What I’m Reading: Jonathan Tropper

Everything Changes by Jonathan Tropper

Three Stars

One fall day Zack King’s comfortable life goes seriously off the rails. He’s still grieving for the best friend who died in his arms, but that’s only part of the problem. He hates his job. He’s not sure he really loves the girl he’s engaged to. He may have cancer. And then the long-lost father he despises shows up with reconciliation in mind. Author Jonathan Tropper really likes to push his lead characters far out on a limb and then let them find their way back to a rom-com happily-ever-after. I enjoyed Tropper’s 2009 novel This Is Where I Leave You, which was a tad more serious — though still very funny — than this earlier work. Everything Changes definitely reads like a bit of frivolous chick lit, except that it’s written by a man. That in itself is refreshing. And Tropper is good — he writes well, draws interesting characters, provides lots of diverting plot twists, and keeps his story moving. For about 90 percent of this novel, everything worked well, but I found the ending flawed and a let-down. I get the feeling that Tropper started writing without having an ending in mind — or he changed his mind about the original ending he planned — and the novels suffers as a result. The book’s closure isn’t satisfying. He introduces a brand new character right at the end of the novel and then rushes ahead to his happily-ever-after while glossing over a bunch of significant and transformative life changes for Zack in just a few pages. I was left wondering, “Huh?” And that’s not where a novelist really wants to leave his reader.