Everything Matters!: A Novel

The story of a man who was born with voices in his head that tell him things -- true things -- including the exact date and time of the upcoming end of the world. It's a strange and fascinating novel, well-written, and features some philosophical questions and answers that are thought-provoking without being too heavy-handed.

It's not entirely without flaws, though. For one thing... Well, there's a useful rule of thumb in speculative fiction that says that readers will give you one wildly unbelievable premise for free, assuming you do something interesting with it, but once they've granted you that indulgence it's unwise to ask for too much more. And, maybe two thirds of the way through, this one threw in a couple of additional show more implausibilities that caused my previously easy suspension of disbelief to snap pretty badly. That wasn't entirely fatal to my enjoyment, and it may be something that's unlikely to bother anybody but me, anyway. But that, along with perhaps some other much harder-to-put-a-finger-on issues, ultimately left me feeling that this book, which seems as if it could have been utterly terrific, is instead only good. show less

I feel like the author is trying to say something really meaningful here about living life to its fullest and resigning yourself to your fate rather than moaning about the shitty hand life has dealt you or whatever. But it all falls apart when he introduces time travel, nonsensical conspiracy theory, terrorist plots, an unhealthy obsession with baseball, and all sorts of totally groan-worthy nonsensical plot twists. Every character in the book is not just talented and amazing, they are THE MOST TALENTED AND AMAZING PEOPLE in their given field. The brother is the most amazing baseball player, the main character is the smartest person, the dad is just an all around great guy (who has anger issues, but it only shows up when he's mad at show more someone we root for him to beat up). Every character has to have some extreme trauma in their past. The writing blurs the line between engaging and self-indulgent mess, and ultimately falls hard into the latter category. Seriously, at the halfway mark this book falls apart to such an extreme degree that it's like the author suddenly had a stroke or something. What a massive pile of garbage this book ends up being. show less

REVIEW ALSO ON: http://bibliomantics.com/2012/12/21/happy-apocalypse-cassie-la-explodes-over-the...

Everything Matters is told from multiple perspectives of the Thibodeaux family: worrisome mother, workaholic father, drug addicted brother, insane uncle, savant Junior, the love of Junior’s life Amy and the omnipresent 2nd person narrator(s). I have yet to find a second person perspective so well written and so relevant to the narrative style since this book. Although Junot Diaz comes a close second, particularly in his newest short story collection This Is How You Lose Her.

Junior is the only person in a good deal of the novel who knows the world is going to end when he turns 36. He discovers this in utero when an omniscient voice tells show more him all about it. Did I mention this book is also slightly unbelievable in terms of plot? Well it is, there, I told you. The government eventually catches on and super genius Junior is brought in to help save the world. Like you do.

Even though it’s less realistic, Everything Matters has an incredibly uplifting if depressing message: everything matters. You probably got that from the title.

There are poignant points scattered throughout the novel where the omniscient narrators explain how the smallest thing could have the biggest impact. Think the butterfly effect, but on a more social level. This happens to person A which effects person B who does this to person C, etc. These were perhaps my favorite moments. I could have read a whole novel with this singular narrator, but it was an interesting change of pace to read the other POVs as well. Especially because if one sucked you didn’t have to read it for very long (coughBRANCHAPTERScough).

The main focus is on the importance of family over the end of the world, as in the end of the world should conceivably put what’s important into perspective. Junior ends up (without giving too much away) doing everything for his father, working to save him. In a giant plot twist toward the end of the novel (no, Junior is not Dan Humphrey), and a spectacularly depressing conclusion the whole purpose of the novel finally comes into perspective.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry… Just kidding, you’ll cry out all your tear ducts and you won’t laugh unless you’re a horrible, horrible person. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper. The whimpering of you as you cry yourself to sleep.

Just remember, in any apocalypse: Keep calm and carry on my wayward son. show less

Everything Matters is a novel centered around Junior, who knows (even before he is born) that the world is going to by a comet in the year 2010. Thus his whole life is centered around one questiuon: Does anything I do matter? Does anything AT ALL matter?
Well, the answer is right there in the title, but the beauty of Ron Currie's book lies in how he demonstrates WHY everything counts. This book builds literally toward global apocalypse, but really it's a small-scale book about love and family. We don't experience life on a cosmic scale, not really -- we feel what happens to us, and what happens to those we love. And on a personal level, is there really any difference between the end of the world as a whole and the end of your own life? show more Since you are surely going to die and be forgotten, does it make sense to even get up in the morning? Yes it does, Currie shows, because we have fathers, mothers, brothers, lovers, friends. We don't stop caring about them because we know they will die.
I'm speaking of the book in vague terms simply because I want other readers to encounter the characters on their own, and be moved by what happens to them. Currie gets compared to Vonnegut, but that comparison is not quite fair -- to Currie, who may not be as funny, but creates more flesh-and-blood people than Vonnegut ever did. Read this. show less

This book took me for quite a spin! Although initially a slow starter, starting at the birth of the main character (inspiringly named 'Junior') it's unique premise is that he knows exactly when the world will end. The rest of the book is him screwing up his entire life because of this knowledge and his way too high intelligence. (don't worry, it has a sort-of happy ending. Emphasis on the sort-of).

