One Last Thing Before I Go

by Jonathan Tropper

“Mistakes have been made.”

Drew Silver has begun to accept that life isn’t going to turn out as he expected. His fleeting fame as the drummer for a one-hit wonder rock band is nearly a decade behind him. His ex-wife is about to marry a terrific guy. And his Princeton-bound teenage daughter Casey has just confided in him that she’s pregnant—because Silver is the one she cares least about letting down.

So when Silver learns that he requires emergency life-saving heart surgery, he makes the radical decision to refuse the operation, choosing instead to spend what time he has left to repair his relationship with Casey, become a better man, and live in the moment—even if that moment isn’t going to last very long. As his exasperated family looks on, Silver grapples with the ultimate question of whether or not his own life is worth saving.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Humor, Book Club, Adult Fiction, Audiobook, Literary Fiction

324 pages, Hardcover

First published August 21, 2012

About the author

Jonathan Tropper is the author of Everything Changes, The Book of Joe , which was a Booksense selection, and Plan B. He lives with his wife, Elizabeth, and their children in Westchester, New York, where he teaches writing at Manhattanville College. How To Talk To A Widower was optioned by Paramount Pictures, and Everything Changes and The Book of Joe are also in development as feature films.

-Information from www.jonathantropper.com

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Divorced over a decade and a half ago, renting an apartment as do several other divorcees in the same complex; discarded by his daughter and his brother's family and one-time on the verge of becoming a rock star but now playing in wedding bands, Silver is diagnosed with an operable deadly condition, but refuses to have the operation on the account that he feels that he has nothing more to look forward to! Silver sets himself three tasks to do before he dies, to be a better man, to be a better father, and to fall in love!

I had to take this all with a pinch of salt, as although it's a top drawer, pretty funny and interesting witty/dark comedy that shines a light on the weakness of men and how those around them have to manage/mother them to get the best out of the; looks at how young people move to managing their parents; at male friendship; and to a lesser degree how we look at mortality, it is ultimately set in a world of (American) privilege and the whole idea that Silver is lonely and a deadbeat loser, whilst having two great friends, having an apparently OK paying job, living in an apartment complex with a communal swimming pool and hot tub; and still on speaking terms with his Ex, doesn't really sit right. On the other hand this would make an extremely entertaining and uplifting Hollywood drama... a drama of a book so good, that even with the glaring inconsistency of the core foundation of Silver's story, I still have to Four Star - 8 out of 12 it!

2022 read; 2014 read

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVED "This is Where I Leave You". I guess I expected this book to be on the same level of humor. I laughed out loud for that book. This book is funny, in a very tragic way. It starts off a little slow, but that could be because I had expectations. The middle to the end is fantastic. I love his friends, Jack and Oliver. It got very funny at the end. As I read this, I saw this as a very funny movie. I would have given it a 5 star rating, but the beginning was a bit cumbersome for me. Tropper is a funny guy though.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Update-- This is a $1.99 Kindle special today! This author is so much fun but he hasn't written a book in quite a while. I'd love to see a new book come out by him. When I need a comic tragic very fun book I think of Jonathan Tropper. This book fits the bill.


This was everything thing I wanted --'at the moment'!!! Jonathan Tropper is my 'go-to' author
when I'm in the mood to read about Jewish families --their problems -and laugh my ass off! He's got some FABULOUS lines. I only wish I could remember them myself at times --'use-them-on others'! ha ha!

I'm Jewish. It can feel a little too 'red & Green' everywhere I go this time of year, 'for me'.....so as treat to myself ---I turn to reading something fun-funny-pathetic-mostly just wonderful- -knowing my Jewish-born-heart-feels a little more supported during this season. (just sayin)

I wanted some 'humor' -(about real people) ---Jonathan is the man!

I had so much fun reading this book --reading the best lines to my husband. (watching him laugh) --telling the entire story to my friend, Kim at the gym while we were doing our carido --(yet I had not gotten to the end yet) --we were 'both' trying to 'guess' the ending. I can't wait to go back and tell her....[we both got the ending wrong --and a 'little' right]....

Several 'parts' to the ending ---we were trying to 'solve' all parts.....


People (even NON-Jews) --who have NEVER read 'Tropper' --do not know what they are missing.

This author knows 'people'!

[Darlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

One Last Thing Before I Go is the third of three novels by Jonathan Tropper which I read back-to-back, and I considered abandoning it shortly after I began reading. The story began with 44 year-old Drew Silver, divorced father of a 'soon-to-be' off to Princeton daughter named Casey, sitting around the pool with his friends. These friends are other middle-aged divorced fathers who sit around ogling young college-aged women who spend their days sunbathing. These men are all living at an establishment known as the Versailles, an efficiency hotel near the interstate and all spend their days complaining about their ex-wives and lamenting the fact that they don't spend enough time with their children. This story about middle-aged men in the throes of a very pitiful, depressing and stereotypical mid-life crisis sounded way too much like people I know in my real life. I thought I might just pass on this one.

I'm not sure WHY I continued to read. I suppose part of it was that I had read Jonathan Tropper's novels and I couldn't accept that this cliche he seemed to be presenting could be the entirety of the story. The other reason I kept reading was that despite the fact that Drew Silver ('Silver') was pathetic, I was privy to his thoughts and feelings… underneath his longings for his 'glory days', that is, his time in a one-hit-wonder rock band called the Bent Daisies, he appeared to be thoughtful and confused and there was such a sorrowful quality about him that I .. well, I wanted to know more.

