Everything Matters!

A Novel

By: Ron Currie Jr.

Narrated by: Abby Craden, Hillary Huber, Mark Deakins, Lincoln Hoppe, Arthur Morey, Doug Wert

Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

In infancy, Junior Thibodeaux is encoded with a prophesy: A comet will obliterate life on Earth in 36 years. Alone in this knowledge, he comes of age in rural Maine grappling with the question: Does anything I do matter?

While the voice that has accompanied him since conception appraises his choices, Junior's loved ones emerge with parallel stories - his anxious mother; his brother, a cocaine addict turned pro-baseball phenomenon; his exalted father, whose own mortality summons Junior's best and worst instincts; and Amy, the love of Junior's life and a North Star to his journey through romance and heartbreak, drug-addled despair, and superheroic feats that could save humanity. While our recognizable world is transformed into a bizarre nation at endgame, where government agents conspire in subterranean bunkers, preparing citizens for emigration from a doomed planet, Junior's final triumph confounds all expectation, building to an astonishing and deeply moving resolution.

Ron Currie, Jr., gets to the heart of character, and the voices who narrate this uniquely American tour de force leave an indelible, exhilarating impression.

©2009 Ron Currie (P)2009 Penguin

Critic reviews

"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)

"Currie's novel is extraordinary, a lively narrative that slaloms from the exhilerating to the numinous to the achingly sad, all tied together by the author's sharp, funny voice." (NPR)

"Superb.... Some scenes make you laugh out loud. There are passages of beauty and wicked turns of phrase...marvelously, Currie suffuses his unhappy and disparate characters with salvation." (The Los Angeles Times)

Thought Provoking and creatively written

The story was performed and written well. This story has a creative perspective.I would highly recommend it.

Don't Give Up On This One

I almost chucked Everything Matters at the start. It starts off with a freaky narrator discussing stuff that makes no sense...but stick with it. The author creates some memorable characters and throws into very strange situations. Very unpredictable with unique writing style that I eventually found enjoyable. Essentially a love story told in a quirky science-fictionesque style.

Amazing

Possibly the best audiobook I've listened to all year. For me, one measure of a great audiobook is that it leaves me glad that I chose to listen rather than read the printed book, and this one certainly meets that mark. The narration was perfect.

The book itself was incredibly moving without ever being sappy...if you like Vonnegut, you should really give this one a try.

Worth coming back to after two years.

I enjoyed the book. Solid form of mild Sci-Fi with characters you could enjoy following along a path of doom. There wasn't much there that bent too far away from the mainstream idea of what is considered odd. No headlong dives into pools of the twisted but there was a few turn of events that brushed close to those things.
If you are looking for a solid story, which has a slow to medium pace build, and characters that you grow to enjoy, then this book should do you right.

Loved It!

I enjoyed this book very much. It was imaginative and creative yet didn't require world building, made-up languages, or silly pranks to move the plot forward. Instead, using the day-to-day real world, Currie employs our fascination with the many mysteries science has yet to fully understand about our universe and thus takes this further leading us in and out of the Twilight Zone. I was fully satisfied!

Definitely a smart purchase

I loved this book. Character development is the books strong suit. the ordinary trials and tribulations this character experiences almost make the extraordinary challenges he has look boring, because following the books main character is like following a loved one. don't pass this up.

Recommended

Worth the time and credit spent. I read a lot and some books are difficult to remember soon after finishing them, not Everything Matters! I enjoyed this and will listen to it again someday.

Outstanding!

I don't usually send a review, but this book! It's so good I don't want anyone considering it to pass it by. Yes, it's really well written. Yes, the narration is excellent. It's the story, though, that is most outstanding. It's the way it grabs you, pulls you in, and takes your heart and your perspective on a unique and compelling ride.

Beautiful, thoughtfully written and well narrated

Beautifully written. The characters are understandable, distinct, and grow over time. And just about the time I thought I had things figured out, something surprising would happen. I loved this book and did not want it to end. I downloaded this because it was the book chosen by all incoming Duke freshmen to read last year. This is, frankly, a book you would want your freshman child to read. It leaves you thinking about the importance of things long after the last sentence is done.

Riveting

This was one of those books that makes it hard to turn off the iPod and go to work. Interesting characters, surprising plot twists, superb narration. This goes in my top 10 and will merit a second listen in the future.