Book Review: This is Where I Leave You, by Jonathan Tropper

This book was so strangely beautiful, because it captured something so very real about our lives.  No matter who you are or what your experiences, there is something in this story that you will find yourself able to relate to.  It's a story about loss, about losing and finding oneself, about family, and about love.  It is equal parts humorous and genuinely heartwarming, without trying too hard to be either.

The novel opens with Judd, a man whose fiancee has recently had an affair (with his boss, no less), and left him.  He is living the typical pathetic post-marriage life (basement apartment, take-out food, weight gain and self-pity, for starters) when he gets the call that his father has died.  What's more is that he is expected to sit shiva (a kind of group mourning period in the Jewish tradition) with his siblings and mother for the next seven days.  Of course, this would be all too easy if they didn't all want to strangle each other.  And thus we are promised a few laughs and guaranteed hijinks.

Tropper takes us through Judd's week, highlighting the most important interactions which, in the end, all come together to form an almost unexpectedly cohesive picture.  He comes to an understanding of sorts with Jen, his soon-to-be ex-wife, resolves decades-old issues with each of his siblings in turn, and arrives at a new understanding of both his parents and himself.  The book's conclusion has a lot of resolution, but still manages to leave a few of the big questions hanging, kind of a do-it-yourself ending.  All we know at the last page is that this week has changed Judd and by extension the people he loves, and though we don't know quite where he's headed (and neither does he), the choices are clear. 

Overall, this book is incredibly witty and well-articulated.  Tropper illustrates so clearly the emotionally stunted family, and explores the possible causes for all the discord in a way that seems so natural and easy that it's impossible not to lose yourself in it.  None of the characters are completely sympathetic or villainous, which only makes them more dimensional and intriguing.  I've heard good things about Tropper in the past, and now having read this I will be sure to pick up some of his other works at my earliest opportunity.