One Last Thing Before I Go

One Last Thing Before I Go by Jonathan Tropper

My rating (out of 5 stars):

4 stars—I really liked it!

Description from Goodreads.com:

“In 2009, Jonathan Tropper—whose previous novels have been acclaimed as superb, tender, smart, honest, sweet, deft, and magnificent, among other praise—made his Dutton debut with This Is Where I Leave You and promptly landed on bestseller lists nationwide. And now, with One Last Thing Before I Go, he offers his greatly expanded readership a novel every bit as hilarious, every bit as heartbreaking.
 
Silver has begun to accept that life isn't going to turn out as he expected. The exwife he's remained friends with is about to marry a terrific guy Silver can't quite bring himself to hate. And his Princeton-bound teenage daughter has just confided in him that she's pregnant—because he's the one she cares least about letting down. As the wedding looms and the pregnancy sinks in, this broken family struggles, bonds, and wrestles with each member's individual anxieties. Lives begin anew, change radically, or, in Silver's case—as he discovers that he could die at any moment without an operation he refuses to have—may be about to end in an instant.
 
One Last Thing Before I Go demonstrates yet again Tropper's deft touch with the darkest of materials and his ability to make readers laugh out loud in one paragraph and move them to tears in the next.”

My Thoughts:

I love Jonathan Tropper! His is ridiculously talented. He is able to reveal true, genuine emotion in such a realistic way. His characters are rich and witty.

In this one I loved the dynamic between Silver and his daughter Casey. Their relationship was complex and touching. They didn’t connect, but they did...it was a realistic love/hate relationship. Silver hadn’t been present for Casey, and seeing the damage that can do was valuable.  There was one conversation between them that had me laughing so hard I cried. I wish I had written it down!

The one thing that kept me from giving this book a 5 star rating was the ending. I didn’t like it. I’m not sure what I wanted in an ending, exactly, but not what was given.

I’ve liked every book by Tropper that I've read. If you haven’t tried him, I recommend starting with “This is Where I Leave You." That's my favorite so far. This one was very close though!