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Dec 16, 2009

Abby rated it:

I was so excited to receive a pre-released copy of this book (it's slated to hit stores on 7/17). Jonathan Tropper's name keeps popping up whenever I type in a search for Nick Hornby/Tom Perrotta, and his books have received good reviews. This one was supposed to be amazing. I read it in a few nights and while I couldn't put it down, I felt robbed toward the end of the book. I turned the last page and thought, "That's it?"

The part that kills me is Tropper is a great author- More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2012

Ed rated it:

I don't know why it took me so long to get back to read another book by Jonathan Tropper. A couple of years back I read his latest book This Is Where I Leave You a couple years back and it was my favorite book of the year. There was something simply sizzling about Tropper's writing - razor sharp, witty, raw, funny, painful, astute... the exclamatory adjectives could just go on and on. I guess part of my fear was diluting that particular reading experience, but after a very informal online chat More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 24, 2008

Ruth rated it:

Wow! I feel very fortunate to have found a blurb about this book on the Borders newsletter. I read this on my Kindle and I was so impressed. Doug has lost his wife and friends and family members feel that it is more than time for him to get out their dating again. Doug doesn't quite feel that way yet but allows his twin to talk him it to it as we progress through the book. Jonathan Tropper, the author, so beautifully describes Doug's feeling of loss that you feel that he must have experience More...

6 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 09, 2008

Michael rated it:

Doug Parker is a 29-year old widower. He lost his wife Hayley (who was older) in a plane crash and has spent the last year avoiding life in Jonathan Tropper's "How to Talk to a Widower."

And while much of Doug's world is defined by his depression and anger over losing Hayley, it's not the only thing going on his life. His twin sister Clair is pregnant and leaving her husband, his father suffered a stroke and has good and bad days and his younger sister met her fiancee at t More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 14, 2008

Sassacaia rated it:

I love Jonathan Tropper! I love how real his characters are, how easily you fall into his world and fall in love with his characters. It gives me hope that maybe mankind isn't all that bad. I'm so glad my coworker randomly bought his books then lent them to me (without even reading them first) because otherwise I might not even know about these books!

He makes me laugh out loud, and I love his dialogue:

“We don’t have twin telepathy.”
“Of course we do, it’s just More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 23, 2007

Tammie rated it:

This was the first book of Jonathan Tropper's that I have read and I have to say I really love his voice in How To Talk To A Widower.

A fan of Nick Hornby's work I was curious to pick up another male authors book that fits the "women's fiction" category. The story is about a young widower who has to deal with a step-son and family that is more than a little odd.

Jonathan Tropper writes in a such a lively manner and in scenes that were so vivid I could easily see More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 29, 2008

Nicole rated it:

After reading all of Tropper's books, its interesting to notice his progression and certain kinds of scenes that are unique to him. Tropper loves setting up utterly ridiculous scenes, usually involving family, that are totally hilarious, I believe there was one in book of joe involving a family dinner and a parrot. I really like his writing style. This book is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, going from truly sad to laughing out loud a few pages later. All in all I think this is a great More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2008

Melissa rated it:

Great story. There are a few parts of the book that can bring tears to your eyes, but Doug is a young widower... Most of the book is quick witted and funny.
Doug is in his 20's and marries a women about 11 years older than he is (her name is Hailey, spelled the same as my daughter) with a teenage son. She dies about 2 years into their marriage. The story is mainly the year after his wife's death. Doug's relationship with his teenage step-son, pregnant twin sister whose life is coming undone More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 05, 2007

Alexis rated it:

I am loving this book. I started it yesterday evening and stayed up late, very late, working my way through it. I left maybe 40 pages (I don't want to know how little is left) to savor today. It is equal parts Nick Hornby, David Sedaris, Augusten Burroughs, Helen Fielding, Lorrie Moore, Candace Buchnell, and others too I'm sure.

I have fallen in love with each of the characters. I would not recommend this book to you if you despise romantic sniveling, complete honesty, stories of More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 05, 2008

Jody rated it:

I loved how this book was humorous and moving at the same time. It's about Doug Parker, whose wife of two years is killed in a plane crash. Doug's has a freelance magazine column about grieving for his wife from where the book gets its title. For those of you who work with the high school set, you may appreciate the character of Doug's stepson Russ who keeps getting in trouble at school, which leads Doug to a relationship with the guidance counselor. I loved the interactive of those two. L More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 23, 2008

Megan rated it:

Among my favorite parts of visiting England is the chance to walk into British bookstores and browse through an entirely NEW range of English-speaking authors. Last time I was in England, I picked up three new books to read during my trip. This one, Jonathan Tropper's "How to Talk to a Widower" was my final purchase, selected at Heathrow to keep me company for the flight home.

