One Last Thing Before I Go (migrated from bookblogger)

One Last Thing Before I Go by Jonathan Tropper

Here’s another fun read by Jonathan Tropper.  This story, which centers upon Silver, a divorced, ex-rock star,  middle aged man living in a sort of limbo of a life, who discovers that he has a potentially fatal illness for which he needs surgery and is deciding whether or not to have the operation.  That is, he is struggling over whether his life is actually worth saving.  In the meantime, his daughter presents a dilemma of her own, his ex-wife is about to remarry, and his father, a rabbi, tries to push him toward a decision, which brings him back into the lives of those he loves and has let down.

Tropper’s characters are almost always endearing.  His wit and sarcasm shine through and make the reader laugh out loud in spite of some very unhappy underlying story lines.  Even while Silver and his two close buddies are pathetic and sad, they make the reader laugh as they laugh at themselves.  And even when there is disappointment and resentment between father and daughter, Tropper enables the reader to see the underlying affection that still exists between them.  What Tropper is good at is balancing truly biting sarcasm with just enough warmth to pull the reader in to liking the characters enough to really need to know what happens to them.  And even while the characters are suffering, the reader laughs in spite of herself because they are really funny!

Thanks, once again, Mr. Tropper!