It was clear from the outset that although Silver was hanging out with the men from the Versailles, who generally didn't seem to go in much for introspection, that he was different in some way. Sure, he was ogling the young women along with his friends but he also was caught up in thinking that it was finally clear to him that his life was not going to turn out the way he had expected it to or planned. He was thinking…. "Mistakes have been made. It's hard to know where to start. Things have been a mess for so many years that trying to pin down a starting point is like trying to figure out where your skin starts. All you can ever really know is that it's wrapped around you, sometimes a little tighter than you'd like."

Just as Silver was attempting to piece together what was wrong with his life, he was facing a new, unexpected challenge. He was visited by his daughter Casey and he realized that the new challenge he was presented with just might give him some clarity. The truth about his relationship with Casey was that he hadn't had much of a relationship with her since he and her mother, Denise had divorced….. "it will surprise no one to learn that he has not been anyone's idea of a model father ….. His relationship with Casey gradually evolved from playful to strained to distant and once puberty had had its way with her, her once habitual forgiveness became somewhat more elusive." And just then, this brilliant young woman who was on her way to Princeton was standing in front of him telling him she was pregnant… and she made it clear that she was telling him before anyone else because it didn't matter to her WHAT he thought of her.

Even though Silver was hurt that Casey was sharing her dilemma with him only because his opinion of her didn't matter to her, he felt that maybe he had a chance to finally be the father he should have been all along… and always wanted to be. The two hatched a plan for Silver to accompany Casey to a women's clinic to figure out her options but on the way there, fate had other plans for Silver…. he suddenly became extremely ill and lost consciousness. When he became conscious again, he found himself in the hospital, being told that he had a tear in the inner wall of his aorta and he had had a ministroke. He needed surgery right away; but whether out of sheer stubbornness or just a deep feeling of not having any idea why his life should continue, Silver decided he would not have the surgery. Instead, he wanted to try to be the person he should have been all along in the time remaining to him. To guide him, he made a 'to do' list:
1. Be a better father.
2. Be a better man.
3. Fall in love.
4. Die.

This novel was about so many things.What initially seemed like a frivolous (but yes, somewhat funny) look at middle-aged men having a mid-life crisis turned into so much more. For me, this book became one of those unexpected surprises.. a book that I hadn't known I was looking for but turned into something that spoke to me on a very personal level.

Although the novel is about Silver's existential crisis and his need to make peace not only with himself but his daughter Casey, his ex-wife Denise and his parents, the relationship that I identified with so profoundly was his relationship with Casey. Throughout the book, Silver endured much painful introspection and difficult but honest conversation with Casey in order to finally realize… "It would have been so easy .. to do things like take her on drives, to the beach, to a movie. Anything. It's not like he was busy traveling the world. He was right here, and nowhere to be found."

Only through the magic of a well-told story could it happen that I became Casey and she became me. I also have been a fatherless daughter, from about the age of 9 ; and only in my daydreams and imagination could this scenario play out.. as it did between Silver and Casey. I will never have the opportunity for such honest conversations … my father passed away years ago. But this beautiful, poignant story of a daughter and the father who failed her but sought to be someone she could rely on found that place in me that I keep hidden and filled me with hope because… well, a girl's gotta have dreams, doesn't she?


*Note: There are spoilers contained in the comments following this review.

[Kelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

It may have been a mistake listening to two Jonathon Tropper books in a row. Perhaps had I listened to this one first, I may have liked it better. Maybe if I had read rather than listened to it? This one didn't work for me. It wasn't awful but it didn't have the insight, honesty, or hilarity I have to come to expect from this author. 2.5 stars, sadly.

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Silver is forty-four, a former drummer with the one-hit-wonder band, The Bent Daisies. After the front man/vocalist, Pat Mcreedy, left them and went solo, they tanked, dried up, and disbanded. Now Silver is a notch above broke, and his ex-wife, Denise is about to get married to the doctor who wants to perform life-saving surgery on him. But Silver is about the most passively suicidal guy you may meet in fiction.

Silver lives on his royalty checks from the song, “Rest in Pieces,” or plays Bar Mitzvahs and weddings, when he can get a gig. Mcreedy’s career is epic and glitzy, and he sleeps with sexy celebrities. Silver hangs out with a group of losers in the tatty Versailles apartments, where they scope out young daisies in bikinis and nod off at the pool. In between, they make weekly deposits at the sperm bank to supplement their income.

Tropper has a knack for combining flippant with rueful to achieve sharp and piercing. His leading men are Jewish, middle-aged, overweight, and emotionally adolescent. This book and the last one—This is Where I Leave You-- have titles that underscore absence, departing, and abandonment. There’s as much death cloud as sex haze in the atmosphere. But there’s at least one compelling reason to keep Silver onward through the fog. Or is there?

The only person who seems to need Silver right now is his eighteen-year-old daughter, Casey. But only because she’s afraid of disappointing her mother with the news that she’s pregnant. So she tells her dad, whom she sometimes calls Dad, but often calls Silver. She’s a combination of spiky and vulnerable, and her presence makes you root for Silver to wake up from his numbed slumber and be the strong and able support that she needs. The scenes with Casey are often the most tender and fragile.

“Mom and Rich got me a G35 for my graduation.”
“That was nice of them.”
“Mom’s still compensating for you. I milk it a little.”
“I would. Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Why’d you come to me?”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“I care less about letting you down.”

This isn’t the side-splitting, laugh-out-loud humor of the last book, but is just as witty and cinematic. The movie rights have already been spoken for, which may bother some readers—that it has a filmic presence to it. (I think of Adam Sandler, and would be surprised if anyone else plays him in the movie.) However, the snappy dialogue and supple visuals are fresh and acute with its bent sense of humor. Silver keeps accidentally thinking out loud, which may be the most gimmicky aspect, although it is nuanced gimmick, if you will. There’s a hint of customized formula, but with an edge to it, and some loose ends that feel right.

