How to Talk to a Widower: A Novel (Bantam Discovery)
by Jonathan Tropper
List Price:
Our Price: $7.79
You Save: $7.21 (48%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.42 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Jonathan TropperEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-24
ISBN: 0385338910
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Bantam
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780385338912
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of How to Talk to a Widower: A Novel (Bantam Discovery)
Book Review: Grief is HIlarious!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you've read Tropper at all, you'll easily recognize Doug Parker, our protagonist for How To Talk To A Widower, as Zack from Everything Changes and Judd from This Is Where I Leave You. He's a wise-cracking, self-deprecating dude's dude with a slightly off-kilter family and a complicated relationship with women. Normally if you read several books by the same author, and the main character in each of those books is pretty much the same guy, you'd be annoyed and probably scream "Unoriginal! Repetitive!" But Jonathan Tropper manages to pull this off. How? It's easy: His prose reads like a 330 pages of stand-up comedy, so you don't really mind that he doesn't spend a whole lot of time on character development. But beyond his wonderful prose, I love reading Tropper because his stories have heart, and are just so, for lack of a better word, true.
In this novel, the angle is that Doug's wife Hailey, 11 years his senior, has died in a plane crash (Doug is 29). And so he's spent the last year grieving -- which has limited his activity to drinking heavily, feeling sorry for himself, occasionally yelling at people who express sympathy, and writing a monthly column for a magazine about how to talk to a widower. But Doug's twin sister Claire, who has her own relationship dilemmas, convinces him that he needs to get back into the dating pool. Meanwhile, he's also charged with the care of his wife's 16-year-old son from a previous marriage, who is angry at the world, as teenagers are. Hilarity ensues.
But, again, the fun derived from this novel is directly attributable to the writing. Want some examples? Sure, no problem: "Pity, I've learned, is like a fart. You can tolerate your own, but you simply can't stand anyone else's." Too low-brow? Then this'll really make you wince: "I've never been to an OB/GYN office before, and you can almost see fractal bends in the air from all the estrogen floating around in here."
I read the last 200 pages of this novel on a plane in a feverish, barely-looking-up trance. I loved it! So if you're looking for something on the light side that'll make you laugh, think and even get a little emotional, check it out.
Summary of How to Talk to a Widower: A Novel (Bantam Discovery)
"Beautifully crafted", "Fantastically funny." "Compulsively readable." Jonathan Tropper has earned wild acclaim?-and comparisons to Nick Hornby and Tom Perrotta?for his biting humor and insightful portrayals of families in crisis and men behaving badly. Now the acclaimed author of The Book of Joe and Everything Changes tackles love, lust, and lost in the suburbs?in a stunning novel that is by turns heartfelt and riotously funny.Doug Parker is a widower at age twenty-nine, and in his quiet suburban town, that makes him something of a celebrity?the object of sympathy, curiosity, and, in some cases, unbridled desire. But Doug has other things on his mind. First there's his sixteen year-old stepson, Russ: a once-sweet kid who now is getting into increasingly serious trouble on a daily basis. Then there are Doug's sisters: his bossy twin, Clair, who's just left he husband and moved in with Doug, determined to rouse him from his Grieving stupor. And Debbie, who's engaged to Doug's ex-best friend and manically determined to pull off the perfect wedding at any cost.
Soon Doug's entire nuclear family is in his face. And when he starts dipping his toes into the shark-infested waters of the second-time around dating scene, it isn't long before his new life is spinning hopelessly out of control, cutting a harrowing and often hilarious swath of sexual missteps and escalating chaos across the suburban landscape.
From the Hardcover edition.
Comic Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Comic Books
Plum Lucky (Stephanie Plum: Between the Numbers)by Janet Evanovich
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2008-01-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Lean Mean Thirteen (Stephanie Plum, No. 13) (Stephanie Plum Novels)by Janet Evanovich
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2008-06-17; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
The Oxford Bookworms Library: Stage 4: 1,400 Headwords Three Men in a Boatby Jerome K. Jerome, Tricia Hedge
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2000-08-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.96
Nine Kinds of Nakedby Tony Vigorito
Mariner Books; Published: 2008-10-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops:
The Fourth Bear: A Nursery Crimeby Jasper Fforde
Penguin Audio; Published: 2006-08-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $11.98
Price in other shops:
The Late Mr. Shakespeareby Robert Nye
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2000-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.50
Price in other shops:
The Other Side of the Story: A Novelby Marian Keyes
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2006-04-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Guards! Guards!by Terry Pratchett
HarperTorch; Published: 2001-07-31; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.74
Price in other shops:
Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson)by Louise Rennison
HarperTeen; Published: 2000-05-31; Library Binding; Book
Best price: $15.33
Price in other shops:
Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants: Even Further Confessions of Georgia Nicolsonby Louise Rennison
HarperTeen; Published: 2003-03-04; Library Binding; Book
Best price: $1.25
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
A Certain Chemistry: A Novelby Mil Millington
Villard; Published: 2004-05-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.10
Price in other shops:
Snow Crash (Bantam Spectra Book)by Neal Stephenson
Spectra; Published: 2000-05-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.51
Price in other shops:
Bush Fallsby Jonathan Tropper
Arrow Books; Published: 2005-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.47
Price in other shops:
This Is Where I Leave Youby Jonathan Tropper
Dutton Adult; Published: 2009-08-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Altered Carbon: A Takeshi Kovacs Novel (Takeshi Kovacs Novels)by Richard K. Morgan
Del Rey; Published: 2006-02-28; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.42
Price in other shops:
Replayby Ken Grimwood
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 1998-07-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
Plan Bby Jonathan Tropper
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2010-05-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.08
Price in other shops:
Everything Changes: A Novelby Jonathan Tropper
Bantam; Published: 2006-03-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.93
Price in other shops:
This Is Where I Leave You: A Novelby Jonathan Tropper
Plume; Published: 2010-07-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.89
Price in other shops:
The Book of Joe: A Novelby Jonathan Tropper
Bantam; Published: 2005-01-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.56
Price in other shops: