This Is Where I Leave You
Ratings75
Average rating3.7
I really enjoyed this book. There was so much going on with these characters. They were all interesting and funny and neurotic in their own interesting and original ways. There was a definite moral gray area in this story that I've thought about over the years and some heartfelt realizations that these characters wrestled with. I enjoyed the unraveling of this family's chaos and secrets and silliness among the sadness.
This is the most depressing book I've ever read in my entire life. Not even the good kind of depressing. I hated every word of this book. I've never written a review but this book was so bad that I feel compelled to.
I've been listening to a lot of books that are very popular but so not the kind of book I would usually ever pick up to actually read. (Unless it was free or left somewhere and I had time, along with no internet and no legs.) That being said, I actually enjoyed this and am looking forward to the film. I enjoy taking books/stories/entertainment for what it is and I try not to hear too many things about that kind of stuff before I experience it, yep that leaves me disappointed quite a bit (like the awful Divergent Trilogy debacle) but I also am pretty happily surprised a lot of the time too. This book, I barely grazed the synopsis before diving in. I took someone whose star ratings I look up to and that tend to be in a similar line as mine and jumped. I have little to say about the story except that it was a story, a glimpse in time at the complicated lives of a group of people. It made me think about the craziest times in my life, especially when family gets together, and think how our own weirdness and hilarity would sound if someone were narrating it. It also made me appreciate the amazing and fortunate live i've had and enjoy the fact that my problems are not these problems (though at times my own can be much worse.) still. it was a good read. if this isnt the kind of book you “read” try listening to it because it really is a funny entertaining story. I think it was written after a Judd Apatow/the like marathon though because there is no way this book would ever NOT be made into a movie.
I do apologize to those who actually read my reviews. I write them for myself rather than others, it's a nice way to finish the story and for my to remember why I read these books. I think remembering how they made me feel is more important than the events that happened, in case I ever want to read/experience them again.
This book was such a fast read because the dialogue between the family members is very realistic. The characters are so well developed that I felt like I knew each one of them personally. I didn't want the story to end at all. Though it's more like 3.75, I give the book a full 4 stars for the witty one-liners.
This is everything you want in a Tropper novel–and then some–an awkward fistfight (actually multiple fights this time); an emotionally withdrawn father; a meddling mother; a female confidante/best friend/sister; a death...and it all works–pain, grief, wry observations, some 80's references, and plenty of laughs. Actually you get most of that in the second chapter–probably the saddest, funniest, most disturbing sex scene I've read.
I went with 4 stars rather than the 5 I'd probably have given it because this isn't Tropper at his best, but it is him being very, very good–which still makes it better than just about anything else out there.
Completely outside my comfort zone. (Seemingly) endless references to sex and (seemingly) endless profanity. Nevertheless, a brilliant depiction of a young man in 2009. I want to wash out the narrator's mouth and put him (and most of the other characters in the book) in timeout while simultaneously thanking the author for showing me this world. Though I really never want to go there again.
So how do I rate this book? It's brilliant, I know. Just not the kind of brilliant that I like. Guy brilliant. Especially young-ish guy brilliant.