Jonathan Tropper: Office Hours with Google Play

a very pleased to be here today talking

with Jonathan Tropper about his new

novel one last thing before I go

Jonathan thank you for coming to talk to

us thank you for having me I'm glad to

be here so tell me a little bit about

this novel this is your sixth novel yes

and I've you know I've heard some of

your earlier books I think this one is

very was different for me it had a

gravity to it that that was that's

different from some of your earlier

books so how did you arrive at the

subject here and this particular

character the gravity kind of took me by

surprise I generally set out you know to

write novels that are you know that do

deal with pretty heavy issues generally

death and relationships family dynamics

and I but I do try to do it in a

light-hearted way and that that was my

intention when I started writing this

book but gradually as I got into the

head of this character who really had

had so much regret in his life and so

many things he couldn't so many mistakes

that he could not correct I had never

really written about someone who so past

the point of redemption most of my

characters things go terribly wrong but

the book is about them correcting that

and and this guy we were meeting him at

a later point in his life where those

mistakes had been made years ago and he

couldn't correct them and I guess once I

got into his head I started feeling that

kind of regret and so it became a deeper

and more textured study of this kind of

character so you know while there's

still a lot of comedy in the book his

journey is definitely a darker journey

and and I think that's what I used the

book with a little more gravity than the

others and it's very interesting

portrait of a man sort of at that

midlife point who's very you know he's

very honest with himself and honest

about what he how he's feeling and where

he's at and I think it makes him very

real and in spite of the fact that you

know the sort of the burden of his of

his past and his choices so weighs so

heavily upon him I think that

he he stands up to it in a way that I I

think makes the novel very interesting

you're one of the things that I found

appealing about writing this character

of silver is that he's reached a point

where he doesn't even have pretensions

anymore it's so clear if you just look

at him and you know there's this crappy

apartment he lives in this the the fact

that he was lunch uh you know something

of a rock star now he plays in a

third-rate wedding band the fact that

he's estranged from his daughter he's

estranged from his ex-wife he's he's

lost touch with his family even it's he

really has nothing and when you reach

that point there's no longer any denial

there's no longer any posing and trying

to seem like you have more than you have

he he's just he's one of the lonely

people and that's who he is and that's

how he identifies himself so there's no

there's no there's no delusions and you

know how do you know when we meet him at

that point where he's you know he's just

sort of it at the baseline he has in

fact a life-or-death decision yeah

before him and he he he goes against the

grain did you see that happening with

him I mean is that that was always the

plan of the book was you know it's

always just assumed you know that you're

going to fight for your life whatever

whether it's cancer whether it's a heart

defect whether it's a bullet you know

whatever it is that no matter what's

going on in your life you're going to

just fight to keep living which to me is

is a very human train and it's both an

instinct and it has to do I think with

hope that you know we all no matter

what's going on in our lives we all

believe our lives are worth living and I

wanted to deal with a guy who actually

may not believe that and none of his

family and none of his friends can

believe that he really doesn't believe

that but here's a guy who really isn't

sure he wants to save his own life and

the idea that he makes this decision not

to have the life-saving operation and

nobody else can understand it but but

we're in his head and we do understand

that he might be ready to check out now

rather than

continue living this empty life and what

do you think about that I mean is he is

it brave to you or is it is it I don't

thank for it well I don't think it's

brave because the brave thing is to you

know to keep going and to try to fix

your life and try to do better to me I

think what it is is he's giving himself

a deadline he's saying these are the

things I've done wrong these are the

things i need to be better at and if I

die before I get them done and I don't

deserve to live and if I get them done

then maybe I'll consider the operation

but he's basically saying you know this

is my wake-up call and I'm going to look

death in the eye while I try to fix

these things how do you kind of process

how that decision impacts the people

around him the people that you that he

feels sort of a drift from that he's

that he's people he failed in his life

his wife and his daughter like that

decision kind of lights a fire under

them and it in a unique way yeah I mean

and that that's the whole thing is no

matter how a strange you are from

somebody we all kind of throw all of our

our personal issues aside when it gets

to life and death I mean there's very

few family members who won't show up for

you in a time of crisis regardless of of

what you've been through so they do show

up for him because they feel connected

to him but they're also deeply

frustrated by his behavior over the last

seven years and now his refusal to to

sort of save his own life and so it's

this weird tension that exists in this

family where they've all come together

to try to help him but he's not