My husband and I have an eighteen-year-old daughter, and—don’t shudder--we found aspects of this book therapeutic and and highly relatable. It’s madcap at times, improbable, and sometimes too clever. And yet…and yet…it’s about ordinary people trying to redeem themselves, to make sense of their place in the world, confront their shame and cowardice, and to love their children without too much toxic spillover. Sometimes we need a mop and a bucket to clean up our messes--and a spark from a quick, funny, savage, messy, poignant yarn about a guy who thinks out loud.
4.5 stars

[Larry H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know Jonathan Tropper, or what his life has been like, but he sure does have the ability to provide pitch-perfect perspective into young (and not-so-young) men struggling with what they've made of their lives. His This is Where I Leave You was my favorite book of 2009, and I've enjoyed a number of his earlier books as well, because I love how he gives poignantly funny voice to these somewhat dysfunctional men as they try to get a handle on their past, present, and future.

In his newest book, One Last Thing Before I Go, Drew Silver is a 40-something musician who briefly had a taste of fame as the drummer of a one-hit-wonder band years before. What he has become good at is making a shambles of things—his ex-wife is getting remarried, and his college-bound daughter, with whom he shares a sporadic relationship, has just revealed she's pregnant. To top it off, he drinks too much, has gained weight, and lives in the Versailles, an apartment building mostly populated with divorced men like him. He finds it's easier to do nothing than risk disappointing others, or himself.

When he discovers he needs a life-saving operation to repair a tear in his aorta, he decides that rather than spend more time in the sad state his life has become, he'll refuse to have the operation. That decision, of course, doesn't sit well with his family or friends, and neither does his newly found habit of actually speaking his thoughts out loud, which leads to numerous awkward, painful, and emotional situations. What Silver wants more than anything is to be a better man, be a better father, and to fall in love, but whether he can accomplish any of those before dying—or being abandoned by those he loves—is anyone's guess.

One of Jonathan Tropper's strengths as a writer is his skill in creating characters that you don't necessarily admire but can't help but like. His voice is also tremendous—he's definitely comfortable throwing in humor to temper the pathos and emotional situations, but it never feels forced or false. And if this book isn't as funny as some of his earlier ones, that's more than fine. Silver's journey of self-discovery (and some self-loathing) takes you on an enjoyable and engrossing ride, one that makes you laugh, makes you smile, and maybe even tears you up just a little.

Tropper is definitely one of those authors you should get to know, unless the whole man-in-early-midlife-crisis mode thing doesn't work for you. And even then, don't be deterred.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whatever, Tropper. I'll give you this much - you did deviate in your usual style by writing in third person, and your character was not your usual 'loser but in a charming way' since this guy was just a loser, and while you still objectified women a'plenty you at least threw in the condescending 'woman that he was into was NOT the hottest bridesmaid, she wasn't even second, she came in third (this is almost a direct quote) so don't you now think I am enlightened for being willing to settle??'...but at the end of the day you are still you: your characters all have the same personality whether they are nineteen or forty or ninety, male, female, rabbi, doctor. Everyone leads each other into the next snappy line so that no one says anything of meaning, oh, well, wait, until you start waxing poetic out of nowhere in a way that is SUPPOSED to make me marvel but dude it never does.
Another thing. Spontaneous poll for all you people out there: when is the last time you spoke out loud AND DID NOT REALIZE YOU WERE DOING THAT UNTIL SOMEONE ANSWERED YOU?? I'm guessing NEVER. Especially if it were whole paragrpahs of deeply personal information. In Tropper world this happens ALL. THE. TIME. I think he has done this in other books (and since he is a whiz at self plagiarizing I feel confident that this is true) and it makes me batty. What a convenient trick to pull. And it's not even slightly funny.
If I wanted to watch a sitcom, I wouldn't be reading a book. How about you put your strengths where they belong and stick to smart mouthed caricatures on the screen?
I will give this two stars because I finished it.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

***3.5 Stars*** Always amusing...sometimes laugh out loud funny. As I listened, I imagined it as a great comedy series and I marveled at the author’s very clever wit.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

When you just don't care whether the main character in a novel lives or dies, well, it's probably a good sign that you won't be recommending this book to others. I wasn't offended by the characters in One Last Thing; I was annoyed by them. Or perhaps even worse: I was bored by them. The protagonist, a divorced, middle-age man who was one the drummer in a one-hit-wonder band, openly admits to being a loser. That he spends much of the novel making declarations of loserdom without actually doing anything about it... well, it didn't incline me to disagree. When I wasn't annoyed at Silver himself, I sometimes found myself annoyed at the narrative itself. Silver's health condition (rather conveniently) results in the complete lack of a verbal filter. He goes into extended internal monologues, only to come to and realize that he's spoken his thoughts aloud. The plot device feels so overtly gimmicky that any enjoyment that the reader might have received from the resulting character interaction is negated. While there are moments of genuine humor, much of the banter - and the book - simply felt forced.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up to four. I received an ARC of this from a Dutton giveaway on Twitter.

I'm generally not into books that explore the male psyche, but Jonathan Tropper's latest offers a solid story, well-drawn characters, and some great dialogue. Indeed, the dialogue is where the book really shines, and I could easily see "One Last Thing Before I Go" being made into a movie. My favorite parts were Silver's exchanges and interludes with Jack and Oliver, which alternated beautifully between moments of tenderness and hilarity. Good stuff there. Casey was a serviceable enough character, despite swearing up a storm and calling her own father "Silver" (who does that?). By no means do I think this book will be a great classic, but it's worth reading as a book of its time (i.e., now-ish) and a film studio should definitely consider securing the rights.

