I just finished the most beautiful book, in a long time since I started reading again, by Jonathan Tropper.
How to Talk to a Widower.
Taken from the back cover of the book:
When Doug Parker married Hailey – beautiful, smart and ten years older – he left his carefree Manhattan life behind to live with her and her teenaged son Russ in a quiet Westchester community. Three years later, Hailey has been dead for a year, and Doug, a widower at 29, wants nothing more than to drown himself in self-pity and Jack Daniels. But his family has other ideas…
Russ, furious with Doug for not adopting him after Hailey died, is getting into increasingly serious trouble on a daily basis. Claire, Doug’s irrepressible and pregnant twin sister, has just left her husband and moved in with Doug, determined to rouse him from his grieving stupor. Then there’s younger sister Debbie, engaged to Doug’s ex-best friend and maniacally determined to pull off the perfect wedding at any cost.
Soon, Doug finds himself forging a new relationship with Russ, reconnecting with his own eccentric nuclear family, and reluctantly 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 hilarious swath of sexual missteps and escalating chaos across the suburban landscape.
Though it is not a deep thought provoking kind of book (it is humour-fiction after all), I haven’t read anything like this since, since I can ever remember.
It was by chance I picked up this book from the library. It was spanking new although I am the third person borrowing it.
The book was beautifully written.
Jonathan writes above love so deep and moving. He wrote of how much Doug loved his wife Hailey. It really makes every girl wanting a man who loves her as much as Doug.
Though, some may argue that maybe it is written from the perspective of loss. That when you lose someone you tend to project love more than you ever had. Possibly, but there are many references of how he loved her, even when she was alive.
Each time the author write about Doug’s feelings - love, hate, anger, loss or mind displacement, it is so real and vivid. You feel so much in character.
Yes, I know that is possibly what reading a book is about.
The various characters in the story each are interesting, even the smallest role.
I love all the characters. I love how the story develops. Though there are parts that you can somewhat predict the next scene or ending, most of it end up not what you expect it would be.
Every now and then a twist is add in here and slot in there.
There are many well written sentences.
There are many parts that make you laugh.
There are parts that make you feel sorry for the loss. The parts that make you feel the loss and the pain as well.
There are parts that just make you go ‘awww…’
What makes it a very interesting read is that all this is written by a man!
Some may think that this is just gayness showing but I don’t think it has anything to do with that. Why can’t men write or express love so detailed and beautiful if they can?
It is a very gripping book. You don’t want to put it down. For the first time I stayed awake throughout my three hour journey returning from Aberdeen.
I know this book shouldn’t fall into the hands of someone sappy like me. But it is not a sappy sappy kind of book. It has machoness and character. And as sappy as the whole book seems to be, I only cried one part.
And I can’t remember the last book if any ever made me cried.
I can read this book again and again. And if you love love story and sappiness, I suggest you read this book.
It is so good that I’m going to get my own copy.
How to Talk to a Widower.
Taken from the back cover of the book:
When Doug Parker married Hailey – beautiful, smart and ten years older – he left his carefree Manhattan life behind to live with her and her teenaged son Russ in a quiet Westchester community. Three years later, Hailey has been dead for a year, and Doug, a widower at 29, wants nothing more than to drown himself in self-pity and Jack Daniels. But his family has other ideas…
Russ, furious with Doug for not adopting him after Hailey died, is getting into increasingly serious trouble on a daily basis. Claire, Doug’s irrepressible and pregnant twin sister, has just left her husband and moved in with Doug, determined to rouse him from his grieving stupor. Then there’s younger sister Debbie, engaged to Doug’s ex-best friend and maniacally determined to pull off the perfect wedding at any cost.
Soon, Doug finds himself forging a new relationship with Russ, reconnecting with his own eccentric nuclear family, and reluctantly 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 hilarious swath of sexual missteps and escalating chaos across the suburban landscape.
Though it is not a deep thought provoking kind of book (it is humour-fiction after all), I haven’t read anything like this since, since I can ever remember.
It was by chance I picked up this book from the library. It was spanking new although I am the third person borrowing it.
The book was beautifully written.
Jonathan writes above love so deep and moving. He wrote of how much Doug loved his wife Hailey. It really makes every girl wanting a man who loves her as much as Doug.
Though, some may argue that maybe it is written from the perspective of loss. That when you lose someone you tend to project love more than you ever had. Possibly, but there are many references of how he loved her, even when she was alive.
Each time the author write about Doug’s feelings - love, hate, anger, loss or mind displacement, it is so real and vivid. You feel so much in character.
Yes, I know that is possibly what reading a book is about.
The various characters in the story each are interesting, even the smallest role.
I love all the characters. I love how the story develops. Though there are parts that you can somewhat predict the next scene or ending, most of it end up not what you expect it would be.
Every now and then a twist is add in here and slot in there.
There are many well written sentences.
There are many parts that make you laugh.
There are parts that make you feel sorry for the loss. The parts that make you feel the loss and the pain as well.
There are parts that just make you go ‘awww…’
What makes it a very interesting read is that all this is written by a man!
Some may think that this is just gayness showing but I don’t think it has anything to do with that. Why can’t men write or express love so detailed and beautiful if they can?
It is a very gripping book. You don’t want to put it down. For the first time I stayed awake throughout my three hour journey returning from Aberdeen.
I know this book shouldn’t fall into the hands of someone sappy like me. But it is not a sappy sappy kind of book. It has machoness and character. And as sappy as the whole book seems to be, I only cried one part.
And I can’t remember the last book if any ever made me cried.
I can read this book again and again. And if you love love story and sappiness, I suggest you read this book.
It is so good that I’m going to get my own copy.
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