interested in being helped and they're

not really interested in being there

it's just it's it's just weird dynamic

where they were all sort of thrown

together by this you know this sort of

radical decision he's made to to not

save his life and to me I mean at

certain points and I think some of the

humor of the story helps drive this home

for me

he is on this he's done this weird sort

of George Bailey trip like he thought

George Bailey but he's in that crisis of

you know what if I you're the second

person who said George going to be an

end I'd never occurred to me I mean he's

not that's why I mean it's sort of a

slant connection right because he's not

he's not that guy but in certain moments

and certainly in the desperation of that

he's staring down the barrel of it but

the way that you treat his journey is

really clever and I think that it raises

the him up from where we first meet him

and you know when I started reading a

psycho my goodness like how are we gonna

come out of this and he really he really

does have an interesting path well

there's an honesty to him that I enjoyed

writing that you know he's like like I

said before he's reached this point

where you know we all lie to ourselves

we all tell ourselves if I can just do

this things will get better if I could

just do that things will go better and

he's just past the point of lying to

himself and he's just he knows this is

what his life is and then as he starts

having these mini strokes because of his

heart situation that forces him to be

not just honest with himself but honest

with other people and and it creates

this dynamic where this is what happens

when we actually tell the truth to each

other which we don't generally do so I

was interested in that what do you think

he was like you know at 24 like where

did he go wrong like well I think where

he went wrong in this particular case

was you know he was a drummer he was a

rock star and he he tasted Fame I mean

his band had this one hit that made them

superstars and then the whole thing fell

apart really quickly and once you've

been there nothing else seems good

enough again and and he just always

believed he was going to get back there

but of course he never did and so his

whole regular life where he had so many

things to appreciate he just stopped

appreciating them because he had once

been a rocket and and he never recovered

from that it's like the thing that he

can't let go up yeah and it's it's just

like yeah he just he lost the ability to

appreciate things like a wife and a

daughter and

and a family and it was all about being

a superstar and he was a superstar so

briefly was just like one second but

that one second colored everything

afterwards how do you think that male

readers will react to true and the way

that he I think they'll appreciate the

reins I think they'll appreciate some of

the stuff he says I mean he's really

sort of I was uncomfortable writing some

of the stuff he says I mean he says this

stuff many men sometimes think without

saying and you know the way he assesses

those college girls who hang out at the

swimming pool the way he assesses his

own sexuality the way he assesses his uh

his place on the flick on the dating

food chain and you know he's he's

brutally honest with himself but he's

also brutally honest about the women and

about the people around him and and

there's something really fun about being

with somebody who has no filter and I

has absolutely no filter so you've done

I just wanted to switch topic just

quickly you've done some writing for for

TV and film and you're just developing a

news a new series yeah we're shooting it

actually it's it's developed its

developed so tell me tell me a little

bit more about that our television show

is for HBO cinemax it's called banshee

and it's very different from my books

and say it's a one-hour drama very much

in the spirit of david cronenberg er the

Coen brothers uh Bob's you know a lot of

a lot of violence a lot of sexuality

gangsters that kind of thing set in

modern-day Pennsylvania and that's

something we're shooting 10 episodes now

for Cinemax produced by HBO and just

using a different muscle there's a lot

of fun and I recently finished adapting

my last book this is where I leave you

for Warner Brothers and that's actually

scheduled to start shooting this

September in New York and I'm very

excited about that how was that

experience writing for screen versus oh

it's just a different like I said it's a

way to diversify your mind creatively

it's a very different kind of writing

this book one last thing before I go is

just an option by paramount and I'll be

writing the screenplay for that as well

and

it's a way to kind of take the story

you've written as a novel and tell a new

story on film it's a it's different and

it's just it's if you just sit and write

prose all day at least I I'll just I'll

burn out from that it's fun to be able

to put that aside and then open up final

draft and start writing scenes yeah do

you get to write more female characters

like it when you're working in this new

shower yeah we have it we have a really

strong female lead and yeah i mean my

books do tend to generally have a male

protagonist only because that that's

what comes naturally but but i do try to

spend a lot of time on the female

characters in the book and make sure

that they're that they're real humans

and not just there to be the female

character and right you know I've been

told sometimes I've been really

successful I didn't i've been told

sometimes I haven't been and you know

you just keep trying right in 601 some

people yeah get it some people tell you

how you just keep going well thank you

for being here today I'm sorry good cock

thank you for having me