One Last Thing Before I Go [Hardcover]

Jonathan Tropper (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 21, 2012

The bestselling author of This Is Where I Leave You returns with a hilarious and heart-rending tale about one family's struggle to reconnect.

You don’t have to look very hard at Drew Silver to see that mistakes have been made. His fleeting fame as the drummer for a one-hit wonder rock band is nearly a decade behind him. He lives in the Versailles, an apartment building filled almost exclusively with divorced men like him, and makes a living playing in wedding bands. His ex-wife, Denise, is about to marry a guy Silver can’t quite bring himself to hate. And his Princeton-bound teenage daughter Casey has just confided in him that she’s pregnant—because Silver is the one she cares least about letting down. 

 

So when he learns that his heart requires emergency, lifesaving surgery, Silver makes the radical decision to refuse the operation, choosing instead to use what little time he has left to repair his relationship with Casey, become a better man, and live in the moment, even if that moment isn't destined to last very long. As his exasperated family looks on, Silver grapples with the ultimate question of whether or not his own life is worth saving.

 

With the wedding looming and both Silver and Casey in crisis, this broken family struggles to come together, only to risk damaging each other even more. One Last Thing Before I Go is Jonathan Tropper at his funny, insightful, heartbreaking best.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Tropper’s characters are likably zany and fallible, and perhaps more important, funny. One Last Thing Before I Go is a poignant story about facing death and celebrating life, even when things seem well beyond repair." --Newsweek/The Daily Beast

"The richly talented Tropper (This Is Where I Leave You) has created an acerbic, middle-aged lost soul who will ultimately illuminate the reasons we stick around on this lopsided planet despite significant temptation to let it go. Readers will love Silver and want to throttle him in equal measure. Eminently quotable, hilariously funny, and emotionally draining, this arresting tour de force will entertain well after the book is done."  -Library Journal (starred review)

“…a bristling, witty tale of woe that'll make you appreciate whatever good things, no matter how few, have come your way.” –Entertainment Weekly on One Last Thing Before I Go

"Tropper entertainingly examines the angst of middle-age masculinity." - Kirkus 
"Tropper is a master of the mid-life male coming-of-age story, and his latest is full of the charm and wit his readers cherish." - Booklist

“It’s amazing what can happen in the hands of the casually brilliant author. . . . Read and weep with laughter.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“Tropper gets men. He's a more sincere, insightful version of Nick Hornby, that other master of male psyche.”
— USA Today on This is Where I Leave You

“A tender and unexpectedly hilarious take on the messiness of family life.”
—People StyleWatch

“Artful and brilliant, filled with colorful narratives and witty dialogue.”
— Associated Press on This is Where I Leave You

“This is a beautiful novel about men -- their lust and rage and sweetness.”
— The Washington Post, on This is Where I Leave You

“Tropper… [proves] his ability to create touchingly human characters and a deliciously page turning story.”
— Publishers Weekly on This is Where I Leave You

About the Author

Jonathan Tropper is the New York Times bestselling author of five previous novels; Plan B, The Book of Joe, Everything Changes, How To Talk to a Widower, and This Is Where I Leave You. His books have been translated into over twenty languages. He is also a screenwriter, and the co-creator and executive producer of the HBO/Cinemax television show Banshee, premiering in 2013. 

 

 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; First Edition edition (August 21, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780525952367
• ISBN-13: 978-0525952367
• ASIN: 0525952365
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (119 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,658 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jonathan Tropper is the author of How to Talk to a Widower, Everything Changes, The Book of Joe, and Plan B. He lives with his family in Westchester, New York, where he teaches writing at Manhattanville College.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Should I stay or should I go? August 21, 2012

By switterbug TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Silver is forty-four, a former drummer with the one-hit-wonder band, The Bent Daisies. After the front man/vocalist, Pat Mcreedy, left them and went solo, they tanked, dried up, and disbanded. Now Silver is a notch above broke, and his ex-wife, Denise, is about to get married to the doctor who wants to perform life-saving surgery on him. But Silver is about the most passively suicidal guy you may meet in fiction.

Barely scraping by, Silver lives on his royalty checks from the song, "Rest in Pieces," or plays Bar Mitzvahs and weddings, when he can get a gig. Mcreedy's career is epic and glitzy, and he sleeps with sexy celebrities. Silver hangs out with a group of losers in the tatty Versailles apartments, where they scope out young daisies in bikinis and nod off at the pool. In between, they make weekly deposits at the sperm bank to supplement their income.

