This is Where I Leave You- Jonathan Tropper

The first thing I’ll say about This is Where I Leave You is that it was a very well written book. I liked the style and presentation of the story a lot. Presented over a week and different time increments, This is Where I Leave You was interesting to read and set up in a format that made it a fast one as well. Granted, a novel about an ordinary guy having an extremely rough time of it is always going to be tough to read, but the way that Tropper writes this depressing story while occasionally injecting it with fairly dark humor is interesting and relatively entertaining. I’m still not entirely sure this was a book that I liked, I found it entirely too depressing, but in general I would not be opposed to reading more of Tropper’s work.

Judd is having a rough life when we first meet him at the beginning of the book. He’s just caught his wife cheating on him with his boss, and in a matter of moments is both single and unemployed. Then, his father dies and he is called to sit Shiva for a week with his insane, emotionally stunted family. You’d think this is where the dark humor comes in, and you’d be right. The thing is, I’ve seen this done before, and better. The Walsh sister books from Marian Keyes, for one.

I think I was a little disappointed with this book for that reason. I was expecting something on the level of a crazy family comedy among tragedy, but instead it was mostly tragedy. In a stark contrast from the last book I read, Commencement, instead of finishing the book with hopeful feelings for the future, and wanting to know more about the characters, I was almost relieved to be leaving Judd behind. I read this book pretty rapidly, and like I said, enjoyed the writing style and the premise, but it didn’t live up to the expectations I had for it. Rather than paying attention to the things I was most interested in, there was lots of discussion of rebounds, fertility, adultery, and general insanity that I just didn’t care about. I would have liked to see more of the relationships within the family and the process of relieving the strain on them.

3- Overall I was disappointed with this book, but I can appreciate it for what it was. I’m not going to read it again, or even recommend it very highly, but it was well written and made me think a lot about how lucky I am to not have a dysfunctional family, and to have healthy relationships in my life. Even if it also occasionally gave me a fairly bleak look at romantic ones.