This Is Where I Leave You

This Is Where I Leave You

3.9 of 5 stars 3.90  ·  rating details  ·  23,302 ratings  ·  3,713 reviews
The death of Judd Foxman’s father marks the first time that the entire Foxman family—including Judd’s mother, brothers, and sister—have been together in years. Conspicuously absent: Judd’s wife, Jen, whose fourteen-month affair with Judd’s radio-shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public.

Simultaneously mourning the death of his father and the demise of his marria...more
Hardcover, 352 pages
Published August 6th 2009 by Orion (first published 2009)
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Community Reviews

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Joel


Voice Over: Judd Foxman had the perfect job...

(on-air antics at the radio station; his boss makes a sexist joke)

VO: the perfect girl...

(hot young starlet (Jessica Biel?) smiles at camera)

VO: The perfect life... Until one day, it left him behind.

(smiling, Judd carries an ornate birthday cake into a bedroom. "Surprise, honey! Happy birthday!" Flash cut: Biel in bed, looking over a man's shoulder. "Judd!" The man turns, and it's Judd's boss. "Foxman! How's it hanging?" Back to Judd, who flings the...more
Amanda
Judd Foxman had a content but not always perfect marriage to the woman of his dreams. And then, I guess because Life just enjoys being an asshole, Life knocks Judd down. Judd and his wife lose their first baby, which causes Judd to lose his wife to his boss, which causes Judd to lose his job. And, because Life in this book likes to remorselessly kick people while they're down, Judd loses his father to cancer. And just when you think things can't get any worse, Judd finds out that his atheist fat...more
Jason
This book is weak. I’m not usually a fan of novels that think they can hold their own merit on nothing but shock value and really bad sexual innuendos—I’m pretty sure this book may have overestimated itself. I’d even feel bad for it, but the fact that its shallow cliché-ness seems to beg for a Hollywood deal rather sucks up any pity I might have otherwise had.
JFN
I picked up this book on the recommendation of an acquaintance whose taste I trust. And in reading the dust jacket flap, I was immediately drawn in by the idea of the book: a family -- four siblings -- mourning the death of their father, coming together for seven days to sit shiva. The book promised to be witty and biting, an unforgiving look at family dynamic. I'm in. Sign me up.

Eh.

For sure there was some great language in here. Some sharp observations about disappointment and growing up and lo...more
Alison

-Probably one of the most effective combinations of heartbreaking and hilarious I've ever read.

-Something about it is cinematic, and almost begs to be turned into a movie (one that won't be as good as the book, of course), and subsequently a few of the plot points feel just very slightly bordering on cliché.

-It took me most of the book before I began to realize that, due to the narrator's state of depression, he's a bit hard to like. But at the same time, it's his wry observations that make the...more
Kemper
Does this story sound like it’d tickle your funny bone? Judd Foxman and his wife Jen lost a baby during the last months of her pregnancy. A year later, he catches her in bed with his boss, a crude radio shock-jock. Months after that, Judd doesn’t have a job and is living in a crappy apartment when he gets the news that his father finally died after long battle with cancer. Just then, Jen drops by to let him know that she’s pregnant. Judd’s even more shocked to learn that his father’s last reques...more
Reese
May 23, 2010 Reese rated it 5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Reese by: Kathy
"The family that prays together stays together," or so a television commercial used to tell us. But can a family that DOESN'T pray together stay together -- for just a week? Even after a death in the family?

A Jewish family that has lost a parent, spouse, sibling, or child stays together for seven days -- to pray together and to mourn together -- or so Jewish law requires. The family created by Jonathan Tropper aims to do this because the children of the deceased are told that their father wante...more
Djrmel
Tropper is a talented writer. His previoous books prove that. Unfortunately, in this book, you can see him trying to prove it. There are some passages that are well written and fit perfectly to the flow of the story. There are others that read like an observance or thought that he jotted down in his writing journal once upon a time, rediscovered it when he was writing this book, and forced a situation where he could use the phrase. It's too clever for its own good.

I also feel that Tropper's inne...more
Veronica
This was the first Jonathan Tropper book I read and I'm so glad I decided to pick it up. I work in a bookstore and this book kept catching my eye because of the simplicity of the design. Anyway, our main character is home to mourn the death of his father. Meanwhile, his personal life is falling to pieces. His family is like one big sitcom with twisting stories that most of us can only imagine. By the time I reached the end of the book, I was praying that there were more pages that had just falle...more
Cheryl
Around the same time Judd loses his father, he walks in on his wife of 10 years having sex with his boss. In their bedroom. Pretty vivid and erotic scene the narrator describes. Soon, Judd learns that his father's last wish was for the family to sit shiva (a 7-day ordeal). Some of the book centers around this weird family saga as you meet the characters through Judd's eyes as he flips to present and past tense, giving you the story as it unfolds at the shiva sit-in, and reflecting on his married...more
Lindsey
This book made me think... if I were a character in a generic pseudo-indie dramedy what all would happen?