Tropper has a knack for combining flippant with rueful to achieve sharp and piercing. His leading men are Jewish, middle-aged, overweight, and emotionally adolescent. This book and the last one--This is Where I Leave You-- have titles that underscore absence, departing, and abandonment. There's as much death cloud as sex haze in the atmosphere. But there's at least one compelling reason to keep Silver onward through the fog. Or is there?

The only person who seems to need Silver right now is his eighteen-year-old daughter, Casey. But only because she's afraid of disappointing her mother with the news that she's pregnant. So she tells her dad, whom she sometimes calls Dad, but often calls Silver. She's a combination of spiky and vulnerable, and her presence makes you root for Silver to wake up from his numbed slumber and be the strong and able support that she needs.... The scenes with Casey are often the most tender and fragile.

"Mom and Rich got me a G35 for my graduation."
"That was nice of them."
"Mom's still compensating for you. I milk it a little."
"I would. Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why'd you come to me?"
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"I care less about letting you down."

This isn't the side-splitting, laugh-out-loud humor of the last book, but is just as witty and cinematic. The movie rights have already been spoken for, which may bother some readers--that it has a filmic presence to it. (I think of Adam Sandler, and would be surprised if anyone else plays him in the movie.) However, the snappy dialogue and supple visuals are fresh and acute with its bent sense of humor. Silver keeps accidentally thinking out loud, which may be the most gimmicky aspect, although it is nuanced gimmick, if you will. There's a hint of customized formula, but with an edge to it, and some loose ends that feel right.

My husband and I have an eighteen-year-old daughter, and--don't shudder--we found aspects of this book therapeutic and and highly relatable. It's madcap at times, improbable, and sometimes too clever. And yet...and yet...it's about ordinary people trying to redeem themselves, to make sense of their place in the world, confront their shame and cowardice, and to love their children without too much toxic spillover. Sometimes we need a mop and a bucket to clean up our messes--and a spark from a quick, funny, savage, messy, poignant yarn about a guy who thinks out loud.
4.5 stars Read more ›

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Jonathan Tropper's Best Novels August 26, 2012

By Joseph Landes

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am a huge Jonathan Tropper fan and to be honest my biggest regret is that he doesn't publish books more often. But when he does come out with a new book, I immediately purchase it and set aside time to read it in one sitting because that is how good his books are. "One Last Thing Before I Go" doesn't disappoint. It very much follows Tropper's other novels in that it focuses on the life of a man pretty much down on his self-made luck who has made more mistakes that you can count in a lifetime and is not determining the path forward.

Here we are introduced to Drew Silver--a former rock star (drummer) whose band broke up many years ago and whose marriage followed soon after. He has been living at an apartment complex filled with divorced and separated men. His ex-wife Denise has been living with a doctor and is close to getting remarried while his only daughter Casey is about to go off to Princeton and finds out that her quick summer fling has resulted in her being pregnant. And if that is not enough, "Silver" as he is called by everyone one day blacks out and when he awakes finds out that he has a heart condition that if not operated on soon will cause him to die--his doctor by the way is Denise's beau. The story follows a somewhat predictable but incredibly fast-paced road that focuses on Silver's decision to have or not have this surgery. He is to a large extent fed up with his current life and is just as happy to die and end it as he is to continue it.

This book gives the reader detailed insight into the life of single, divorced men, the struggles they and their families go through, and how they all cope.... I was moved by the scenes showing Silver and Casey trying to figure out how to live together as daughter and father after so many years of his absence from traditional family life. There were some heart-wrenching (and cringe worthy) scenes where Silver's sickness gets the best of him and he starts mumbling out loud thoughts that were better left in his head.

I strongly recommend Tropper's latest book and have a hard time believing it would not be considered for the New York Times Notable Books of 2012. Read more ›

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Funny moments built on a shaky premise September 21, 2012

By Stet

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you liked Tropper's past novels (as I do) then you'll find this most recent offering enjoyable for the same reasons: quirky characters, moments of real insight, twisty plot lines and deftly constructed emotional set pieces. The dialogue sparkles, even as all the characters draw you to their own distinct world views.

