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Book Review of The Book of Joe

The Book of Joe
The Book of Joe
Author: Jonathan Tropper
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Paperback
danelleb avatar reviewed on + 19 more book reviews


Joe Goffman has returned to his small Connecticut hometown because his father is in the hospital in a coma. Joe hasn't been back in 17 years and he isn't exactly welcomed home. You see, he wrote a book that was turned into a movie which was all about his senior year in high school - the summer of 1986. And though Joe insists his book is a work of fiction, there's a lot of truth to the stories and characters that it contains. Small towns are rife with secrets and Joe has gone and spilled the beans to the whole world - with some added embellishments. So it's no surprise that he's returned to a town where angry book club members throw his books at his father's house, he's beat up by some of the basketball players of years past, and his car is systematically vandalized.

And yet, he stays. Joe has spent the past 17+ years trying to forget about where he came from, but in coming home he can't stop thinking about it.

Equal parts funny and sad, it's written in Tropper's style of wry humor and touching descriptions; you can't help but stick with it and watch Joe (finally) grow up.


Labor Day crept in with the stealth of a cat burglar in the dead of night, and when we woke up, summer had been stolen right out from under us. (p.77)