my friend nina loaned me her copy of this is where i leave you handful of years ago (i should really return it), but i didn't read it. i bought it on amazon because it was a daily deal, but still did not read it. i considered reading it when my grandma passed away, but wasn't sure if i was ready for it. but what finally got me to read it was the fact that adam driver was in the movie version of it, along with jason bateman and tina fey. my love for all three, especially driver, i decided to read so i could watch the film.
before i go on, i have to say based on what i read, i am sure driver was an excellent philip. as i read, i totally driver was philip in mind (thanks to "girls" it was quite easy to do), even down to the random singing that he did. i actually saw the movie cast as the characters in the book, because i imbd-ed the cast to see if adam was philip. i think bateman was the perfect choice for jude. and though i love her, i did not see tina fey as wendy. i hate to be mean because i was a nerd in high school but i can't imagine tina fey being the girl everyone fell for in high school. i know its so mean to say, i still love her, but really? also, i can't imagine her having a romance with a ex-bad boy like horry. i am happy with timothy olyphant's casting, mostly so i can drool! overall, i am looking forward to watching the movie, primarily because i think driver is going to be amazing. i love love love loved the book and normally i don't like watching movies based on books, i love, because movies normally ruin it. however, i think bateman and fey will be hilarious and if all else fails i'll just drool over driver. oh and of ben schwartz too! love him as jean-ralphio on "parks and rec" and excited to watch him on the big screen too!
the novel was not at all what i expected, but in a good way. i thought it would be some deep, meaningful, reflection on life and family since the foxmans were sitting shiva for their father. however, it turns out that they were not practicing jews, so the novel turned out to be a lot funnier than i had anticipated.
jude, the central character, and the perspective that we read from, in addition to dealing with his father's death is going through a rough patch right now, actually a more accurate adjective would be shitty patch. he and his wife, jen, his college sweetheart, are currently separated because he found her in bed fucking (for lack of a better word) his boss. this scene was shared in the story and was just as dramatizing for the reader as jude, but also extremely hilarious. i think the reason this book is so great is that every single thought that crosses jude's mind was shared, there was no filter, the-horrible-i-could- never-share-it-but-i-definitely-thought-it-thoughts were shared. due to this jude, became your best friend, you got frustrated with his actions, sympathized with things went wrong, and overall wanted the best for him. and in my opinion the best would be for him to leave his wife, even though she was pregnant with his child (seriously, i swear, talk about a shitty patch, oh he found this out later, initially they thought it was his boss' child). i understand that the lost of jude and jen's first child, had some serious repercussions and as jen explained she felt that jude had moved on and didn't provide any comfort to jen. and i can understand that jen felt alone and depressed about this situation, however, the solution is not to have sex with your husband's boss, go to therapy, maybe try communicating to your husband but not an affair! and from the scene that jude shared with us, it wasn't just sex, it was some serious fucking with jen making some crazy sounds. so yeah, i didn't like jen. i hope that jude ends up with his high school crush, penny, with whom jude has one of those pacts to marry if they aren't married by a certain age. penny, though she was a total tease in high school, but i can see a good relationship blossoming between the two of them. penny and jude went on a couple of dates, okay more like made out a lot and had sex, but she is a better option then jen.
in addition to all of this, jude also has to deal with his family because they are sitting shiva for their father. and the foxmans, like every family, are screwed up but hilarious and always ready with a smartass remark (very much like my own family if i do say so). to start, their mother, who flaunted her fake breast was a shrink and a celebrity expert of parenting, and it will later will be revealed is bisexual and is dating their neighbor who was like a second mom to them. paul, the eldest, was in charge of the family business, and he has his wife are trying for kids. his wife is so desperate that she pretty much rapes jude though the term rape does not come up. wendy and her husband barry have three kids but barry was more dedicated to his work than his family. and wendy ended up sleeping with horry, their neighbor/best friend and son of their mom's new girlfriend. philip, the baby and their parents had him later in life. philip was the official fuck-up of the family, ie he showed up late to their father's service. and though he was an asshole, the things he said were normally true and needed to be said. but as you can see a lot of family drama, but that is a given with families.
jude gets along with his sister wendy and littler brother philip for the most part, but his relationship with his older brother paul was a little estranged it was later shared that paul lost his promising baseball career after a freak accident in which a dog attacked him after he and jude went to beat up this guy that kneed jude. jude thought that paul resented him for this, but in fact it was revealed that paul resented the fact that jude never visited him or cared about his recovery, which was true. jude turned out to be the ass. and isn't that how it is, we go around blaming our family for all the wrongs in our life, but what we need to do take responsibility for our own actions. we shouldn't keep a list of who did what for who, because at the end of the day, it's your family, you should have wanted to help. whenever my little sister and i would fight, my grandma would always remind us that we might think we hate each other and can do without the another but we were family and that in the end, we were all we had. when my grandma was ill in the hospital, right before she passed, my family came together, and there was reassurance to her that we would all take care of each other. we haven't encountered anything (thankfully) that has required us to work as a support unit for one another, but i can see that there is some division among my mom's brothers and sisters. i don't know what the solution is for my family to have the togetherness that my grandmother wanted, i almost wish we had sat shiva, so that my aunts and uncles could have worked out all of their issues. but i do have faith, i know they will come together, when they need to.
back to the novel. as i said, i was surprised by how funny the novel was, given its serious premise. tropper is a wonderful writer and made me laugh with the most random comments throughout his work. here are some of clever parts i enjoyed:
his description of linda callen, their neighbor and mom's closest friend turned lover, "like a wise mother rate from a disney cartoon, the sort that will sit in a tiny rocking chair and wear little rat glasses and be voiced by judi dench or hellen mirren."
the description of wendy's son, cole, "cole is in what wendy refers to as his e.t. stage, wherein he waddles around the house like e.t., exploring and trashing everything within reach, making strange little noises as he goes."
i also loved how he described cole's two-year-old speech as "his immigrant english." lol what a perfect metaphor for kids learning english.
talking about falling in love, "and even if you didn't fall in love in the eighties, in your mind it will all feel like the eighties, all innocent and airbrushed, with bright colors and shoulder pads and pat benatar or the cure on soundtrack."
this simile, "flashing him a look sharp enough for a circumcision."
"jen starts to silently cry, like those statues of the virgin mary that are always turning up in south american villages." what a beautiful yet funny description of silent cry!
as you can see tropper has a way with words and the novel was very entertaining.
oh but i have to admit i did have one complaint. there was a lot of ass looking in this book. and i get it, guys check out girls' asses, but it seemed like every women under 40 had a perfect ass and that just seemed impossible. i'm going to give jude the benefit of the doubt and think he just saw every ass as perfect because he was so fucked up.
but all in all, a wonderful book that i very much enjoyed. and i can't wait for the movie!!! oh and hopefully i marry a jew but if i don't, my family will totally sit shiva. though at my rate, i might only have one kid.
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