It didn't take me long to discover the irony of my choice -- Tropper's an American author painting More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 03, 2012

Ian rated it:

Another contender for "book of the year". This is staggeringly funny, well written and with genuine excitement that means that you want to read just one more chapter. What more can you ask for?

Doug Parker is only 29 but his 38 year old wife died a year ago. He has been self medicating to get through things but this has not been easy with a very well drawn extended family inclduing...

Russ - His 17 year old step son who has a wickedly cynically outlook and is suffe More...

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Jan 21, 2012

Teena rated it:

It took me a couple chapters to get into it and I'm glad I stuck with it.

I enjoyed the writing style ... most of the time it was funny and sarcastic. It's almost like Doug was talking to me. As I was reading this, I could imagine it being made into a movie.

I felt bad for Doug. He was widowed before he was 30. He thought he had found "the one" in Hailey (who was more than ten years older than him) and would spend the rest of his life with her. But when she is ki More...

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Apr 27, 2011

jazz-ee2 rated it:

GreenMetropolis.com
Description:
'When Doug Parker married Hailey - beautiful, smart and ten years older - he left his carefree Manhattan life behind to live with her and her teenage son, Russ, in the suburbs. Three years later, Hailey has been dead for a year, and Doug, a widower at 29, just wants to drown himself in self-pity and Jack Daniels. But his family has other ideas...Russ is furious with Doug for not adopting him after Hailey died, and has fallen in with a bad crowd. Claire, D More...

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Apr 07, 2011

ALPHAreader rated it:

I love, love, loved this book!
It’s hard to put the book into a specific genre. On the one hand it’s a romantic-comedy, but with a very bleak beginning. Before Doug’s restorative journey the book deals with his dark depression following the death of his wife, Hailey. It is a sad beginning; but infused with Tropper’s laugh-out-loud humor that takes a speculative look at grief and the funny side of mourning.

Doug has to fight-off the advancements of suburban housewives in the wake of More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 12, 2011

Greg rated it:

Normally if you read several books by the same author, and the main character in each of those books is pretty much the same guy, you'd be annoyed and probably scream "Unoriginal! Repetitive!" But Jonathan Tropper manages to pull this off. How? His prose reads like a 330 pages of stand-up comedy, so you don't really mind that he doesn't spend a whole lot of time on character development. But beyond his wonderful prose, as I've mentioned before, I love reading Tropper because his stori More...

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Dec 09, 2010

Liz rated it:

Jonathan Tropper never disappoints, but some of his books are definitely better than others. Perhaps I read this a little too hot on the heels of Everything Changes, as I had moments when I felt as if I was reliving the same scene with just a change of characters. There is a distinct formula to his novels -- the larger than life dysfunctional family who, beneath the veneer of insults and scream-outs, actually love each other deeply; the close to being overplayed fist fights involving family me More...

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Dec 08, 2010

Kirsty rated it:

This is a bit of an odd one. It turned up on my recommendations at Amazon; and I noticed it since Amazon's recommendations are usually along the lines of "You've read a book by Margaret Forster, why not read another one?" which is the kind of conclusion I can come to by myself without the aid of a piece of software that's swallowed the reading habits of half the western world and ought to be able to spit out something more surprising. I spotted it on the library shelf and took it home

More...

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Dec 02, 2010

Laala rated it:

“There are no happy endings, just happy days, happy moments. The only real ending is death, and trust me, no one dies happy. And the price of not dying is that things change all the time, and the only thing you can count on is that there’s not a thing you can do about it.” — Jonathan Tropper, How To Talk To a Widower

During the summer, I read This Is Where I Leave You. I really enjoyed it. It was a great comic novel, good dialect, good progression, a lot of heart. I even talked about ho More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 24, 2010

Amanda rated it:

So I think I've decided that I read Tropper primarily for the writing because the stories in his books are all starting to feel the same to me. All of them are about men right on the brink of a nervous breakdown. All of the protagonists are writers or want to be writers (and this is a pet peeve of mine!). I tend to find meta-fiction a generally lazy and somewhat self-centered device. I mean, Tropper gets away with it because the writing is so tight, but it makes everything he writes feel like it More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 08, 2009

Lisa rated it:

That’s Jonathan Tropper. Liz turned me on to The Book of Joe a few years back, and I laughed like crazy through it. It’s about a young man who writes a scathing autobiographical novel set in his home town, believing he will never return. His book is a bestseller and becomes a hit movie. Everyone in the town reads it and sees themself in the book. And then his dad has a major stroke, and Joe’s forced to return home to the not very happy townsfolk who take their revenge out on him. Hilarious More...

