Like millions of other Americans, Zack King has the worst job in
the world. The hero of Jonathan Tropper's sparkling new romantic
comedy EVERYTHING CHANGES, Zack is a corporate middleman in the big
city, a cubicle prisoner, a man upon whom everyone can assess
blame. And, like millions of Americans in call centers, financial
giants, supply chain corporations, and "Office Space" cube farms,
Zack hates his job.

He explains: "…we spend our days making three kinds of phone
calls. We call our vendors to hound them about schedules and late
deliveries; we call our clients to reassure them that everything is
on schedule or to get blamed because it isn't; we call potential
clients and kiss the asses of the people who will one day blame us
for everything." And if that isn't enough drudgery to occupy a
workday in hell, there is Zack's everyman, middleman boss. "The
trick with Bill is to say as little as possible. He is notorious
for his long-winded lectures on salesmanship, and you never know
when a simple pleasantry might trigger a mini Dale Carnegie
seminar. … he believes that there is no problem that can't be
solved with a ten-minute PowerPoint presentation."

But the job is the least of Zack's problems. He's falling in love
with his late friend's wife, Tamara, and out of love with his own
fiancé, Hope; his struggling rock star brother is beginning a
downward spiral; his roommate, Jed, the dot.com millionaire, has
decided to drop out of life and just watch television; and Zack's
estranged father is loose on the streets of New York with a fistful
of Viagra. And there may be an even bigger problem. Enter the
mysterious stranger: a Nike swoosh-shaped shadow on one of Zack's
kidneys that just might be cancer.

Tropper, who wowed readers with THE BOOK OF JOE, treads
hysterically familiar territory in EVERYTHING CHANGES with his
theme of the neurotic, successful thirty-something leaving the city
to return home to try to settle his problems. The author's musical
narrative is vastly improved from his previously respectable
efforts, his fresh, authoritative voice smoothly and seamlessly
taking Zack on his wild journey. It is Tropper's vivid descriptions
of office life, in-love-with-the-other-woman imagery, the looming
loss of a good friend, Zack's Woody Allen internal dialogue, and
his flamboyant vignettes that never fail to delight, keeping
EVERYTHING CHANGES at a rapid-fire pace.

Zack, his engagement, his brother, friend, father, and mother, are
all at stagnant points in their lives, points that only have the
illusion of moving forward. It takes Norm King, the father everyone
has learned not to tolerate, to skip into town with his trail of
affairs and debts not far behind, to motivate those in Zack's world
to face the truth, get up off the couch, evolve, and --- most
importantly --- to forgive.

Tropper's latest effort is quite simply wonderful, wacky and
big-hearted, Elton John wig and all.