One of my friends frequently boasts, “my family is more dysfunctional than your family.” Judd Foxman's family could put most of our families out of the running.

Judd, his brothers and sister, along with various assorted significant and not-so-significant others, have come home to join their mother and sit Shiva to honor their father's last request, surprising because their father didn't believe in God. The family has not been able to spend more than a few hours together without major issues, so seven days of Shiva is a trial for all of them. Judd, newly separated, sums up the failure: “My marriage ends the way these things do: with paramedics and cheesecake.”

The characters are quirky, the plot is essentially “we messed up, what are we going to do next to mess up more?”, there is plenty of bad language and sex, and everyone seems seriously damaged, usually because of their own poor decisions. Still, you can't help but root for all of them to eventually do the right thing, find the right path, forgive themselves and one another. Whether they find it or not is for the reader to decide. Well written and a very good book. ( )

This book is equal parts hilarity and heartbreak, full of gifted observations of what it means to struggle to connect to our families, ourselves and to romantic partners. The slapsticky gimmicks can be a little much, but Tropper has a way of turning the most ridiculous gag into a wholly real moment of wisdom that you're mostly able to immediately forgive him for the comic cliches. In general, it feels like Tropper has major Hollywood screenwriter ambitions, and this gets in the way of his talent as a novelist, but this book is definitely worth plowing through the cliched cinematic moments to get to the wise, often stunning observations. ( )

This book has passages wherein you laugh right out loud, and keep right on laughing until you side hurts. And, then again, there are passages where the story line becomes repetitive, redundant, and the silly phrases fall flat.

Judd Foxman and his family are "dysfunctional" to the max. His successful mother wrote a best selling novel about child rearing. Like some psychologists who tell others how to raise a family, she hasn't done such a great job herself.

Judd's siblings quarrel, get in fist fights, throw acerbic emotional verbal bombs at each other and judge harshly.

Judd's life is upside down after finding his wife in bed with his boss.

And now, this cast of characters is stuck together for seven days while sitting shiva for Judd's recently departed father.

The book started out well. It was fun to read, until I grew weary of the dysfunction. I felt the author didn't know when to quit. He could have ended 100 pages sooner.

I give it 2.5 stars. ( )

Tropper's style isn't for everyone but I find his wordiness and wry descriptions very entertaining. A family who doesn't communicate very well sitting shiva for seven days is bound to be funny. Contains a lot of profanity. Good guy lit. ( )

This is just an overall fun read. I found myself taking notes to use some of snarky comments I found inside this book. I had never heard of this author until I read a review of it in Entertainment Weekly. I am glad I glanced at it, since it turned out to be a fabulously wonderful book. The plot is a little far fetched, but it could really happen. I mean there are so many shock jocks in each city that you could just imagine one of them sleeping with his producer's wife, right? And then his wife gets pregnant and tells him the same day his father dies. All in all, a story about how much family can mess up your life at the same time as being the one thing that makes you sane. ( )