Everything Matters!: A Novel: Amazon.ca: Ron Currie Jr.: Books

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Review

" Like Kurt Vonnegut, Currie understands that . . . humor is a more powerful salt than screed."
-San Francisco Chronicle

"Mr. Currie is a startlingly talented writer whose book will pay no heed to ordinary narrative conventions.... He survives the inevitable, apt comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and writes in a tenderly mordant voice of his own.... Throughout the story there is the sheer delight of Mr. Currie's fresh, joltingly funny imagery.... Above all "Everything Matters!" radiates writerly confidence. The excitement that drives the reader from page to page is not about the characters. It's about seeing what Mr. Currie will try next."
--Janet Maslin, New York Times

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Book Description

"Startlingly talented . . . he survives the inevitable, apt comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and writes in a tenderly mordant voice all his own." -Janet Maslin, The New York Times

In this novel rich in character, Junior Thibodeau grows up in rural Maine in a time of Atari, baseball cards, pop Catholicism, and cocaine. He also knows something no one else knows-neither his exalted parents, nor his baseball-savant brother, nor the love of his life (she doesn't believe him anyway): The world will end when he is thirty-six. While Junior searches for meaning in a doomed world, his loved ones tell an all-American family saga of fathers and sons, blinding romance, lost love, and reconciliation-culminating in one final triumph that reconfigures the universe. A tour de force of storytelling, Everything Matters! is a genre-bending potpourri of alternative history, sci-fi, and the great American tale in the tradition of John Irving and Margaret Atwood.

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Customer Reviews

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4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!, Aug 24 2011

By

Rachel - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everything Matters!: A Novel (Paperback)

Once I picked this book up, I was unable to put it down until I had finished it. I enjoyed every aspect of the book from the story line, to the underlining themes I so often think about myself. The plot of the novel is simple, but the author is able to make every detail of the book relatable to the reader. The book is written from many of the characters view points which allows the reader to bond and connect with each individual character. The story is a combination science fiction, human nature, and philosophy.

If you are often someone who wonders is there really a point to anything at all? this is the book for you or if you just want a page turner with lots of twists and turns, this is also the book for you!

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4.0 out of 5 stars Wow., Sep 22 2009

By

Schmadrian - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Everything Matters!: A Novel (Hardcover)

Now, I know that word tends to be my fall-back summation when I'm really, really gassed by a novel. Or, more specifically, by what a novelist has done. The 'oomph' the effort shows the writer possesses. It can be in the way they use words, they way they construct their tale...or it can be with the dynamic force they exert, constructing something that just cannot be denied.

That's what Ron Currie, Jr. has done with 'Everything Matters!' He made me mutter 'Wow'. He scored 'A hit! A palpable hit!' many times over, he impressed the Hell out of me, he made me aware of just how strong a writer's voice can be... He took me on an adventure with this tale, and throughout so very much of it, I was nodding...and grinning. (Sometimes, smirking.)

I'm biased: I like it when a writer grabs you by the throat and says 'Listen to what I have to tell you. I've a tale you don't want to miss, give me your full attention.' I love to be engaged by a writer. Or a musical performer. Or a director, an actor, an orator...a leader. Yes, I'm an opinionated S.O.B., but I also love being led. Especially when there's a fascinating destination. And the way the novel begins, the way Currie pins you up against the wall while he does what he does, you can't help but believe that the destination is, at the very least, going to be 'fascinating'. And *then* some.

That's not to say Currie gets it all right.

The multiple-part narrative points-of-view are interesting...but in the end, more an exercise in determination than anything else. (Albeit mostly completed successfully.) I didn't entirely like what he chose to focus on in the story; I felt there were some omissions and dropped balls. And the 'coda'? Well... I can think of a couple of other 'possibilities' that deserved attention; not sure why he chose the one he did. To be honest, this aspect of the novel really irked me.

Which is testimony to how impressed 'and entertained' I was by the rest of the effort.

Even greater stuff is due from Mr. Currie; fortunate are those who will be reading him in the years to come.

