entertainment industry have been blacklisted by McCarthy through HUAC and how many lives were ruined. She will need to play it safe to survive in this industry she's grown to love.

I enjoyed this story because of how it described the turbulent time period it took place in, what it meant to be a single mother, to survive a polio epidemic and find one's own voice in a complicated society where the rules were constantly changing.

Interesting and educational

This book provides insight into the treatment of women after the war, before "women's lib" was a concept. It really wasn't all that long ago when a wife having a job brought embarrassment down on her husband. Women who did work were labeled as "poor", as in Poor Fanny, a young widow who took a job typing scripts for 3 serial/soap operas.

I hadn't read much about this time period, and really didn't absorb much from my parents who were in that timeframe. Wives were expected to stay home, take care of children and not have a meaningful thought in their heads. It took real courage to step outside those boundaries, and Fanny definitely did so. I'm so glad that we've come as far as we have, in about 75 years.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, but my opinions are my own.

This novel is set in a time period that I haven't seen covered as often in novels, but that was very interesting in a lot of ways. The novel begins on Christmas day in 1947 as Fanny, her husband Max, and their young daughter Chloe head off to a wedding, coming home in the beginnings of a huge snowstorm. It than jumps back to 1941, when Max is leaving for Europe. He is a doctor, and we are told a little of their pasts. Fanny went to Barnard, something she has her Aunt Rose to thank for.
Aunt Rose is also an important character in this novel. She is a woman who went to work directly from school, earning the money to put both her brothers through college, and eventually starting her own business as a dressmaker and seamstress, specializing in recreating designer dresses for those who can't quite afford the real thing. Rose's story will come to be important in Fanny's life in other ways as well. We see how, with Max off in Europe during the war years, life went on for Fanny. Chloe grew, some of Fanny's married friends found jobs that men had done before the war, and Rose was nearby and very involved in Fanny and Chloe's life, babysitting so Fanny could spend time with friends and taking Fanny to plays and on other cultural outings. Since Fanny's mother died when Fanny was young, Rose was almost a mother to her in many ways. We see how her cousin Mimi, also with a husband off to the war, goes on a different path, moving home to her parents for this time.
Then, after the war, we watch as Max returns, they move out of the city to a house and we read our way back to 1947. Home after the wedding, the day will end in tragedy for Fanny, and she will have to find a way to move on.
Moving from the house she and Max lived in in New Jersey, she takes a small apartment not far from Rose's in New York City. We follow her as she adjusts to her new life, providing for herself and Chloe, and we also sometimes see things through Chloe's eyes.
One element of the book that I enjoyed learning more about was that of McCarthyism. Fanny works in a field where people get blacklisted for the most minor of things: donating to a cause, a past association, an opinion stated. This is interesting, particularly in relation to the world today, where people use socialist as an accusation. I found the parallels worth thinking about.
I also enjoyed seeing Fanny bloom as she earns a living, starts doing something she really enjoys doing for herself, and takes a chance on love again.

I loved this book for lots of reasons. I loved that it wasn't the "usual" story you might read about a woman from this era. Fanny is a widow following WWII who is trying to figure out where she fits. She finds a role a secretary for the queen of radio serials (which will evolve into one of my great loves - soaps) where is is exposed to a new world, new opportunities, and a new community of humans. I loved how this wasn't a typical path a woman from this era might find her way to, and I then loved how it was about Fanny finding her way. Fanny was such a wonderful character who had a range of emotions and decisions, and i was so drawn into her story. This was just an all-around wonderful read. Thanks to NetGalley for the early look at this February 2024 release!

This was my first book by this author and enjoyed this story very much ! Highly highly recommend! I will be reading more this author.

I love historical fiction, especially when it’s about a piece of history I am not familiar with. I liked the premise of the book, especially about a widow during post ww2 that has to try to support herself and her daughter. The problem for mw though is the book started slow and never really picked up for me. While I felt bad for Frannie I just couldn’t connect.

Fanny Fabricant is a young widow. Her husband dies right after WWII leaving her with a small daughter to raise and support. A single mother trying to find work. An interesting story and time in history set in New York City.
Blacklisting, women's rights, friendship, family, loss, love kept me engaged in this story. A story of hope, resilience and determination as Fanny reinvents herself.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this book.
Reasons I enjoyed this book:

This book, set in NYC after WWII, introduces us to Max, Fanny, and Chloe Fabricant. The book deals with politics of the day and deals with the struggles women have with choosing jobs away from their homes. I found the storyline to be interesting however, there wasn't a lot of detail... which was fine, just an observation.

I enjoyed the book and will read more by the author.

My thanks to Net Galley and St Martin s press for allowing me to review this arc and for the personal invitation I received to review this book. Unfortunately I could barely make it to 25% of the book I read. I DNF. Story had a great premise. Widow gets a job working writing serials while living with an aunt and cousin and raising a daughter. I just found it very slow paced, dragging, and the protagonist flat. Wasn't wowed.