One Last Thing Before I Go

By: Jonathan Tropper

Narrated by: John Shea

Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

The best-selling author of This Is Where I Leave You returns with a hilarious and heart-rending tale about one family's struggle to reconnect.

You don't have to look very hard at Drew Silver to see that mistakes have been made. His fleeting fame as the drummer for a one-hit wonder rock band is nearly a decade behind him. He lives in the Versailles, an apartment building filled almost exclusively with divorced men like him, and makes a living playing in wedding bands. His ex-wife, Denise, is about to marry a guy Silver can't quite bring himself to hate. And his Princeton-bound teenage daughter, Casey, has just confided in him that she's pregnant - because Silver is the one she cares least about letting down.

So when he learns that his heart requires emergency, lifesaving surgery, Silver makes the radical decision to refuse the operation, choosing instead to use what little time he has left to repair his relationship with Casey, become a better man, and live in the moment, even if that moment isn't destined to last very long. As his exasperated family looks on, Silver grapples with the ultimate question of whether or not his own life is worth saving.

With the wedding looming and both Silver and Casey in crisis, this broken family struggles to come together, only to risk damaging each other even more. One Last Thing Before I Go is Jonathan Tropper at his funny, insightful, heartbreaking best.

©2012 Jonathan Tropper (P)2012 Penguin

Critic reviews

"Tropper’s characters are likably zany and fallible, and perhaps more important, funny. One Last Thing Before I Go is a poignant story about facing death and celebrating life, even when things seem well beyond repair." (Newsweek/The Daily Beast)

"The richly talented Tropper (This Is Where I Leave You) has created an acerbic, middle-aged lost soul who will ultimately illuminate the reasons we stick around on this lopsided planet despite significant temptation to let it go. Readers will love Silver and want to throttle him in equal measure. Eminently quotable, hilariously funny, and emotionally draining, this arresting tour de force will entertain well after the book is done." (Library Journal)

"...a bristling, witty tale of woe that'll make you appreciate whatever good things, no matter how few, have come your way." (Entertainment Weekly)

A great exploration...

Jonathan Tropper is one of the great explorers of the beauty and bitterness of life and family, especially from the male perspective.

The narration is pretty bad

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator's voice sounds old and raspy. It's really annoying, and doesn't allow you to live the character like the narrator does for This is Where I Leave You. The other frustrating thing is most of the time he's really quiet so you have to turn the volume way up and then all the sudden he gets really loud for a second and hurts your ears. I found myself playing with the volume button over and over again.

I hate the narrator.

Hilarious

Drew Silver passes out and wakes in the hospital to learn he must undergo emergency surgery or die. He decides against the surgery. The story follows Silver, a former rock star, over the course of the following week as he learns his teen-aged daughter is pregnant and we learn that he is still madly in love with his ex-wife who is about to marry his doctor. Silver realizes time has moved too fast, and at the same time not at all. Like the universe had been on pause. So, a lot of serious stuff. Broken heart literally, broken heart figuratively, and an unplanned pregnancy. And it is told in the form of a sitcom. It is hilarious. I have never read a comedy before. The book gives you some things to think about in your own life and offers a laugh. Another reader mentioned that the book gets off to a slow start, and I agree. Didn’t know if I would continue, but after about an hour it really gets going. Stick with it.

Slow to start but worth it.

The book wasn't quite what I expected. I did find it very slow at the beginning it did pick up and actually turned out to be a rather interesting book with a lot of story turns and plots and twists it was funny and heartwarming although I didn't particularly enjoy the ending hope you enjoy the read.

Wonderful

What made the experience of listening to One Last Thing Before I Go the most enjoyable?

The richness and brokenness of the characters.

Which scene was your favorite?

Any scene where the main character doesn't realize he's speaking out loud. I can just feel the humiliation when he realizes it and the wistfulness about not being able to say what one really feels.

Poppa Can You Hear Me?

Talk about a heartbreaking "Where's my daddy" story. I completely fell in love with this book and John Shea!

Ok.

Took me a long time to get through but decent. A little slow at first and it felt like it was a little redundant too but very well-written.

Narration distracts from a good story

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I did enjoy the story and characters very much. Jonathan Tropper is gifted at creating characters who, though flawed, are also compelling. I found it easy to root for Drew Silver. The story kept me engaged, the dialog is witty and realistic, and even the lesser characters are well-drawn and interesting.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of John Shea?

I found John Shea's narration aggravating and very distracting from the story. It was like listening to Captain Kirk with a pack-a-day smoking habit. The gravely, raspy voice I could handle, although I didn't love it -- it's a bit weird when narrating an 18-year-old girl, but managing every character convincingly is a challenge with any audiobook. The part I couldn't get past was his tendency to deliver. Every. Line. With strange, seemingly...irrational pauses. I suppose it was intended to add drama, but it was just extraordinarily distracting. It interrupted the narrative flow and made for strange interpretation, giving emphasis to odd points in sentences. It was a lot. Like. Captain. Kirk. narrating a book... about a MAN. And... His DAUGHTER. If I could recast the narrator, I would choose Kristoffer Tabori, because he is my all-time favorite and capable of narrating a wide variety of characters with easy diversity.

Was One Last Thing Before I Go worth the listening time?

I think I would recommend reading the book instead, since I found the listening experience strange.

Love this book

I thought this was a funny and somewhat sad story

John Shea was perfect doing the narration

Tropper is always good for a treacly read

I would deny it if someone I know asked me, but just between us, I love this guy's books. They are slick, witty, superficial yet somehow meaningful in a Nicholas Sparks (but with an intellect) sort of way. I loved The Book of Joe and This is Where I Leave You. But what's up with these narrators? Are they just...affordable? Tropper deserves more than this. Scott Brick should have read all of his books. Tropper has earned that.