I had High hopes for the book Everything by Kevin Canty. I had read several good reviews, one in the Star tribune on a sunday recently.
This was the first book of his I had read, and both the title and the cover art intrigued me. I tried hard to like this book. I am not a fan of his writing style, clipped and chopped with conversations separated by blank white spaces, often not even grammatically correct. Also, each chapter jumping not only from character to character, but more disconcerting, from present to past and back again with the reader left to figure out who exactly is speaking at any given time. None of the above leads to any cohesion in the story OR identification with any of the main characters, RL, June and Layla or Betsy. Even by the end of the story I did not have a clear picture of what any of these people looked like, which to me is essential to enjoying a book. They were all dealing with painful issues in their lives, but frankly, the only two that evoked any empathy were Layla, a lonely and confused nineteen year old who becomes pregnant by a married man and Betsy, suffering with terminal cancer and her deep love for her young children. Both RL and Layla struck me as aging hippies who couldn't seem to get a grip in spite of their 'not very terrible' circumstances. I kept hoping that the ending would somehow redeem this story, but in that respect, I was also disappointed. Nothing is resolved, nor are you informed about the fates of these individuals you have been asked to try to care about. In the end, I really didn't care anyway. ( )
flagberylweidenbach | Aug 19, 2010 | edit | |
This was the first book of his I had read, and both the title and the cover art intrigued me. I tried hard to like this book. I am not a fan of his writing style, clipped and chopped with conversations separated by blank white spaces, often not even grammatically correct. Also, each chapter jumping not only from character to character, but more disconcerting, from present to past and back again with the reader left to figure out who exactly is speaking at any given time. None of the above leads to any cohesion in the story OR identification with any of the main characters, RL, June and Layla or Betsy. Even by the end of the story I did not have a clear picture of what any of these people looked like, which to me is essential to enjoying a book. They were all dealing with painful issues in their lives, but frankly, the only two that evoked any empathy were Layla, a lonely and confused nineteen year old who becomes pregnant by a married man and Betsy, suffering with terminal cancer and her deep love for her young children. Both RL and Layla struck me as aging hippies who couldn't seem to get a grip in spite of their 'not very terrible' circumstances. I kept hoping that the ending would somehow redeem this story, but in that respect, I was also disappointed. Nothing is resolved, nor are you informed about the fates of these individuals you have been asked to try to care about. In the end, I really didn't care anyway. ( )
flagberylweidenbach | Aug 19, 2010 | edit | |