[Cheryl McNeil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I loved this book. Gobbled it up. I was at work yesterday, mourning the fact I couldn’t read it (no, librarians do not just sit around reading on the job), and even though I was queasy and should have just napped when I got home, I read and read and read until I was done. The ending, though not a “happy ending”, is satisfying. And the meat of the book is a meal of laugh-out-loud funniness and aching sadness, a savory blend that never has one element dominating the others. One reviewer has noted that Tropper just “gets men”. Although as a woman I will likely never get men to anyone’s satisfaction (though not for want of trying), I feel like I get them a little better after reading this book. I even feel like I understand my ex-husband, baffling soul that he is, a little more. This is a great read for anyone who has ever screwed up and lost a relationship (isn’t that all of us over the age of 16?). Tropper’s insight into people’s train of thought is remarkable. There are so many “yes, you’re right” moments. Here’s an example: “Usually she hates it when her pity for him interferes with her anger, and she compensates with extra nastiness . . .” Think about that for a while, and you too will realize the insight of that observance. The book is full of them. But it’s never didactic in any sense — it just flows, and the fabulous humor keeps you flowing right along with it. Until you reach the end and you sense a shift in your overall understanding of humanity. You have to love when books can do that.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe this book isn’t in the same category as his previous, but I’m a sucker for Jonathan Tropper’s writing style, his lovable losers seeking redemption and his messy families, so I’m going with another four stars. Come on, you have to love an author who can describe why men love talking about and smoking cigars in this way…’because of a tossed salad of latent Freudian inadequacy issues, middle-aged men will perform fellatio on a clump of cured leaves and somehow feel more like men because of it, which, if nothing else, is a colossal triumph of marketing. And you would think that, phallic or not, a habit that involves plugging your mouth would be a quieter affair, but you would be wrong.’ Tell me that isn’t inspired writing.

While at times the story may have meandered, it was always engaging and emotionally layered. The characters, while not always likable, are quirky and realistic. And the writing, as always, hilarious, insightful and often wistful. This is my favorite kind of writing, dialogue-rich, tight, paced and eminently quotable. Tropper has an uncanny ability to combine glib and regretful and produce material that makes you weep while you are laughing. I love how this author imbues his work with wit and heart--I will pick up one of his books for the dialogue alone--and always eagerly await his next.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me start by saying I soon loved and continued to love this book, but what a horrible beginning! The very first scene takes place at a sperm bank, where three divorced middle-aged guys are making donations. Funny? Stupid, more like it. And this is immediately followed by an overly long poolside scene where they are all leering at bikini-clad hardbellies. Though I’m sure the writer thought he was being incredibly funny, he misread this woman in the audience: I thought it was dumb, clichéd, and uninteresting. I thought for sure this was one of those Penis In Your Face books, existing solely because of the need for some male writers to expose themselves in public. But I was so wrong, because after these first two annoying scenes, the book redeems itself in spades, and it turns into a terrific read. Both the plot and characters are rich and irresistible. The language is luscious. I soon became hooked.

The story is about a loser named Silver, whose missteps lead to death around the corner. He’s a has-been, one-hit-wonder rock star who lives in a hotel mostly populated by sad divorced men in the same boat. He hangs around with other losers, all passive divorced men who seem to accept that their lives are meaningless and screwed up, that they are getting what they deserve because they’ve been so stupid. They’ve all pretty much given up.

With lots of comedy and tragedy, Silver becomes entangled with his smart, estranged, and pregnant teenaged daughter; his sane and attractive ex-wife; and her successful fiancé—who also happens to be the doctor trying to save his life. Silver continually makes bad decisions, and there are many comic and poignant moments along the way; funny scenes where you will laugh out loud. I ended up loving the guy and rooting for him even though I was absolutely sure at the beginning that I would hate him through and through forever (yes, the sperm bank and poolside scenes had really done a job on my head).

It turned out that the book is so well written and riveting that I didn’t want to put it down, and I would find myself rereading sections just because they made me happy. Lots of highlights, lots of food for thought.

My only major complaint was that I didn’t like the ending; it was very unsatisfying. Despite this, Tropper is one of my new favorite writers and I’m diving into one of his earlier books, “This Is Where I Leave You,” asap. I’ll give “One Last Thing Before I Go” a 4.7; it would have gotten a 5 if the first 20 or so pages hadn’t made me so mad and the ending had been better. Highly recommend.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once upon a time, Drew Silver was living the dream--a member of a rock band with a hit single who went home each night to a wife he loved and a daughter he adored. Fast forward a couple of years and the band was a one-hit wonder, Drew and his wife are divorced and he's estranged from his daughter. Living in a by the week hotel with a lot of other divorced men, the highlights of Silver's week are college co-eds in bikinis coming to lay by the hotel pool and Silver heading to a local independent bookstore to listen to a singer-songwriter he has a crush on but can't quite work up the nerve to talk to her or even ask her name.

When Silver finds out he's got a heart condition that could kill him at any time, he opts not to have surgery but instead to spend his remaining time on Earth trying to a better man, son and father. That task won't be easy with his ex-wife marrying a doctor and his daughter telling him she's pregnant. As Silver's family tries to understand his decision and talk him into the surgery, Silver ponders his life as he passively attempt suicide.

