So it's probably not fair to pick on Everything Changes: A Novel . Most authors can be expected to grow and evolve the more they write, so I don't feel great about comparing a 2006 novel to a 2010 work. But I will anyway: Everything Changes: A Novel shows great promise without ever quite delivering.
Everything Changes: A Novel follows wonder boy Zachary King, who holds a steady well-paying job, is engaged to a woman way out of his league, and seems to be the steady rock in his family. Zach has spent much of his life trying to not be his father Norm, who abandoned the family 20 years earlier, so he's understandably underwhelmed by Daddy Dearest's reappearance. Zach is also dancing around his feelings for the widow of his best friend, who died in front of him two years prior. Zach is also peeing blood, which is generally a bad sign.
So there is a lot of personal upheaval, and epiphanies, and grand speeches, and madcap adventures. But I feel like the way Hope's parents do upon meeting Zach - essentially that he's fine for passing the time but that she can do better. I would recommend heading in the direction of Tropper's later works, although I 'll keep you posted on whether I'm wrong about the earlier stuff once I get to The Book of Joe: A Novel and Plan B .
