This is where I leave you – Book #15

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| Title | This is where I leave you |
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| Author |Jonathan Tropper |
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| Genre |Adult Fiction |
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| Pages |339 |
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| Publisher |Dutton |
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| Copyright |2009 |
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Synopsis (from web-site)
The death of Judd Foxman's father marks the first time that the entire Foxman family-including Judd's mother, brothers, and sister-have been together in years. Conspicuously absent: Judd's wife, Jen, whose fourteen-month affair with Judd's radio-shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public.

Simultaneously mourning the death of his father and the demise of his marriage, Judd joins the rest of the Foxmans as they reluctantly submit to their patriarch's dying request: to spend the seven days following the funeral together. In the same house. Like a family.

As the week quickly spins out of control, longstanding grudges resurface, secrets are revealed, and old passions reawakened. For Judd, it's a weeklong attempt to make sense of the mess his life has become while trying in vain not to get sucked into the regressive battles of his madly dysfunctional family. All of which would be hard enough without the bomb Jen dropped the day Judd's father died: She's pregnant.

This Is Where I Leave You is Jonathan Tropper's most accomplished work to date, a riotously funny, emotionally raw novel about love, marriage, divorce, family, and the ties that bind-whether we like it or not.


Why I read It
Tropper writes stories of normal lives that have been interrupted by some event. Sometimes sad and sometimes humorous, they always are entertaining. I picked up a book on tape by him a few years ago, The Book of Joe, and enjoyed it. While I haven’t read his entire backlist I do read him when I can. I saw this in a best of review for books of 2009, so I picked it up.

What I Thought About It
Fractured families and bad decisions; things that affect us all. The father of four grown children has died of a long standing illness and they all get together to sit Shiva. That is a Jewish custom where the family stays in the house for a week and contemplate the recently deceased (I am sure I am not doing it justice). All those bad decisions, well they come to a head and through the course of a week the inklings of hope and recovery can been seen. From dead fathers to dead marriages, all can heal eventually.

Mormon Mentions
None

Author Biography

Jonathan Tropper is the author of How to Talk to a Widower, Everything Changes, The Book of Joe, and Plan B. He lives with his family in Westchester, New York, where he teaches writing at Manhattanville College. He is currently adapting This Is Where I Leave You as a feature film for Warner Brothers Studios