Review: This is Where I Leave You

Jonathan Tropper's 'This is Where I Leave You'. Photo / Supplied

Few books make me laugh out loud but there was a point where I laughed so hard while reading this one I had to put it down. US author Jonathan Tropper is that funny.

All his novels follow pretty predictable lines, though. They open with an angsty male at a crisis point in his existence. There is always a hilariously messy, larger-than-life family and often an uneasy father/son relationship, the end of a love affair or the end of a life.

This Is Where I Leave You does little to break the mould. It's the story of Judd Foxman, whose life implodes when he walks in on his wife Jen in bed with his radio shock jock boss. This particular scene unfolds over 12 pages or so and it's the first clue that, although the plot may seem to cover a lot of old ground, what you're getting is still something original.

Judd's life goes on to hit even lower ebbs when his father dies and he's called back to his suburban childhood home to sit shiva (the traditional Jewish seven days of mourning) with his family. The story takes place over the course of the shiva week as the Foxman clan clash, meet up with old lovers, pick the scabs off old wounds and discover a few surprising truths about each other.

There is something very Nick Hornby-ish about Tropper's writing but possibly that's only because it's rare for male novelists to be so comfortable about getting to the emotional heart of the situation. He also seems to have a direct line to the inner-workings of the average woman's mind - in one section where he reveals exactly what goes through a wife's head during sex the laughs are especially uncomfortable. But there's a core of sadness here.

In This Is Where I Leave You almost every character has failed to reach their youthful promise. This is a story about regret and what-might-have-beens with almost as much pathos as laughter. The humour is rueful and wry, interspersed with the odd searing one-liner and refreshing bouts of political incorrectness. Plot-wise, Tropper is sticking too closely to the same winning formula. But who cares - every time he repeats himself he seems to get even funnier.

* This is Where I Leave You, by Jonathan Tropper, Orion, $38.99