Aaaah such an interesting concept and so masterfully executed! I specifically liked the shifting perspectives; not just from first-persons around the plot, but also to the second-person! It's rare to find it in books (and I'm used to it from another media type) and done so well. The second person narratives were especially interesting because show more they tend to reappear when the protagonist disassociates himself by either drugs or alcohol that it would seem like he 'can't' narrate anymore.

Not totally sold on the ending though :/ I think he still could've done something in the end (and I didn't understand what was up with Ruby completely. Does she know as well?) show less

"Everything Matters!" tackles the question: how would a person live their lives with the knowledge, given to them before birth, that in 36 years all life on Earth will cease to exist? Given the ultimate outcome of life, whether by comet, car crash or natural death, do any of our actions really matter?

Told from the perspective of John Jr., or Junior, the knowing protagonist, The Voice that bestowed the knowledge and then accompanies him through life, and various family members, the novel follows Junior's choices from birth to the time the cataclysmic event draws near.

There is a point in the novel where Junior's character becomes a bit unlikeable. There are also some plot twists that could feel a bit implausible, but Currie's strength as show more a writer is getting the reader to trust him enough to suspend disbelief. His witty and captivating writing style successfully smoothes over the rough parts. His voice is fresh, sometimes sardonic, and often deeply philosophical. In a novel with an obviously depressing theme, Currie manages to inject hope. It's a unique novel that remains engaging even through the minor bumps in the storyline, and entertains while provoking some interesting philosophical questions. show less

Summary: Junior Thibodeau has known, since he was in the womb, exactly how and when the world was going to end: by direct impact with a comet on June 15, 2010, at 3:44 p.m. - roughly thirty-six years after Junior's birth. Junior has voices in his head that tell him as much, along with other prophetic tidbits of information, much more than any child can or should have to handle. But, despite knowing that he'll never see his thirty-seventh birthday, Junior goes through life, coping as best he can with his cocaine-addict-turned-pro-ballplayer brother, his overprotective and alcoholic mother, his distant and ill father, and Amy, his childhood sweetheart and the love of his life. Junior is unique, but for all of his skills and knowledge, can show more he possibly prevent the inevitable? And if he can't, what difference do any of his other choices make, anyways?

Review: This book started out with two things very much in its favor: a fantastic premise, and an author who is very skilled at crafting dryly funny, slightly bizarre, immediately recognizable characters, situations, and scenes. And yet, in the final analysis, I felt like Everything Matters! came out as less than the sum of its parts. I'm not saying it was bad, by any means. I definitely enjoyed reading it. But I wanted to love it, I should have loved it, and I just didn't. I finished the book not sure whether I should be weeping or overcome with a serious case of the warmfuzzies, and while I can appreciate that the author may have left things somewhat ambiguous on purpose, it was still strange to come out of a book not only not sure what I should be feeling, but not even sure what I was feeling, other than a bit wrung-out.

I think part of my problem was that the novel never went in the direction I was expecting it to. In fact, it never went in the direction it was setting itself up to go. Like I said, the premise of the novel is fantastic: If you know for certain that the world is going to end, what's the point of anything? Does anything you do matter, and why? And how? The book's conclusion is given away in the exclamatory title, but I felt like we never really got to satisfactorily see Junior (or anyone else) wrestle with the issue, and never had a convincing bulk of evidence presented for either the "Everything" or "Nothing" side of the argument. Instead, it felt like the novel's focus on its postmodern, slightly wacky, multiple POV slice-of-life vignettes kept it from ever fully engaging with the issues it wanted so badly to raise. It's well-written, and interesting enough in its own right, it's just not the story I thought I would be getting.

Despite all that, however, I still think this one is worth the read. Everything Matters! is one of those special cases - like Keith Donohue's The Stolen Child - where the premise is so interesting that I'm willing to overlook the flaws in the handling of the story in favor of the thought-provoking questions that it raises. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Worth reading for the concept, and probably worth reading for the story as well - just don't expect them to always to match up. show less