Following the trail blazed by Nick Hornby, Jonathan Tropper once again mines the depths of flawed men and the people who love them. With One Last Thing Before I Go Tropper expands the circle of people who love these flawed protagonists from romantic partners to the entire family and the novel is richer for it. As Silver tries to be a better man to those he loves in what could be his final days, he has successes and failures along the way. Tropper writes some of best rounded and most human characters in fiction today and this novel is richer for it.

At times you'll love Silver, at times you'll shake your head and sigh as he can't overcome himself.

As with his previous best-selling novel, This Is Where I Leave You, Tropper's latest is compulsively readable and over far too soon. Like life, Tropper's story doesn't necessarily have a neatly packaged ending, but the stopping point for the novel makes perfect sense in terms of the characters. Tropper is wise enough to allow readers to fill in some blanks on the novel and to treat his audience and characters with dignity and respect. It's a novel that's over far too soon, but one I came away completely satisfied for the reading experience.

[Lindsey Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

The dialogue was 5 stars for me and everything else was 3 stars. Definitely going to read more of his work!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

An endearing tale of a sad schmuck who gets his life back on track. This novel reminded me a lot of Hope: A Tragedy and A Visit from the Goon Squad, two books that ask similar questions about what can be rescued from failure.

The Versailles Hotel, last resort for divorced losers, is home to Drew Silver, the forty-five-year-old drummer from one-hit wonder Bent Daisies. Ogling college girls at the hotel pool with pals Jack and Oliver helps distract from the fact that his ex-wife, Denise, is preparing to marry Rich, a successful cardiac surgeon. As if his persistent tinnitus weren’t bad enough, Silver’s health takes a sudden turn for the worst when a mini-stroke reveals his aortic tear and puts him at risk of an aneurysm. As Silver decides whether to let his romantic rival perform the surgery that could save his life – as he ponders whether this life of his is actually worth saving – he aims to be a better father to his eighteen-year-old daughter, Casey, and to learn more about what makes a life by accompanying his rabbi father to one of each type of Jewish ritual.

Although the title might suggest it, this isn’t some kind of mawkish farewell quest. The novel is, in fact, extremely funny. After his health crisis, Silver seems to lose his brain filter, which allows for some brutal (and very humorous) honesty. His banter with his daughter is a special highlight, especially the three chapters composed purely of dialogue (Nos. 6, 23 and 45). At the same time, though, the novel is achingly sad in the way it exposes how reality so often fails to live up to our expectations. We all have to learn to live with our regrets. I felt deeply for Silver. Despite the many superficial differences between us, I’ve known some of the same loneliness and meaninglessness he experiences:

“I don’t know how I became this person, this quiet, pathetic waste of space...It’s like, I went to sleep one night, and woke up numb...I can’t live like this anymore...Like there’s some new life that’s going to kick in at some point and I just need to hang out in this holding pattern until it does...I think I lost track of time. Every day felt the same, so it felt like forever, but also like no time was actually passing. Like the universe was on pause.”

Granted, the novel can be a bit repetitive and sappy in places, and I didn’t think the italicized sections about the various women Silver has loved were necessary, but I still really enjoyed it. In storyline and tone it sometimes echoes Want Not (Jonathan Miles), and the formula of a short time span leading up to a wedding even recalls Seating Arrangements (Maggie Shipstead).

I’m sure to read more from Tropper.

[Sarah Obsesses over Books & Cookies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read. And totally quintessential Tropper. You have your male lead surrounded by people/family that he is both loved and hated by. His inner monologue is funny and self-deprecating and completely recognizable as JT.
So we have Silver, Drew Silver who is a middle aged guy who was once famous for a punk band back in the day. He had it all, kinda. A wife and and daughter and lost them both when his wife divorced him. We start the story almost 8 years after the divorce and we see Silver as he makes a deposit at the sperm bank for cash. We see how pathetic he is as he recounts all his past mistakes and regrets (in a humorous way of course) and we see that he's kind of a douche- but one that's likable if you can picture that.
Silver's ex wife is about to get married. And his 18 year old daughter finds out that she's pregnant and against her better judgment she comes to Silver for guidance. Silver has been out of her life for said 7 years but he says he'll support whatever decision she makes. Before she makes one he ends up collapsing and finds out that has some blood vessel or capillary or something (i forget, please forgive me) that is on the verge of tearing that will kill him but it's fixable via surgery. Get this: the surgeon who tells this him this news is the fiancé of his ex wife. This is a guy that Silver both likes and hates at the same time.
So we're carried through a week in Silver's life where he's decided to not go through with the operation because his life basically sucks and we see the family come out and the friends come out and tell him why he should do it.
Does he get the surgery? Does he have a one night-er with his ex wife? Does his daughter end up keeping the baby?
I have to admit the ending is a little iffy for me. But I enjoyed the book overall. It dealt with one's life as one knows it and what we make it to be. What is life all about? When we think it's not worth it to go on, what keeps us waking up and living another day?
The book doesn't really go into all that but it did make me think a little. But I laughed more (on the inside, not LOL or anything). Tropper has yet to let me down.

[Kelly Eeckhaut · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wreed graag gelezen. Het voelde als het goeie boek op het goeie moment voor mij, met een hele hoop zinnen die me deden nadenken en vol hilarische én hilarisch pijnlijke dialogen en inzichten over het leven. Donkerder dan This is Where I Leave You, soms zelfs deprimerend donker, maar hé, het leven is soms gewoon wat donker. Het leest alleszins opnieuw als een film en de personages zijn zo geloofwaardig dat je ze eens zou willen vastpakken en vertellen dat het allemaal wel goed komt, hoe uitzichtloos alles ook lijkt.

“I keep waiting for the universe to decide things for me, and the thing is, the universe has better things to do.”

