Customer Reviews

Everybody Has Everything

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At its core, "Everybody Has Everything" depicts the existential panic that ensues when trying to decide whether or not to have children. Ana, a lawyer on the path to partnership, and James, a TV personality and aspiring novelist, have undergone countless unsuccessful fertility treatments. Just as they begin to settle into their childless lives, their friends Marcus and Sarah are in a car accident that leaves Marcus dead and Sarah in a coma. Ana and James become guardians to their two-year-old son, Finn.

The sudden and shocking arrival of Finn creates both upheaval and joy in their lives. James, who loses his job and suffers from a fear of becoming obsolete at 43, takes to parenting quickly. James and Finn bond in a way that seems foreign to Ana, who never quite relaxes around Finn. Thus, Ana feels scrutinized by James and overwhelmed by expectations that she should just seamlessly adjust to being a mother. Her first night alone with Finn, she wonders, 'How is motherhood supposed to feel? Because she wasn't sure that it should feel like this, so much like terror.'

One can't scan a newspaper or magazine these days without seeing articles about the role of motherhood, making Onstad's new novel a timely read. She thoroughly examines how and why adults choose to parent, and what happens when you don't have a choice in the matter. Ana and James come alive convincingly in this impressive novel; their compelling agony and triumphs remain with the reader long after the book closes.

3.5 Star

Everybody has Everything has some poignant thoughts on life, love and marriage, but I found myself unable to connect to the two main characters. I could however relate to their relationship struggles which I found the most fascinating aspect of this novel and many of the relationship observations were bang on or made me sit back and think for a few moments before continuing.

Both main characters, Ana and James are deeply flawed, which made them interesting enough to read about, but I found them both really self-absorbed as well as not at all warm and loveable and I worried constantly about a child being handed over to their care. I found myself most drawn to their relationship, interested in each character's role in its demise and often wondered if it would survive the disruption of Finn's arrival. I also really enjoyed the exploration of Ana's fear of motherhood and her ambivalence toward children, which was different from many novels where women are portrayed as baby crazy. It was also interesting to watch James's ambivalence towards his marriage.

There was one stressful, heart breaking scene that really got me and lead to some rapid flipping of pages, but other than that, I bobbed along, not as invested as I hoped to be. The ending didn't sit well with me at all. I wanted things more clear, when there were left cloudy and ambivalent. There were also point of view changes that really threw me, and I had to re-read several passages over again to confirm who was speaking and how we went from one person to another, which I found detracted from the story.

Another plus to this novel is I that love reading novels where the setting is in my home town of Toronto, and I know exactly where the characters are walking around and the landmark references so I don't have to gloss over the details. I thought this one was skillfully done in that you would never really know where you were unless you lived there. And in no way does this setting detract if you didn't. It comes across as any city, with a few Torontoisms and neighbourhoods thrown in.

Overall, I enjoyed Everybody has Everything enough, but found myself unable to completely agree with the rave reviews out there, and there are plenty of them to be found. I would definitely read another by Katrina Onstad though!

Thank you to McClelland and Stewart for our review copy! All opinions are our own.

Katrina Onstad is a writer based in Toronto, and Everybody has Everything is the story of a couple who unexpectedly end up with a child.

The catch is that it is not their child: a couple with whom they are friends have been in a terrible car accident, with the husband dead, and the wife left in a coma. This has left their two-year-old son, Finn, at the hospital, injured but alive, and suddenly without parents or close relatives to look after him. Ana and James take him in.

" `Give him to me,' James whispered hoarsely, angry at the time between the now and the boy he needed to put to his chest, angry that no one had given him over sooner. He grabbed the bundle and My God, it was still warm, which meant he was alive - didn't it? And then something happened that was not of this earth, that was transporting, undenied. The bundle shook to life, let loose a howl never heard before, a howl from a place in the boy of all knowing, of the mines beneath the beneath, a sound of despair that rolled like a boulder over James. He held the boy closer, the boy who would soon be too big for this kind of holding, his legs dangling from James's torso, a sneaker on one foot, a dirty sock on the other, as if he had been running. The sticky black tar was not tar, James recognized finally, but blood. Blood in Finn's blonde hair that James was weeping into, keening along with him but holding on, holding him, the unbreakable, undroppable boy."

Without intending it, the addition of Finn destabilizes the unspoken knife's-edge entente, the precarious domestic balance that Ana and James had established. Ana, successful in her career and animated by a strong desire for control, is not ready to be redefined as a `mother' against her will; James, failing in his career, finds new, deeper meaning in life with the addition of Finn.

As seen in the passage above, Onstad's writing is simply a beauty to behold. She is a fantastically accomplished writer, and regardless of how you feel about the characters she portrays, her agility and precision with words is often breathtaking.

Five stars!

This book looks better than it is..I have found it is a bit slow. Upside is that it is neat to read a book based in Toronto.

I loved this book. I was hooked from the beginning and found the characters compelling and the story fascinating. Highly recommended!