I'm thinking I would be a slightly bitter divorcee who chain smokes and uses scathing sarcasm as a defense mechanism. Coming home would unleash a fury of hilarious down home characters who would be surprised at my current state of bitchiness but would still embrace me, slowly chipping away at my hard exterior until my slightly warmer (still bitchy) interior is exposed. Maybe my ex-husband wou...more
Nicole
Apr 24, 2011 Nicole rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Nick Hornby fans
Shiva is a Jewish mourning ritual during which a family mourns the death of one of their direct relatives for a period of seven days, all house mirrors are covered and all meals are provided by neighbors and friends. The Foxman family has just lost their patriarch, Mort, and are surprised that a nonreligious man has asked them to sit shiva after his death. And so, this family so accustomed at avoiding each other and suppressing all of their emotions, gathers at their family house to reflect on t...more
Diandra
I always thought the phrase, "one-trick-pony", was kind of demeaning but after reading my second Tropper book in a row- I wouldn't necessarily classify that phrase as demeaning but definitely apropos. Tropper has a few standard characters that he incorporates into his stories. The protagonist is usually a flawed, witty, yet likeable guy. Family members range from selfish mothers, emotionally-distant fathers, and wacky siblings. It's like a formula, which makes his books intersting, but extremely...more
Allison
Meh. This book was fine, but it wasn't good. My main problem is that there seemed to be a lot of anger at and objectifying of women on the part of the main character, Judd Foxman. There was a lot of talking about women (both young and old) as body parts (though to be fair, this happened a lot with the descriptions of men too) and as vehicles for Judd's fantasies. I get it that his wife cheated on him, but still I didn't like this part of the narrative. Maybe I just wasn't supposed to like Judd a...more
Erin M
"Often sidesplitting, mostly heartbreaking...[Tropper is] a more sincere, insightful version of Nick Hornby, that other master of male psyche." --USA Today

Sidesplitting? This was not a humorous read to me. Heartbreaking? I wish I could say I was that invested in the story. This Is Where I Leave You wasn't an awful read, it just wasn't ever terribly interesting. The overall feeling I had when I finished this book was that it was like reading a cheap imitation of a Jonathan Franzen novel. Tropper...more
Candace Burton
I've heard that in your dreams, you are actually everyone you interact with. This hysterically lifelike novel was a bit like a dream, in that I could identify with almost every single character--or at least with the way other people saw them. "Hysterically lifelike" may sound like an odd turn of phrase, but I can see where some people are not going to find this book funny. I feel sorry for them, because I nearly fell out of bed giggling on several occasions, due to the familiarity of many of the...more
Kalli
Five. Five. Five.

Fifty pages in and Tropper had declared himself one of my favorite authors. I will be reading more of his work ASAP.


Two words - Fucking hilarious.

Sex, Drugs, Love, Hate...in abundance. Love it.

I can't decide which I was drawn to more, Tropper's sarcastic wit or the not-so-subtle family dysfunction. I loved the idea of the four siblings and the erratic mother coming together to mourn the death of their father/husband. I fell in love with each of the siblings at some point or ano...more
KrisAnne
A grating combination of trying too hard to be funny, casual misogyny, and generally unsympathetic characters. Tropper also seems completely obsessed with judging the physiognomy and physiques of all of the characters, including minor ones that just show up to sit shiva or whatever. Heaven forbid that you grow old and expose any skin, or wear low-riding jeans postpartum. Everyone is physically icky except for the shining goddess of a wife who cheated on him, and all the women about whom he makes...more
Libby
This Is Where I Leave You – is the kind of book that makes you stop, think and be thankful, even for the crappy stuff. Judd Foxman has hit life’s rock bottom - his wife cheated with his boss, he’s quit his job, currently lives in a basement, and his terminally ill father has recently died. He must now return home and participate in the tradition of Shiva, spending a full week in mourning, with a family he can barely stand. However, as the reader experiences the week of Shiva with Judd’s family i...more
Gail
To the critics who compare the Foxmans to the Bluth family, it's a comparison well made.

