Suitabook

Thanks for the trouble

Tommy Wallach

Reading: Read alongside the young person rather than treating the mysteries as puzzles requiring one answer. Pause after major conversations about loss or mortality, and discuss how Parker’s fairy tales affect the boundary between truth and make-believe.
Themes: Living after loss: Parker has been silent for five years after his father’s death and meets Zelda while disengaged from school and ordinary plans. The story clearly presents connection as important to Parker’s movement towards living, but the extent to which it offers a broader answer to grief is unclear.
Mortality and time: Parker and Zelda contemplate how to use the time available, while Zelda claims to be far older than she appears and plans to spend her remaining money before dying. The novel appears to invite reflection rather than provide a simple answer about long life, full life or death.
Stories and reality: Parker writes fairy tales and short stories, and the narrative asks readers to judge what is real and what is make-believe. Storytelling seems to be both a structural device and a way of exploring how people understand their experiences.
Worth knowing: Consider whether the book’s romantic treatment of Zelda’s influence and Parker’s recovery feels sufficiently balanced. Its presentation of grief, mortality and a character’s planned death may merit a check-in afterwards.