Judd Foxman’s life is in shambles. He’s in his late thirties when he finds himself living in a moldy basement apartment, with no job, and separated from his wife, who is having an affair, with his now ex-boss Wade, a macho talk radio host. If things weren’t already bad enough, Judd finds out that his father has just died, forcing Judd and his siblings to head back home to fulfill his father’s dying wish of having his four children sit shivah for seven days.
Unhappy as he is, Judd can take some comfort in the fact that the rest of the Foxman clan is just as screwed up as he is. His older brother Paul, once a gifted athlete, still blames Judd for the dog attack that brought his baseball career to a halt. Paul’s wife Alice is so eager to get pregnant that she makes Judd an indecent proposal any sensible brother-in-law would refuse. His sister Wendy is married to a self-absorbed jerk and still carries a torch for her childhood sweetheart Horry, who suffered permanent brain injury in a college bar fight. And the youngest Phillip shows up to the funeral in a Ferrari with his much older life coach/girlfriend Tracy in tow. Presiding over shivah is their mother, Hillary, a famous parenting expert despite her own children’s issues.
What transpires over the course of the week is a Foxman family reunion like no other. Fistfights, arguments, laugh-out-loud funny family moments, and a parade of characters offering their sympathies and enormous amounts of food sets the stage for each member of the Foxman family to have unexpected epiphanies about their own lives and each other.
Equal parts family drama and belated coming of age story, This is Where I You is a raw page-turning unabashed portrayal of one family’s struggle to cope. Check out this engaging yet moving family drama and many more like it at the Sioux City Public Library.