“The only thing worse than not having your dream come true is having it come true for a little while.”

“There are some people out there who don't wait for what come next. They decide what should come next and they go and make it happen.”

[Alena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jonathan Tropper has rescued loser middle-aged white men as lead characters for me. After basically writing off any more books about whiny men (The Ask, Freedom, A Hologram for the King), my last two Tropper reads have reminded me that these men are not without redemption.

His latest novel, One Last Thing Before I Go, tells the story of Silver. (Silver has a last name, but no one used it. Everyone, including his daughter, just calls him Silver. Not Gold, not Bronze, just middle of the road Silver.) Still reeling from his days as a one-hit-wonder drummer in the Bent Daisies, Silver’s life is a downward spiral of divorce, drink and the occasional one night stand. Then his estranged daughter shows up pregnant.

Amidst all of this and driving the plot forward, Silver discovers he is “living” with a torn aorta that’s causing strokes and mini blood clots to swirl around. This condition causes him to speak all of his thoughts out loud, much to the chagrin of the people he’s with. No filter. He declines the life-saving surgery, leading to the book’s many scenes of friends, family and foes trying to convince him to save his own life.

If this all sounds a bit contrived, it is. But in Tropper’s hands it’s also brilliant and funny and heartbreaking. Once again, his characters are so complex and lifelike that I can’t help but root for them. Far-fetched scenarios seemed completely believable because Tropper invests those moments with sincerity and a great deal of wit.


He always felt this way around distressed women, that there’s something they’re waiting for him to say, and if he could figure out what that is, he could soothe the thing in them that needs to be soothed…he always believed that if, just once, someone had given him this vital piece of information, his entire life would have shaken out differently.”

This book is, quite simply, a great read – one of those novels I never want to put down. And, I certainly didn’t want it to end. But, once it did, I gave a rare “Hooray” for an author choosing a brave, smart ending that trusts his readers to figure the rest out on our own. Loved it.

Full disclosure: I read this book a week after meeting the author at a book reading. I’d been following @jtropper on Twitter and saw that he was going to be at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville so my mom and I made the last-minute decision to go see him.

Not being the type of person who normally does things like that, I did not know what to expect. What I found was exactly the man I would have expected to write This is Where I Leave You. Tropper is smart and funny, somewhat foul-mouthed, brutally honest and adoring of his family. He was self-deprecating at times, but unafraid to state his opinions.

He skewered Random House, admitting he basically found working with them so intolerable that he paid the publishing house to get out of writing another book for them. (He is now published by Dutton, a seemingly much happier arrangement.) He also admits he wrote his first book Plan B, just to prove he could follow a formula and get a book published. He definitely does not recommend it – and wishes instead that he could “unwrite” Plan B.

I just did not expect an author trying to sell his books to be so forthright about the industry. I should have. Tropper speaks the way he writes. I would go see him again in a heartbeat.

[Booklover, Indianapolis · Rating 3 out of 5]

(December) 2.5* I wanted to love this book. I loved This Is Where I Leave You and really enjoyed How To Talk To A Widower, so I was looking forward to another great read with this book. Alas, it was not to be. It was hard to find anyone to like in this book. The ex-wife - blech. The knocked up daughter - too bitchy and too full of herself. And Silver - well, he was just such a loser - for no reason. Not sure exactly what he did to support himself other than live off residuals of his one-time hit and play in the occasional wedding band. Why was he called Silver? I never figured that out - spent most of the book assuming that was his odd first name and kept waiting for an explanation as to why that was his name. I mean, what kind of wife/daughter/father calls their hubby/dad/son by his last name? Just weird to me. Felt the way the book skipped to random chapters narrated by the wife or daughter was jarring and didn't help the flow of the book. Didn't like the way Silver blurted out things - in romances, it's cute, it's a sentence or two, often refered to as someone's "unfortunate habit" - but here, Silver was vomiting forth entire paragraphs and had no idea he was speaking at the time? Really? Overall, just not the book I was waiting for.

[BookLover · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a disappointment for me. I thoroughly enjoyed “This Is Where I Leave You”. I was hoping to get the same type of witty, funny and heartwarming story in “One Last Thing Before I Go” but it just didn’t work out for me. I couldn’t identify with any of the characters and worse than that, I didn’t really like any of them. I found the story to be a mish-mosh of jumbled memories and random stories that didn’t quite gel for me.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Possibly my least favorite book by Jonathan Tropper, together with This is Where I Leave You. It's really hovering somewhere in between 2 and 3 stars, but I'm bumping it up because I generally love Tropper's books and his style. But, boy, this one just fell so short of the mark.

It just felt... off. Nothing really happened. I didn't like the main character (although I did enjoy every other character in the book). The weird, one-page musings in italics recapping Silver's past romantic partners which cropped up at inappropriate points throughout the book were just distracting and unnecessary; so were the chapters during which there was only dialogue (think he must have been heavily into his Banshee scriptwriting stage); the romantic storyline with Lily just seemed tacked on at the beginning and end for the hell of it. The book lacked a cohesion that would have gelled all of these elements into a symphony of wry humor, intelligent sophistication and unabashed emotion fronted by a lovable "every(Jewish American)man" protagonist as only Tropper can portray so convincingly and charmingly.

My favorite Tropper books remain Plan B and How to Talk to a Widower.

[John Luiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank God for Jonathan Tropper. He's one of my favorite authors and you can reliably depend on him to put out an entertaining novel every couple of years. This one lives up to his lofty standards. It follows his usual storyline of someone in a crisis wisecracking their way through all of his troubles and managing to make a worse mess of things before they finally set their lives straight. Our protagonist here is Silver, a drummer for a now defunct one-hit-wonder band, who's getting by with work in a wedding band and living in a condo development where divorced men go after they've been banished by their wives.