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Apr 07, 2009

Jan rated it:

It has been over a year since Doug, our protagonist, lost his wife Hailey in a plane crash and Doug's life is still in a shambles. His twin sister Claire has just left her husband and moved in with Doug; his sister Debbie is about to get married to Doug's former best friend - whom she met at the shiva for Hailey; and his stepson Russ's behavior is spiraling out of control. And Doug can't seem to get through his grief to the other side.

"How to Talk to a Widower" follows Doug More...

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Aug 02, 2011

Khaya rated it:

Having read three Jonathan Tropper novels, I think I have the recipe basically down. Hapless, self-sabotaging, heartbroken male protagonist; dysfunctional family consisting of TMI mother, hands-off father, and complicated sibling relationships (often antagonistic although in this case one seemed almost incestuous); sitcom dialogue composed almost entirely of one-liners; multiple bizarre mass fight scenes; two or more beautiful women who want the hero; a few touching or insightful moments; and f More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 08, 2010

Claire rated it:

Jonathan Tropper is frequently compared to Tom Perrotta and Nick Hornby, and justly so. The work of these authors often feature protagonists who sport a specific and particularly 21st century brand of masculinity. They make mistakes, lose every fight they are in, bond with children, get fired...and always get the girl in the end.

Should the fiction this group of writers produce be labeled dude lit, as opposed to chick lit? Maybe, but I would argue this is all written for and marketed More...

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May 05, 2010

LindyLouMac rated it:

Just two years after marriage at the age of twenty-six to a woman ten years his senior Doug Parker finds himself a widower. The story picks up his life when already a widower for a year, he is still drowning in self pity. His somewhat eccentric family are trying to encourage him to sort his life out and at the same time his teenage step son, Russ is taking out the anger of his mother’s death on Doug, with difficult behaviour.

I have no idea how this one ever got to be on my wish lis More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 01, 2011

Anita rated it:

I devoured this book, the second I've read by Tropper. What could have a cheesy or sappy story of a recent widower grappling with his grief is instead an affecting yet lighthearted snapshot of life after death. I love the various characters and colorful relationships within Doug's family, from the mourning stepson, to the father recovering from a stroke, to the domineering twin sister. It is this group that makes reading about a man with nothing going for him (no career, dead wife, drowning in s More...

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Apr 23, 2007

Jen rated it:

Needless to say, this story is about a widower – 29 year old Doug Parker loses his wife in a plane crash, leaving him to raise her son and pick up the pieces of his now meaningless life. You’ll want to read this straight through. Comparisons to Nick Hornby are not exaggerated. This is funny and smart, and heartbreaking all at the same time. When someone first recommended this to me, I was skeptical, but it totally delivers.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 03, 2010

Maciek rated it:

I think we are all familiar with the stereotype of the so called "modern" writer: the kind of guy or girl who sits at Starbucks, smokes a Silk Cut (or a Djarum or other aromaticized poison if he or she is hip enough) and types away on a MacBook. The type of text that comes out is is either dick/chick lit, meaning witty novels about the complicated relationship between men and women, or some quasi post-modern bullshit which nobody understands and everybody praises for exactly that reaso More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 19, 2009

X5-494 rated it:

Und wiedermal ein Buch, das so gar nichts für mich war. Ich weiß auch nicht. In letzter Zeit erwische ich immer Bücher, die mir nicht wirklich viel geben.

Irgendwie war es für mich so ähnlich wie bei “Die Monster von Templeton”: Es war ganz gut zu lesen und ich wollte irgendwie auch immer wissen, wie’s weitergeht, aber diese ganze “Traueraufarbeitung aus männlicher Sicht” (und auch noch aus der von mir größtenteils so verhassten “Ich-Erzähler Perspektive”) war absolut nicht mein Ding More...

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Jan 23, 2010

marg rated it:

You know you're in Jonathan Tropper's world when:

- All the women are painfully, and unbelievably beautiful
- Every character talks like they're from a snappy 90's sitcom
- the protagonist is shy and sensitive, snarky and bumbeling, lost in the 80's, has a dysfunctional family, and a father who has died or suffered a stroke
- there is much graphic objectification of women, yet somehow the protagonist is still a sensitive soul who loves women so so much
- you feel a More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)