Plan B [Gen X Book Review]

By Chris

Contributing Writer

Blog: Junkdrawer67

I just finished reading this novel, Plan B, by Jonathan Tropper. It’s about a group of old college friends, GenXers turning thirty, who get together and contemplate the meaning of their lives, or lack thereof. It’s kind of like the book version of that Boomer film, The Big Chill.

The difference: in Plan B the reason the friends gather, in this case a cottage on a lake in upstate New York, is to help their friend Jack, a big time movie star, kind of like the Tom Berenger character in The Big Chill except he’s a TV star, kick his drug addiction, which is sort of like the William Hurt character, who does drugs but doesn’t really seem addicted.

Another significant difference is that in The Big Chill the characters are closer to 40, but perhaps I’m mistaken. And of course, their reason for gathering is because one of their friend’s has committed suicide. Plus some of them are married with children. None of the characters in Plan B are married, which is one of the major themes of the story.

This book was originally published in 2000, and since it was probably written about a year or two before that the characters would all be approximately my age, which makes complete sense because as I read this book I identified strongly with much of the angst that the different characters were experiencing. I remember feeling as if I could have written this book, or maybe it is more accurate to say that I wished that I had written it. It’s funny and heartfelt. And it’s told in first person by the want to be writer in the group, so… Plus there are plenty of pop culture references to movies and TV and music, without it being forced or overdone. In fact, a Darth Vader mask plays a significant role in the plot.

It got me thinking about when I turned thirty. And as I recall it I did not go through any kind of crisis, wondering what my life meant and where was I headed blah blah blah. I was still living in Kalamazoo at the time, an adjunct English instructor at Western Michigan University. However, I did turn down teaching work for the following school year because I was worried that I’d wake up one day and I’d be 50 and I’d still be teaching part-time, and then what? So perhaps there was a bit of that life contemplation thing going on. I don’t really remember reflecting on it too much. I think that may have been that I just wanted to be moving on, you know.

Oh. I almost forgot to mention that in the book the group of friends actually kidnaps their friend, Jack, and haul him off to the cottage. One of them is a doctor and he injects him with Thorazine, I think it is. Of course, it’s utterly ridiculous. Who would really do such a thing? But I liked the slap-stick hi-jinx quality of it. Again, it was funny.

The prose is very readable. And in the end all is pretty much right with the world, which normally I’d scoff at but I accepted here. In fact, I kind of liked it. Who knows? Perhaps I’m going a little soft in my old age.

Another novel similar to this one, i.e. about GenXers turning thirty and wondering where their lives are headed, but that strikes a distinctly different tone is Claire Messud’ The Emperor’s Children, an excellent novel that I enjoyed very much when I read it, although the ending didn’t quite satisfy me. I won’t ruin it here.

This was not the first Jonathan Tropper book that I’d read. The first one was entitled The Book of Joe. I’ve also read This is Where I Leave You, which according to the back cover of Plan B is being made into a movie. Along with Plan B I’d recommend all three of these books. And I suspect that his other two novels will be just as entertaining, and I’m looking forward to reading them.