Customer Reviews

Everything Must Go

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Like some of the other reviewers, I really tried to like it and hung in there until the end hoping it would get better, but it never did. I also was very confused about what year it was in the story with all the back and forth. Overall, it was just was very slow and boring.

In the late 1970s, Henry Powell's future looked bright. He had a great high school senior year playing football earning him a college scholarship that will enable him to leave the dying New England town Baxter. However, dreams die as Henry knows first hand. He went off to college only to have to come home due to a family emergency, while his older brother Brad skipped town without a look back.

Fourteen years later, Henry works at the same men's clothing store he worked in when he was in high school. He has no future feeling humiliated whenever someone from his glory days enters the shop. His only escape from nothings is fantasy where he pretends he is a rock star or being interviewed by a renowned biographical author for a book starring him. Now Henry's only means of income the store will shut down on September 10, 2001. How will Henry react is anyone's guess as EVERYTHING MUST GO especially the employees.

Elizabeth Flock is gaining a reputation for deep psychological character studies (see ME & EMMA) that shake up a reader's comfort zone. Her latest tale EVERYTHING MUST GO is not an easy read as the audience, through perhaps too many flashbacks, learns how much Henry has lost by being responsible towards his family. This book is not for everyone as this for the most part is a depressing yet realistic personal saga even with a future that looks brighter than the immediate past (at least since he dropped out of college); still readers who appreciate a deep dark look at a man just surviving not living will want to peruse Henry's disheartening bio.

Harriet Klausner

I agree with the previous entry from S. Cooley: this was a completely boring book. I, too, waited and waited for something exciting or surprising to occur as it did in "Me and Emma," a great book! But "Everything Must Go" falls very short. Unless you enjoy a very droll, pointless interlude in your reading experience, don't buy this book.

I bought this book yesterday as a mother's day gift to myself, and I must say, I made a really bad choice. Normally, I research books before buying them. Reading these reviews, and the first four chapters are really making me sorry I chose this book over "A Thousand Splendid Suns". It's just so boring, and More than half the time, have been confused as to what year it is! I think this will be going in my yard sale next weekend. Chapter Four is far enough. It has been excruciating thus far, and previous reviewers have inspired me to put the book down.

I found this book to be long and drawn out, too much so. Henry was ready to die of boredom and so was I.

The story is about Henry Powell and his ordinary life working in a clothing store. It was supposed to be a decidedly different life for Henry after becoming the high school football star. However, his fractured family life completely destroyed Henry's hopes and dreams and he lives out his days working, trying to build a relationship with various girls and looking after his alcoholic mother.

While I expected the story to be a dark one, I didn't realize that I would have to read about the every day minutiae of Henry's existence. It was a story that felt like it just did not go anywhere. By the end of the book, I still did not feel like Henry had really even progressed.

I really tried to like this book; the concept is certainly intriguing. However, as other reviewers have pointed out, the narrative is completely bogged down by the minutia of Henry's life. The reader has to slog though long passages of the most boring narratives -- Henry choosing his wardrobe, Henry remembering his Tupperware containers in his work locker, Henry trying to decide what kind of salsa to bring to a friend's house, Henry making mental notes to replace the worn oven mitts. There were also aspects of this book that were completly unexplored -- Henry's mother is clearly and severly mentally ill; why did the family never get help for her, but rather let her wither away for years and years?

All in all, I was not all that impressed. Based on other reviews, I will read "Emma and Me," and give this author another chance.

This book was quietly depressing. In some ways, it reminded me of the movie _Garden State_, but without the humour, the romance and the redemption. Henry Powell's life of quiet but intense desperation was well written, but in the end there was no real hope for him. I did not feel any relief at Celeste's character. This novel was more of an elongated character study than anything else and while there was wrong with it per se, it was just too depressing to really enjoy. I had expected more of Henry's life as a child, but those flashbacks were considerably few.

I thoroughly enjoyed Elizabeth Flock's previous 2 books and was very excited to read this. Boy was I disappointed. I kept waiting for something, anything to happen but it never did. I asked myself at the end of the book, "what was the purpose of this book?" I hope Flock's next novel is up to her usual standards.

I'd like the hours back that it took me to read this. I kept trudging on, waiting for a surprise twist like so many of the other reviewers did.

I did not understand the point of this story, unless it's supposed to be that guilt and trying to please others can make you miserable. Henry, the main character, gives up his life basically because of his mother's alcohol and prescription abuse. Instead of telling his father to get his mother professional help, he drops out of college to come back home and take care of her, despite having a full scholarship. Both of his parents, especially his mother, have clear mental health problems, and one could argue that Henry does to an extent as well. After awhile I stopped feeling sorry for him and instead wanted to yell at him to stop being a loser and do something with his life. I understand that an awful tragedy happened in the family when Henry was a kid, but that shouldn't have meant he had to put his life on hold for however long his mother lived.

I may try another book by this author, as I have heard good things about Me & Emma, but I suggest skipping over this one.

Everything Must Go is a insightful book, but is not for everybody. The book feels very long and drawn out. There is no obvious conclusion and sometimes the storyline gets lost. The reader does not always know when they are reading about - just as the character loses his sense of time. This is an honest look at a not so pretty life. It is not always exciting and there is not necessarily a happy ending, or a bad ending ... life just goes on. Henry, the main character, is not a hero. He tries but does not do what may seem to be the right or obvious thing. Instead Elizabeth Flock writes a very real feeling book about a very real character. Life is not always exciting and clear, but it is worth the read.