Tues. Aug. 11 & Wed. Aug 12

Jonathan Tropper has written a hilarious and heart-wrenching novel, “This Is Where I Leave You.” The book opens with the death of protagonist Judd Foxman’s father Mort. What’s next? Sitting Shiva. But Mort was a-religious, sick for some time, and the kids are either shocked nor particularly sad about his death. It’s Judd’s Mom, Hillary, an advice-book-writing psychiatrist – a buxom woman of a certain age - who wants to bring Judd and his three siblings back to the old manse for this occasion. (She, too, has a bombshell to reveal, perhaps part of her reasoning for the get-together, as well, as you know, getting the kids to kiss and make-up, re-bond, whatever). Problem is: The family’s dysfunctional as hell – pretty out of touch when they’re not forced to be under the same roof. And Judd and his sibs have a rocky past, to say nothing of a complicated week ahead of them. Sexual escapades abound, lies (white and otherwise) are told, and
the characters are all struggling to find, or hold onto, their place in an ever-changing world. So, they’ve got each other to deal with as well as a cast of childhood friends and parents, most of whom have not turned out so well. Tropper throws in a lot of jabs about the many, and particular, downsides of aging ot say nothing of the vagaries of love and sex and the confusion between the two. The Rabbi – whose childhood nickname – which the Foxman kids persist in using still – was Boner. The fact that he’s a rabbi now … well, maybe, he’s not the most righteous of men.

For Judd, a radio talk show producer, he’s just discovered that his boss, a right-wing, anti-woman talk shot host, has been boffing his wife. He really discovers it, up close and personal. So, his life seems to be shot full of holes. And the others have some rather tricky problems of their own. All of them wonder why the hell they’re sitting shiva, which, as I’ve been told, is a rather uncomfortable experience. Seven days in low-slung chairs, where, here anyway, you stare at lot of knobby knees and hairy legs and receive blandishments about death and carrying on. (An Irish wake without the booze is how Judd describes it.) But that’s just part of the agony. The rest has to do with turbulent, unresolved history and a present-day scenario that’s shaky to say the best. Kirkus wrote, “Few can rival [Tropper’s] poignant depictions of damaged men befuddled by the women they love.”

We talked with Tropper – for whom this is his fifth novel - recently before his readings at Porter Square Books Tuesday Aug. 11 at 7 and at Borders Downtown Crossing Wednesday Aug. 12 at 1.


JSInk: What was the kernel for this?
Tropper: The starting point was Judd Foxman. I wanted to write a book about a guy who was stripped of all that made him a man, his wife and job. I was writing the book and at one point I wrote a chapter about his having to go back to his house for something, his mother’s book party. He had not yet told them he broken up with his wife. And that’s where the book came to lfie and I liked the characters and the family a that was the whole point of the shiva. I retooled the book

Was that a difficult or freeing decision?
You recognize deep down on the need to do it, but y ou’re not willing to get rid of months of work. I spent way more time trying to expand that part without getting rid of what I’ve written. After you’ve done if for a while and none of it’s working, you sit down and take that hard look. Let’s say I have all the time in the world. What’s the book I wanna write?

How long did it take? 

18 months. [And on the version that it became] A year.

How do you make us care about these flawed characters?
 My goal is always that no character be any one thing. I don’t want to create any flat characters. I’m convinced nobody’s very consistent in real life. I don’t like reading a character in a book knowing how he’s going to respond. I like the character to surprise. You think he’s a jerk and then you see he has a conscience. You see that and dare to hope -  and then he goes back to be being a jerk.

You do have some graphic sex when Judd discovers Jen in bed with Wade.
 It’s not deliberately graphic, not in a titillating way but to convey the horror. It’s a sex scene in the vein of a Stephen King novel. He walks in and knows his life his been ruined and he takes in every surreal detail. There is an undertone of sexuality in the book. We’re dealing with a narrator whose wife was sleeping with another man for a year. His manhood has been threatened. He’s lashing out and trying to assert his manhood, to re-assert himself as a man.

Stock question: Any of this autobiographical?
My typical answer is there’s never a character that is, but many bits of texture come from my own experience. I find it almost insulting when people ask who I base my character on. My trade is inventing them.

There are people that argue that the novel, in 2009, doesn’t have the use or impact novels used to because real life events are so important and we need to be on top of those. We can’t afford to lose ourselves in fiction. What’s your take?
There’s value at any point. There s an immediate value of entertainment and the value of enlightenment. I don’t say I’m writing “important fiction,” but at the same time it’s only good if the people reading see truth in it. It doesn’t have to teach a lesson, but it can be a reflection of a certain truth.

You balance of humor and pathos? Do think about that balance when you write?
I don’t think about it all. So many people have asked me how I calculate the balance. I don’t calculate it at all; this is the way I write. I don’t give it much thought. I’m pretty anal writer, I rarely move too far forwad if I’m not happy with what I’ve written. I revise in the moment. I don’t do major revisions. I l can agonize over two words.

You’re adapting this for a Warner Bros. film? Seems like a tough task as there’s so much internal thought.
I just finished writing the first draft. It was not as easy I expected. I had other books optioned, and that gave me the advantage hearing the problems - my characters have a lot going on internally. You have them more interactive and  more reactive. There’s work involved in making, getting internal stuff into dialog. And I’m not a fan of voiceover.

Any major changes from page to screen?
For some reason, Philip [the younger brother, a bit of a cad] has developed a more central role. Because it’s hard to sell a character-driven ensemble movie, the producers and director asked me to do a little more with the romance between Judd and Penny [an old flame, rediscovered in the old home town]. Who’s directing? Greg Berlanti, who does “Brothers and Sisters.” He got excited about it.

Is there a timeline for production?
 I’ve learned not to believe in a timeline.

(A version of this piece ran in the Boston Herald Sunday Aug 9.)

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