Girlfriend problems, workplace problems, deadbeat dad problems, even a cancer scare: The sky is falling on the hapless protagonist of Tropper's third (The Book of Joe, 2004, etc.). A very minor earthquake rattles windows in Manhattan, and Zack instinctively reaches out for Tamara before remembering he's in bed with Hope. The author signals us right off the bat that Tamara is Zack's soulmate, though it takes 300-plus pages for true love to win out. There are, in fact, good reasons for 32-year-old Zack's ambivalence. While both women are gorgeous (and feebly differentiated), Tamara is the widow of Zack's best friend, Rael, who died in a car crash that Zack survived. So he's now cast in the role of sympathetic friend to Tamara and her small daughter, Sophie, whereas with Hope there are no complications. That's why the smart, sophisticated Upper East Sider is Zack's fiancee, and the engagement party is just days away. Zack sees himself as the middleman, unable to turn Hope loose or declare himself to Tamara. In his job, which he hates, he really is a middleman, brokering deals between vendors and manufacturers. Add to the mix Zack's father, Norm, who shows up after many years' absence and a bitter divorce from wife Lela. Here again, Zack is ambivalent, raging at his old man's fecklessness but moved despite himself by Dad's sentimental warmth. All this, and then Zack rushes to the urologist after seeing blood in his urine. Tropper seems conflicted too. Should he go for bittersweet realism or for laughs? There are lots of Viagra jokes and three slapstick brawls-the last one at the engagement party, when Hope's father goes ballistic after catching Zack and Tamara smooching. Then Tropper pulls arabbit out of the hat in the form of an adorable five-year-old, for a shamelessly weepy finale. Touching and true descriptions of Zack's broken family, including a lovely vignette of his retarded brother; the rest is fluff. Film rights optioned by Tobey Maguire and Wendy Finerman
Jonathan Tropper's novel The Book of Joe dazzled critics and readers alike with its heartfelt blend of humor and pathos. Now Tropper brings all that-and more-to an irresistible new novel. In Everything Changes, Tropper delivers a touching, wickedly funny new tale about love, loss, and the perils of a well-planned life.
EVERYTHING CHANGES
To all appearances, Zachary King is a man with luck on his side. A steady, well-paying job, a rent-free Manhattan apartment, and Hope, his stunning, blue-blooded fiancée: smart, sexy, and completely out of his league. But as the wedding day looms, Zack finds himself haunted by the memory of his best friend, Rael, killed in a car wreck two years earlier-and by his increasingly complicated feelings for Tamara, the beautiful widow Rael left behind.
Then Norm-Zack's freewheeling, Viagra-popping father-resurfaces after a twenty-year absence, looking to make amends. Norm's overbearing, often outrageous efforts to reestablish ties with his sons infuriate Zack, and yet, despite twenty years of bad blood, he finds something compelling in his father's maniacal determination to transform his own life. Inspired by Norm, Zack boldly attempts to make some changes of his own, and the results are instantly calamitous. Soon fists are flying, his love life is a shambles, and his once carefully structured existence is spinning hopelessly out of control.
Charged with intelligence and razor sharp wit, Everything Changes is at once hilarious, moving, sexy, and wise-a work of transcendent storytelling from an exciting new talent.
1100299363
EVERYTHING CHANGES
To all appearances, Zachary King is a man with luck on his side. A steady, well-paying job, a rent-free Manhattan apartment, and Hope, his stunning, blue-blooded fiancée: smart, sexy, and completely out of his league. But as the wedding day looms, Zack finds himself haunted by the memory of his best friend, Rael, killed in a car wreck two years earlier-and by his increasingly complicated feelings for Tamara, the beautiful widow Rael left behind.
Then Norm-Zack's freewheeling, Viagra-popping father-resurfaces after a twenty-year absence, looking to make amends. Norm's overbearing, often outrageous efforts to reestablish ties with his sons infuriate Zack, and yet, despite twenty years of bad blood, he finds something compelling in his father's maniacal determination to transform his own life. Inspired by Norm, Zack boldly attempts to make some changes of his own, and the results are instantly calamitous. Soon fists are flying, his love life is a shambles, and his once carefully structured existence is spinning hopelessly out of control.
Charged with intelligence and razor sharp wit, Everything Changes is at once hilarious, moving, sexy, and wise-a work of transcendent storytelling from an exciting new talent.
Everything Changes: A Novel
Jonathan Tropper's novel The Book of Joe dazzled critics and readers alike with its heartfelt blend of humor and pathos. Now Tropper brings all that-and more-to an irresistible new novel. In Everything Changes, Tropper delivers a touching, wickedly funny new tale about love, loss, and the perils of a well-planned life.
EVERYTHING CHANGES
To all appearances, Zachary King is a man with luck on his side. A steady, well-paying job, a rent-free Manhattan apartment, and Hope, his stunning, blue-blooded fiancée: smart, sexy, and completely out of his league. But as the wedding day looms, Zack finds himself haunted by the memory of his best friend, Rael, killed in a car wreck two years earlier-and by his increasingly complicated feelings for Tamara, the beautiful widow Rael left behind.
Then Norm-Zack's freewheeling, Viagra-popping father-resurfaces after a twenty-year absence, looking to make amends. Norm's overbearing, often outrageous efforts to reestablish ties with his sons infuriate Zack, and yet, despite twenty years of bad blood, he finds something compelling in his father's maniacal determination to transform his own life. Inspired by Norm, Zack boldly attempts to make some changes of his own, and the results are instantly calamitous. Soon fists are flying, his love life is a shambles, and his once carefully structured existence is spinning hopelessly out of control.
Charged with intelligence and razor sharp wit, Everything Changes is at once hilarious, moving, sexy, and wise-a work of transcendent storytelling from an exciting new talent.
EVERYTHING CHANGES
To all appearances, Zachary King is a man with luck on his side. A steady, well-paying job, a rent-free Manhattan apartment, and Hope, his stunning, blue-blooded fiancée: smart, sexy, and completely out of his league. But as the wedding day looms, Zack finds himself haunted by the memory of his best friend, Rael, killed in a car wreck two years earlier-and by his increasingly complicated feelings for Tamara, the beautiful widow Rael left behind.
Then Norm-Zack's freewheeling, Viagra-popping father-resurfaces after a twenty-year absence, looking to make amends. Norm's overbearing, often outrageous efforts to reestablish ties with his sons infuriate Zack, and yet, despite twenty years of bad blood, he finds something compelling in his father's maniacal determination to transform his own life. Inspired by Norm, Zack boldly attempts to make some changes of his own, and the results are instantly calamitous. Soon fists are flying, his love life is a shambles, and his once carefully structured existence is spinning hopelessly out of control.
Charged with intelligence and razor sharp wit, Everything Changes is at once hilarious, moving, sexy, and wise-a work of transcendent storytelling from an exciting new talent.
17.5
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5
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17.5
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Editorial Reviews
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940172135309 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 03/29/2005 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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