Plan B: A Novel

This was the December book picked by my book club! We wanted to read something a little less serious and heavy compared to some of the last books we have read! I really enjoyed this book! It was funny and had a great storyline. While I think some of it was a stretch, it was still entertaining. I’m looking forward to reading more books by Jonathan Tropper!

Tropper's first novel is worth reading in depth. The writing is raw compared to his later works, but that is part of its appeal. No polish stands between the story's themes and the reader. And that's a good thing.The themes are multiple, intertwined and universal. Friendship, relationships, coming of age (the narrator does this), complexities of trying to make love work - these are braided together expertly. The characters are fleshed out and become real and engaging.My sole problem with the book is that too much is wrapped up at the end. We see people resolving or living with their issues. Tropper's later books do not do this. In the later books we are left with unresolved issues, with people's lives in flux, and that is part of their appeal. I can imagine as fascinating a follow-on as I wish.

I'm an ambivalent fan of Jonathon Tropper. His pop culture references, semi-cynical banter, and emotional beats can get tiresome (Tropper can make Chuck Klosterman look like David Foster Wallace). Still, I find the sad-sack protagonists both endearing and relatable, and his enjoyable prose keeps me coming back to his books. Plan B, his debut novel, is not his best, but it's still an interesting snapshot of the quarter life crisis aged fifteen years.Five friends (a major movie star, a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher, and a magazine writer) struggle with the angst of turning thirty and not having their personal lives completely figured out. Their wildly successful careers notwithstanding, this cast of characters would blend comfortable into a 2013 crowd of millenials. The result is a story that is humorously dated, but still relevant. For a modern retelling, references would need to be updated (replace the X-Files with Game of Thrones) and the plot would need to be rewritten to account for the ubiquity of cell-phones and the twitter-verse.

Having read one other book by this author, I thought I'd give this one a try and see if my enjoyment of his writing style and content was merely a fluke. It wasn't. This was a quick, light and often bittersweet read about friends who realize they're at a turning point in their lives and at the same time one of their group is in trouble. Saving him presents as an opportunity to help themselves, inadvertently, and who among us would pass up that kind of opportunity, right? Guess I'll keep reading this author...see what else he's bringing to the table. I would definitely recommend this book...I laughed, I didn't exactly cry but I was definitely moved. Not too shabby...

This is Jonathan Tropper’s fort novel, and some readers were disappointed with it, but I found it entertaining. A little slow at first but the pace picked up as the characters developed, minor characters showed up and the plot thickened. I’d put this in the category of commercial rather than literary fiction, and enjoyed the story and its ending

I enjoyed this book from beginning to end, with no lulls in between. Jonathan Tropper's style of writing is so easy to read and makes the reader feel like he's in the inner circle of the thought processes of the main character(s). Plan B is the story of a circle of friends, male and female, who form a plan to save a friend from self destruction via drugs, at the risk jeopardizing their own futures. Sounds heavy, but it is written with a light and sometimes funny heart. The book leaves you feeling good. And when you're done with it, get The Book of Joe, because if you like Plan B, you're gonna love-LOVE The Book of Joe. For insight purposes of this review, a few of my favorite authors are James Patterson, John Sanford, Anita Shreve, Sue Monk Kidd, Robert B. Parker, Jodi Picoult, etc.

This was my first Jonathan Tropper book and I am tearing my way through the rest of them as fast as I can. While parts of the book seem highly unlikely, the underlying friendships is what stood out to me the most. Reading the conversations and issues, I realized that this could easily have been my friends and I. Again, the entire story isn't plausible, but I don't want my fiction to be realistic. I can't wait to read the rest of his books!

Plan B was Jonathan Tropper's first published book, and it shows. His later works have an effortless poignancy wrapped in an eminently readable prose package. They are subtle and witty and strike a perfect balance between humor and conflict. This book just doesn't quite reach those highs. While his characters are as always quite well defined and engaging, the themes of the book are hit on the head a bit too directly. The story isn't as well plotted and the tension drops significantly about two-thirds of the way through the story. It also resolves itself a bit too tidily. Jonathan Tropper is one of the best writers out there in this genre. I highly recommend reading him in reverse chronological order.

The book was a little tatty but it was a lot cheaper than buying new. Jonathan Tropper at his best great sense if humour really enjoyed the book.

"Plan B" ist ein sehr warmherziger, intelligenter uns s e h r spannender Roman, in dem es eigentlich keine Siegertypen gibt. Ich habe ihn verschlungen.

Encore un superbe livre de Jonathan Trooper... je crois que c'est son premier mais tous les autres sont excellentsaussi , remplis d'humour et très bien écrits !

Another great book by Jonathan Tropper!

excellent read