My march to updated my reading posts continue on...
... and the good news is that we creep into the month of September (just last month!) with a book that will certainly be challenging for the top spot of my favorite books of 2009, Jonathan Tropper's This Is Where I Leave You. A big reason why I read this was that Entertainment Weekly's review of the book pretty much guaranteed it would earn a spot (perhaps even the top spot) on their year-end best list, which has proven to be one of my most reliable finds for good books. Also, I recently "friended" (that's an acceptable verb now right?) a total stranger on GoodReads who I have very similar literary taste (76 books in common, with 93% similarity ratings...scary!) and he raved about the book, so this seemed like a winner before I ever read the first sentence.
One of the nice things about the Kindle (and I do have to do a post about my whole conflict with the Kindle vs. not buying many real books anymore vs. therefore not buying much at the local independent bookstore vs. that Amazon is likely as "evil" as Wal-Mart, etc, etc..)... now where was I??? One of the nice things about the Kindle is that you can download the opening of the book (sometimes as much as 20-30 pages worth) before buying it. A couple of times this year, I have decided not to read the book (either ever or just not right at that moment). With this one, I had just finished my last book earlier in the evening and I just figured I would download the preview of this one and start reading it the next day/night. But my eyes caught the first sentence and I simply devoured the first chapter. Not to leave you wondering, here it opening passage:
"Dad's dead," Wendy says offhandedly, like it's happened before, like it happens every day. It can be grating, this act of hers, to be utterly unfazed at all times, even in the face of tragedy. "He died two hours ago."
"How's Mom doing?"
"She's Mom, you know? She wanted to know how much to tip the coroner."
I have to smile, even as I chafe, as always, at our family's patented inability to express emotion during watershed events. There is no occasion calling for sincerity that the Foxman family won't quickly diminish or pervert through our own genetically engineered brand of irony and evasion. We banter, quip, and insult our way through birthdays, holidays, weddings, illnesses. Now Dad is dead and Wendy is cracking wise. It serves him right, since he was something of a pioneer at the forefront of emotional repression.
Wow! I knew I had a winner right then and there. And I am guessing, just that small taste is a good indication of whether you would like this one or not, but this type of humor is dead center in my sweet spot. I was thinking this opening was going to be tough to top or sustain and while the story does settle in, it easily is one of the most irreverent and jaw-droppingly shocking funny books I have ever read.
As you read, the books kicks off with the death of the Foxman family patriarch. His son, Judd, is our protagonist and not having such a good stretch as his marriage is in mid-collapse and he is unemployed (and there is a correlation between the two)... and now, much to his and his sibling's surprise his atheist father apparently requested his family sit shiva, the Jewish tradition of 7 days of mourning (together and in close quarters).
Hilarity ensues, though to say this is solely a laugh-a-minute book would be inaccurate too. There is a lot of angst and drama and pain to go around here. This is a family that uses humor as a defense mechanism as many laughs there are in this book, there is often something very serious lying beneath the surface. But if there was ever a family that put the proverbially "fun" in dysfunctional, the Foxmans would be it.
The book only asks you to suspend belief in the compression of so many life-altering / shattering events taking place over the course of a week.
A rollicking and terrific read that just finds myself having to now add Tropper's earlier works onto my already lengthy "to be read" list!
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