Silver discovers he has a life-threatening tear in his aorta, and while an operation could save him, he puts the operation off while considering whether his life is worth living. He lost the great love of his life, who's now planning to marry a great guy, and his Princeton-bound daughter, whom he neglected for years, has gotten herself pregnant. It's hard to believe that anyone not in a serious depression - and Silver clearly isn't - wouldn't immediately jump at a chance to save their lives, but if you play along with that premise, Tropper does a great job of tracking how Silver discovers whether life is worth continuing, even after he has disappointed everyone he cared about.

Silver is a lout - and it can be a little hard to sympathize with him for what an absentee father he was during his daughter's formative years, particularly since his ex-wife wasn't the acrimonious type that made every interaction a bitter face-off. But as he often does, Tropper makes his irresponsible characters lovable by having them always disarm anyone who's angry with them. Anytime anyone here lets Silver know what an a-hole he is, his response is always, "I know and I agree."

The dialogue, per usual, is fast and fun, even though it does strain credulity a little bit that every character here has a black belt in smart-alecky repartee. As one example, when Silver introduces himself to Lily, a folk singer he has a crush on, the exchange goes: Silver: "I'm not good at this." Lily: "What?" S: "At talking to you." L: "A lot of people aren't good at talking to me. You should meet my parents." S: "I don't think I'm ready for that kind of commitment."

Another standard element is the fight scene between two guys who aren't really good at fighting and who stumble their way through an awkward mashing of bodily parts - and here the confrontation between Silver and his ex-wife's new fiancé is played to full comic effect.

There are also a lot of observations about the peculiar absurdities of human nature, and while these aren't the profound, unexpected insights you might get in a Robert Cohen novel because Tropper focuses on the more clichéd aspects of humanity - like middle-aged men's fascination with the beauty of college girls - it's amazing how much fresh insight he can provide on well-worn topics.

He also may over rely on a trick - Silver often has interior dialogue that reveals in embarrassing detail his feelings for a particular person and the secrets they've shared with him - and then after we've been given it as interior thoughts, he discovers he's said it out loud and embarrassed himself and everyone who heard it. It's supposed to be a condition of his aortic tear, I don't know if such a condition exists where someone would be unaware that they're speaking, but it happens about five times or more in the novel.

I recognize that these credulity-straining tricks are the stock-in-trade of comic novels. True to the comic genre, Tropper keeps things like even in the most intense moments. When Silver accompanies his daugther to the clinic because she is considering getting an abortion, they're both emotionally overwrought but they trade witty barbs in the waiting room -- not something most fathers and daughters would be capable of in that difficult of a situation.

In the final analysis, Tropper's books are highly readable and entertaining because his exceptional talent is evident on every page. His descriptions are always dead on and inventive, like "The shop is run by Pearl, a buxom Hungarian widow in her fifties who applies her makeup with a paintbrush and whose every move is punctuated by the rustle of nylons rubbing together and the Christmas jingle of a thousand golden bangles" or "She is a drab sliver of a woman, with paper-thin lips and the harried expression of someone who has long since resigned herself to being the only competent person on the planet."

When Silver's family decides to stage an intervention to convince him he should get the needed operation, his successful brother offers a moving portrait of how much he misses the camaraderie of their younger days and how he assumed they had recaptured that closeness in the years right after Silver's divorce when he would pay him regular visits - it's a moving sentimental passage that gets immediately turned on its head when Silver reveals he stopped coming because his brother's attempt to welcome him into the embrace of his intact family actually felt to him like a deliberate attempt to rub his nose in the fact that his brother had made a much happier life for himself. It's a brilliant 180-degree turn that only someone with Tropper's talents could pull off.

As other reviewers have noted, the exchanges between Silver and his teenaged daugther, Casey, are heartfelt. There are a lot of sentimental moments -- and perhaps one that ODs on sentiment (a friend of Silver's at the home for discarded husbands reunites with his estranged son while he's undergoing chemotherapy), the other family exchanges are moving without going over the top. I particularly liked the passages in which Silver's father, a rabbi, takes him on his rounds of overseeing a bris, a bar mitzvah, a death and a wedding to help reignite Silver's passion for life.

I always grab Tropper's novels as soon as they're available. I look forward to his next one, and it'll be interesting to see how his talents translate onto the small screen with the debut next year of the Cinemax show, Banshee, he's been working on with fellow author David Schickler.

[Scott Rhee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the fact that Jonathon Tropper's latest novel "One Last Thing Before I Go" is somewhat melodramatic, cheesily sentimental, and has the distinct feel of a soon-to-be-made-into-a-movie-starring-Adam-Sandler, I actually liked it a lot, mainly because Tropper was clearly going for the whole dramedy thing and succeeded. Real life, I suppose, can be somewhat melodramatic and sentimental at times. Sometimes, life can be tragic and hilarious, at the same time. Also, Tropper's sparse but butter-smooth prose and cinematic sense of timing is spot on. His writing is reminiscent of Nick Hornby's, which is appropriate, as they both tend to write about pathetic men who, over the course of the story, become, if not socially redeemable, then slightly less pathetic.

"OLTBIG" is about Drew Silver, a 40-something depressed loser who is broke, divorced, and living in an apartment complex full of equally depressed (and depressing) divorced losers. His ex-wife, Denise, is marrying Rich, a successful doctor whom Silver really wants to hate but can't because he recognizes that his ex-wife and daughter have never been happier. His 18-year-old daughter, Casey, drops a bombshell when she confides in him that she is pregnant from a one-night stand. When he asks her why she decided to tell him, she replies, "I care less about letting you down."