(Personal rating: 9/10)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com ^(beta)

Amazon.com: 3.7 out of 5 stars (77 customer reviews)

99 of 102 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning and remarkable novel, Jun 8 2009

By Monica J. Kern - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Everything Matters!: A Novel (Hardcover)

Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program

Each and every one of us walks around with our own personal sword of Damocles dangling over our heads, which we do our darnedest to forget. This book tackles the question of how we would react if we could ignore no longer the looming end of our existence. The protagonist, Junior, is singled out (for unnamed reasons) to receive the wisdom and prognostications of some omniscient entity or entities (God? Aliens? We are never told). Chief among the information given to Junior is the news that the Earth would be struck and destroyed by a large comet 36 years after his birth. The novel follows the story of Junior's life from multiple perspectives: the omniscient entity, Junior's mother, brother, girlfriend, father (who is the book's most sympathetic and heroic figure), and Junior himself. Most of the plot centers around Junior's desperate fight against destiny.

Without spoiling crucial aspects of the plot, I will say that at first I wished it had ended differently. I kept thinking about the book, though, throughout the night, and the next day, and the day after. I returned to it and read the final few chapters again. And, slowly, I began to appreciate the point uttered quite bluntly by the author on the last page yet which remains so terribly, terribly hard to accept: "...that there is no escape and never was, that from the moment two cells combined to become one they were doomed."

The beauty of this novel is that the author somehow manages to convey both the depressing and inescapable reality of our doom as well as the simultaneous truth we are also given the gift of life and the unspeakable beauty and joy that entails--and where everything *does* matter.

I am a voracious reader and read several books a week, of all genres. Most books I enjoy in a somewhat detached and absent-minded way. A very few move me to tears and stay with me well after I have finished reading them-- Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," "The Book Thief," "The Lovely Bones," "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time," "White Noise," and "A Prayer for Owen Meany," to name a few. This novel is another such book for me.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A short novel with big ideas, Jun 13 2009

By Michael Smith - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Everything Matters!: A Novel (Hardcover)

Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program

What if we knew without a doubt when life on earth would end. Also, what if we knew that destruction would come during our lifetime; how would we cope? The author deals with these situations in a fascinating way, ultimately even showing alternative solutions. Page by page we discover how one man deals with precognition and how it alters his life relationships before the end. In painful detail, we see how Junior Thibodeau deals with the impact of the fatal prophecy. Also, the plot is expanded through the eyes of his family and his girlfriend. Ultimately, without weakening the ending, Junior is given an almost impossible choice.

If you are looking for an action packed sci-fi novel or a biblical "Left behind" type story this is not for you. If you are looking for a solid story about interesting people making their way through a complicated world this might be for you. As a work of fiction knowing the ending could become tedious, however; the author gives us numerous story developments that keep us entertained till the end.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Possibilities, Jun 9 2009

By Stephen T. Hopkins - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Everything Matters!: A Novel (Hardcover)

Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program

Part of the natural order is that all things come to an end. Whether we like the idea or not, each of us will one day die. Ron Currie, Jr.'s new novel, Everything Matters!, explores the theme that we face an infinite number of choices in life, and those choices become connected with others, and have consequences that make a real difference, hence the title. Protagonist Junior Thibodeau hears voices and has precognition from infancy. He dreams with clarity and specificity that Earth will be destroyed by a comet on June 15, 2010. Junior's considerable intelligence leads him in one set of choices to save the world. Along the way he realizes that there is no way to avoid the tragedies of living: both the good and the bad matter. Deliverance or salvation comes from living, not from avoiding life. We will all die, most of us just don't know the date, so why would knowing the date make a difference in how we choose to live? Junior chooses another possible set of choices, and that approach to life also has consequences, both good and bad. Everything Matters! could be considered a philosophical novel and would provide for lively discussion by any book club. Junior could be compared to Jesus, and the ensuing "what would Jesus do?" conversation would be animated. Currie's characters are thoughtfully constructed, and his prose includes fine dialogue, vivid descriptions and remarkable creativity. Everything Matters! is a joy to read, and left me thinking and reflecting long after I turned the last page.

Rating: Four-star (Highly Recommended)

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