"This is Where I Leave You" tells the story of the Foxman family — four siblings and a mother — grieving the death of their father who they believe wants them all to sit shiva (they are Jewish) for the week following his death.

The book is told from the voice of Judd Foxman, who joins in the shiva just as his life is falling apart: a cheating spouse who tells him on the day of his father's death that she's pr...more
Shelia
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Jessica (booneybear)
I feel like a two star rating is a bad thing but by definition the book was ok. I liked the writing and the flow of the book was good. I just felt that the book was also written by a sex craved teenager.

Sure sex is fun and enjoyable but I feel like I was trasported back to jr high or high school when the boys were obsessed with anything to do with sex. About half way through the story, I felt that the author was just beating a dead horse. I get it already, how about a bit more character develop...more
Barbara
Hilarious, enlightening, warm, remorseful, engaging-there aren't enough adjectives to describe this book-at times so 'laugh out loud funny' and then other times 'tissue time'. The characters are so real you pretty much climb right into the pages of this book. Just read it and see what you think~they're making a movie out of it!
Carrie
Sweet, tender, and laugh-out-loud hilarious. Who knew that sitting shiva could be this much fun?

Thanks so much for the recommendation, Lisa!
Katherine
Perfect book for my state of mind at the time, which was tired but not brain-dead. I needed to read something fun but not stupid, not too challenging, but with a bit more substance. And this hit the spot.

Tropper's writing is a great deal of fun and his characters manage to be sympathetic and engaging, despite the fact that they're all pretty unpleasant. The plot teeters on the edge of formulaic--dysfunctional family reassembles under duress to sit shiva for their recently deceased father, despit...more
Michelle
I absolutely loved this book, but I am certain that it will not appeal to every
reader. The tone is what makes this book along with the characterizations.
It is a deft blend of cynicism mixed with hopefulness, not an easy feat to pull off.

In the Jewish religion, the spouse and the children of someone who has died
sit shiva following the funeral. You sit shiva in the home, following traditional
customs such as covering all mirrors and having the family members sit on
boxes instead of chairs. Many p...more
Phil
I really loved this book; it brought pleasingly to mind other recent favorites like "Domestic Violets" and "The Financial Lives of the Poets" and even "The Marriage Plot."

It did indeed have a made-for-film feel -- and, in fact, Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda and Adam Drive are set to star in a script that Tropper himself is writing or has written -- but it's comic relevance, suburban Jewish familiarity and 'love hurts even when it doesn't' acknowledgements make that okay. It seems light at...more
Steven
I enjoyed Jonathan Tropper's This is Where I leave You. However, I did not overly enjoy it. The subject was just too painful, the confines too narrow.

I enjoyed the writing, as I noted in my review of his previous book. I enjoyed the dark humor, though it was at times so dark that the humor was hard to discern. Some of the plot twists seemed a little controlled; just how much can I beat up on my characters.

It would be neglectful of me not to say that this has the funniest scene in which a man dis...more
Bücherplanet
Inhalt:

Kurz nachdem seine Frau ihn mit seinem Chef betrogen hat, stirbt Judds Vater. Und obwohl total ungläubig, lautet der letzte Wunsch des Vaters, dass seine Kinder und seine Frau Schiwa sitzen sollen. Vier Kinder, die es bei Familientreffen nicht erwarten können, wieder zu verschwinden und die regelmäßig vorzeitig die Flucht ergreifen, werden gezwungen sieben Tage auf engstem Raum zu verbringen.

Meinung:

Das Buch ist in der ich-Form geschrieben und behandelt daher ausschließlich Judds Sicht de...more
Jennifer
Another of my spontaneous Goodwill purchases, this novel follows Judd Foxman as he navigates the waters of a lost baby, the infidelity of his wife Jen with his boss and his subsequent dealings with each, and the sitting of shiva for his dead father which comes with its own dysfunctional family dramas.

How you can not like a novel that practically begins with the image of Judd returning home early on his wife's birthday, lit cheesecake in hand, only to discover his boss on top of her and shoving...more
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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.

-Infor...more
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The Book of Joe How to Talk to a Widower One Last Thing Before I Go Everything Changes Plan B

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“You have to look at what you have right in front of you, at what it could be, and stop measuring it against what you've lost. I know this to be wise and true, just as I know that pretty much no one can do it.” 107 people liked it
“We all start out so damn sure, thinking we've got the world on a string. If we ever stopped to think about the infinite number of ways we could be undone, we'd never leave our bedrooms.” 76 people liked it
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