Book of the Week: Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever

"The most affecting stories in Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever are as unpredictable as a careening drunk. They leave us with the heavy residue of an unsettling strangeness, and a new voice that readers - and writers, too - might be seeking out for decades to come.” This is what The New York Times Book Review said about Justin Taylor's collection of short stories. Lately I've been hearing a lot of praise for this book so I was super excited when I was sent a copy to review. Short stories aren't usually my deal, but I was excited to read the much buzzed about book for myself.

"We move to the living room, sit in the ambient glow from the kitchen.

'Its almost not enough anymore,' she says, breaking the silence.

Should I ask what 'it' is? No, that's clear enough...

 'Typical,' she says, meaning my not answering,

so I say, 'I have to kill my uncle's cat tomorrow.'

Neither of us is saying what the other wants to hear."

-In My Heart I Am Already Gone [p. 12]

There are anarchists, a Tetris player so obsessed with beating the high score he keeps playing while the world outside his window ends, and a fast food worker obsessed with Abu Ghraib and rough sex. A teenager who turns to black magic as an answer to unrequited love and a prodigal son returning home. Relationships--familial, romantic and otherwise--play a large role in all the stories as does religion and politics. I found it interesting to read stories written by someone my own age about our generation. There is weariness, ennui and nostalgia from these painfully ordinary characters, many of whom are reaching adulthood and can now see their youth in the rearview mirror. Not all the stories are perfect, but I think Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever is a worthwhile read.

"This game is designed to end, not to be beaten; I doubt they even programmed a graphic for the YOU WIN screen...It outlasts you...I enter my initials on the high-score screen, ranked number one. The list erases every time you shut the Nintendo off." - Tetris [p. 111]

Browse inside the book here.