Yep, it's going to be that kind of story.

Silver finds out that he has a serious heart condition which could literally kill him at any second, but it's easily fixed with a surgical procedure. Rich even offers to do it himself. Silver, however, has decided that life would probably be better for everyone involved if he just dies, so he decides on a passive suicide: he's not going to kill himself, but he's not going to take any steps to prevent his inevitable death.

This sounds like the set-up for one of those "Hallmark Hall of Fame" family dramas on CBS, in which Silver reconnects with his family and learns to be a better person now that he faces his own mortality, but no. Thank God. This is actually one of those more painfully real stories in which the protagonist, thinking he is doing the right thing, actually makes things worse. It's awkward and uncomfortable and tear-jerkingly painful in parts, but it's also pretty damned funny.

Rumor has it that the movie rights to this book are already sold, and I'm not surprised. It truly does scream "Make me into a movie!" in just about every scene. I had fun, while reading it, casting actors for the various roles. (I actually picture Paul Rudd as Silver, Albert Brooks as his father, Rabbi Ruben, Steve Carrell as Rich, Katherine Heigel as Denise, and Abigail Breslin as Casey.) I suppose we'll see how close my predictions are when the movie comes out.

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah, so I’m pretty much completely enamored with Jonathan Tropper. I read This is Where I Leave You and was smitten – immediately followed by the fear that he might be a one-hit wonder. Thankfully, that turned out not to be the case and now I’m head-over-heels in love with his writing. He writes good people (or more accurately, he writes people well because they aren't always "good") and lots of them. People I want to know in real life. People I can picture vividly while reading their stories. People I want to call up six months from now to check on and see how they are doing.

Silver is an aging former rock star whose one constant in life is failure. Failed rock career, failed marriage, failed parenting, etc. On the cusp of his ex-wife’s impending nuptials, his teenage daughter confides in him that she is pregnant and Silver discovers he has a medical condition that may kill him. The story that follows is a couple of unforgettable weeks with a rag-tag ensemble cast that won’t soon be forgotten.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and heartwarming. There are several laugh out loud moments. Loved Silver's buddies Jack and Oliver and also his dad. 2nd book of Tropper's I've read and it won't be the last!

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read everything Jonathan Tropper has written, from the humorous to the touching, and yet this book is different from anything else he’s ever written. You can still tell he’s written it if you’ve read enough of his books. It still centers around a non-practicing jewish man in his 30s-40s who has screwed up his life in some way shape of form. It contains humor, touching moments, and leaves the reader with a sense fulfillment in having read a book that you instantly are happy you read, and know was not wasted time.

But this book was different as well. The first fifth of the book is incredibly depressing, not that Tropper doesn’t usually start off in chaos and sadness, his last book This is Where I leave you Now takes place with a family sitting shiva for their deceased father. But this book starts with a depressed, lonely, divorced man who has lost everything of value to him. His marriage, his daughter’s respect/love, and his career. He is a man sitting in neutral at the low point in his life, and has been for years. And it’s not until the book gets about a fifth of the way in that Tropper begins to lighten the mood with some of his famous awkward family dynamic humor.

But this humor almost seems to come to little to late to effectively cut through the sadness that has already set into the story. Of course, Tropper may be trying something new, losing some of his telltale witty and awkward situations for a more serious book about life and death and the effect everyone has on everyone else, whether they know it or not.

This review may not sound happy and promising, but let me be clear, I very much loved this book, it is just not what I was expecting. I would easily recommend it to family and friends and fully plan to, but for those who are curious and read This is Where I Leave You Now, or Plan B, or Book of Joe and loved them for their humor and high degree of writing know, this is incredibly well written, it just wont have you rolling in the aisles. But it, like its predecessors, will still leave you breathless as it tugs at your heart strings, making you both sad to see it over, and happy to have chosen to have read it.

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[Tami · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the beginning of this book I was like, too much testosterone here. This is totally a guy's point of view and I can't relate. But then, suddenly, I could. And I liked the story more than I could imagine.

Silver, a drummer, got a taste of rock stardom and apparently didn't handle that too well, although we are spared that part of his story as we meet him several years later. Now he is alone and lonely, having plummeted to musical obscurity, been divorced by his wife, and allowed his daughter to slip from his life. He resides in an apartment building occupied mainly by other divorced men and plays weddings and bar mitzvahs to supplement the dwindling royalty checks from his former band's one hit.

But then his daughter needs him. And as hokey as that sounds, the reason is plausible. In the midst of his trying to help her, Silver learns he harbors a potentially fatal medical condition. What he decides to do about that and how his decision affects those around him actually make for a good story. Tropper writes well. I was sucked in and wanted to know how it all ended up. I don't think this is great literature, but it is a good book that I enjoyed.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another home run from my favorite author! A couple times I found myself sobbing and laughing at the SAME TIME & I loved every last bit! Family, losing your way and never being able to go home again are familiar themes in Mr. Tropper's books, but Silver is more flawed than any of his other characters IMO, which makes this one hit a little deeper. The Versilles was so sad and so well described, Casey's situation exactly opposite of her father's, and that he's exiled himself from his family, he realizes his loneliness is his own fault. Those are just some ways this hit me. I could go on. Silver's habit of talking out loud after his accident made me laugh every time, mostly bc you didn't know he was doing it until after, when everyone's jaw has dropped. I love how they all come to epiphanies in their observations about themselves, Silver many times, and while some people might not like that, I loved it! This is definitely going on the TBR-again shelf!