In short, here's another romantic comedy that's missing only the production notes and studio backing. Get me Julia Roberts and Albert Brooks on the phone! But I'm really alright with that. A novel that reads like a movie is usually a sign of a tightly written, dialogue-rich, marvelously descriptive work. It's also indicative of a great beach book.

Light weight? Maybe. But to my mind it's really quite OK to be a writer of fiction who tells an interesting tale really well. My only problem this time out is I never buy the central premise: that the main character is diagnosed with a condition that will kill him if he doesn't get surgery and he decides not to have the surgery. I just don't believe him. He tries to convince the reader and every other character in the book that he's serious. None of us are buying it.

Does he live or die? Buy the book and find out. In the end, I find myself enjoying the journey and caring little for the destination.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Jonathan Tropper's latest work is commercial fiction of the highest caliber September 7, 2012

By Bookreporter

Format:Hardcover

Among Jonathan Tropper's many gifts is the ability to make his readers care about passive male protagonists who have no business being liked. In THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU, Tropper's rude 2009 novel, the recently divorced Judd Foxman rarely loses his browbeaten look as he and the rest of his family sit shiva for his deceased father. When Judd gets angry, his reactions are extreme, such as when he catches his wife having sex with his shock-jock radio boss. Otherwise, he's content to remain detached and toss off mordant wisecracks. Yet, we like Judd despite his sarcasm and moments of cruelty. He may not get along with all the members of his family, but even someone as jaded as him recognizes the importance of love and forgiveness after a death in the family gives them definable features.

Tropper pulls off the same trick in his newest novel, ONE LAST THING BEFORE I GO. This time, the divorced protagonist with the perpetual hangdog expression is Drew Silver. When Silver was in his 20s, he was the drummer for a rock band called The Bent Daisies. They were a one-hit wonder, but that one hit was so huge that the lead singer decided to leave the band for a solo career. The remaining band members were left to pursue lives of relative anonymity. Silver, now 44 and a tinnitus sufferer, makes his money these days by playing weddings, collecting royalty checks and, once a week, donating sperm to a local fertility clinic.

He lives at the Versailles, an apartment complex off the interstate and home mainly to divorced, middle-aged men. His ex-wife, Denise, is a week away from marrying Rich Hastings, a respected surgeon. Even more dispiriting to Silver is a visit he receives from his 18-year-old daughter, Casey.... She's off to Princeton in the fall, but when she shows up at the Versailles one day, she surprises her father with the news that she's pregnant. She asks him to take her to Early Intervention to get an abortion. When he asks her why she came to him and not to her mother, she says, "I care less about letting you down."

While Silver chats with Casey in the waiting room, the tinnitus in his left ear begins to "crackle like a fire." The noise recedes, only to be replaced by silence. He closes his eyes in an attempt to relax. When he opens them, he's in a hospital, with Denise, Casey and Rich by his side. Rich, in his role as Dr. Hastings, says that Silver has a tear in his aorta and needs emergency surgery. Without the surgery, Rich tells Silver, he will soon die. Silver declines the operation, not wanting to drift through several more decades of loneliness. He doesn't want to die, he explains, but "I'm just not sure I want to live." The bulk of the novel chronicles Silver's attempts to act like a better father and to find meaning in what has been, for 44 years, an undistinguished life.

If you've read a Tropper novel before, then the story elements here will be familiar to you. The profanity is frequent and often inventive. Many of the characters, the women as well as the men, speak in one-liners. There's divorce and illness and violence and topless co-eds and heart-to-heart talks between men who have been burned by life, albeit largely from fires they were responsible for setting.

But what you might not expect from this master of the male-bonding novel is the sweetness. For all the vulgarity and sarcasm here, there's a surprising tenderness to some of the writing. Many of Silver's conversations with Casey are hard-edged and bitter, but some are disarmingly moving. His later scenes with Denise are succinct, bittersweet depictions of an estranged couple's lingering love. And the book has one of the most beautiful endings I've ever read in a mainstream novel. Tropper's latest work is proof that, in the hands of a good writer, there's no such thing as men's fiction or women's fiction. There's only good fiction. And ONE LAST THING BEFORE I GO is commercial fiction of the highest caliber.

Reviewed by Michael Magras Read more ›