The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done: A Novel [Hardcover]

Sandra Newman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 27, 2003

When Chrysalis Moffat and her brother Eddie inherit a mansion on the coast of California, Eddie hatches a plan to fleece credulous Californians of their cash by starting the fraudulent Tibetan School of Miracles. With Ralph as the would-be guru and miracle worker, the "school" quickly becomes more successful than anybody first imagined.

But something else is happening. As Chrysalis begins to discover her adoptive father’s secret past, her own identity begins to unravel. Was it actually in Peru that she was born? What has the CIA got to do with it? Who is Denise Cadwallader? At the same time, Chrysalis is being drawn into Ralph’s strange and compelling world: a realm of mind-blowing coincidence, obsessive gambling, and mysterious siblings.

It is rare that novels come as intelligent and as funny as this one. Newman reveals a subtle understanding of human nature and our philosophical dilemmas, while at the same time charting a hilarious roller-coaster ride through the flotsam of American pop culture: from Californian Buddhist retreats to the temples of gambling, from secret agents to UFOs, and then around the corner to the parking lot of the nearest 7-Eleven.

At its core, The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done is a novel about self-discovery. As Chrysalis lays down the facts of her life, she gambles her identity against the contradictions, half-truths, and fables of her past, leading her ultimately to question what it is we can truly know, and whether it is fate or chance that dictates our lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Transforming that most pedestrian of documents-the business report-Newman has fashioned a first novel that is anything but by-the-numbers. Chrysalis Moffat, a South American orphan, has grown into a psychologically unstable young woman living alone in the California mansion of her adopted parents, both dead. Her brother, Eddie, "five foot seven inches of sheer depravity," returns from a slacker trip around the world towing a fake Buddhist guru named Ralph, and together they open the Tibetan School of Miracles in the run-down mansion, selling enlightenment to spiritually destitute Californians. But this is just the first in a series of clever false fronts presented by this sprawling, globe-trotting novel, which hops from California to Colorado, Cairo to Kathmandu, exploring Chrysalis's and Eddie's messy lives and the source of their rampant dysfunctionality. Was their father in the CIA? What, exactly, was he doing in South America when he adopted Chrysalis? And what does all this have to do with the world of professional blackjack players? The novel is full of false turns, fake names and jaw-dropping coincidences, all slotted neatly together in Newman's blunt, wry prose. The periodic forays into report format give the narrative a stripped-down authority ("1. My mother died of complications following liposuction surgery. 1.1 A mild heart attack; pneumonia; septicemia. 1.2 Long-term alcoholism was the root cause") and giddy chapter headings ("Dave Something Scottish," "A Battle Between the Forces of Good and Evil"). This is a virtuoso performance, and if it sometimes reads like parody-wallowing in cancer, suicide, incest, mental illness-it more than proves Newman a writer worth watching.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School--A paralyzing case of writer's block, plus a serious depression following her mother's death, means that Chrysalis Moffat, California girl by way of Central America, won't be completing her doctoral dissertation on Dr. Faustus any time soon. Instead, she is first distracted then entranced by her own private deal with the devil, aka her depraved brother Eddie, inheritor of the family's rundown mansion. Together the siblings open a phony spiritual retreat, the Tibetan School of Miracles, led by Eddie's crony Ralph, an equally phony, if charismatic, guru. As the school's success soars, unintended consequences complicate the trio's con game, to put it mildly. Style is the chief hook here, as Chrysalis's dry tone and seemingly straightforward narration (often organized into the numbered paragraphs of a formal report) provide comic counterpoint to numerous over-the-top, out-of-sequence subplots involving--among other things--biological weapons, alien abduction, divine visitations, professional gamblers, guerilla war, unrequited love, and suicide. This deft and edgy first novel, reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut's early fiction, will appeal to older teens who like the notion of adding a regular dash of outrageousness to the mix of everyday reality.--Starr E. Smith, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1 Amer ed edition (May 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060514981
• ISBN-13: 978-0060514983
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,150,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sandra Newman is co-author of How Not To Write A Novel. She is the author of the novels The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done and Cake, as well as the forthcoming memoir Changeling. She has taught writing and literature at Temple University, Chapman University, and the University of Colorado, and has published fiction and non-fiction in Harper's, Granta, and London's Observer, Telegraph, and Mail on Sunday newspapers, among other journals and newspapers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A First Novel that Shows Talent, August 29, 2003

By 

Timothy Haugh (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done: A Novel (Hardcover)

Here is another book read in my project of reading first novels. I always make it a point to read a few first novels every year. Rarely do you find a gem but often you find writers with real talent that you hope will grow. Newman is a talent.

I have some problems with this novel; mainly, I'm not into clever technique nearly as much as I'm into a really well written story. I could have done without the variations in prose and shifting plot threads. On the other hand, Newman creates some very compelling characters in Chrysalis, Ralph and Denise. And the story, once you've pieced it together in your mind, has some very interesting aspects though her use of coincidence and relationship is not on the level of Dickens.

Still, this is a novel that moves along nicely and is easy to read. In a situation like this, I'm more anxious to see what Newman comes up with next as opposed to reading this novel again. But that doesn't mean this novel isn't worth a look.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this novel!, March 15, 2004

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Meriah L. Crawford (Richmond, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done: A Novel (Hardcover)

The author uses numbered and lettered lists and odd formatting that I expected to find annoying after a while, but the effect does not feel contrived or `writerly'. It's poetic, clever, funny, and tragic. The characters are, to put it simplistically, all deeply messed up by a lack of love and by their experiences of loss and abandonment. They are, therefore, all doomed. In the meantime, they live twisted and fascinating lives. This is a tremendously creative and enjoyable book, which I recommend highly.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great personal story, February 21, 2004

By 

T. Ziegler (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done: A Novel (Hardcover)

I really enojyed this book. The format is unusual but I felt is was a good way to deal with elements in the past present and future and incorporate different viewpoints as narrator. Mostly I liked it because the character are fleshed out in such idiosyncratic detail. I began to see a lot of myself in the central character and by the end of the book I felt like I wouldn't want to recommend it to a friend because they'd learn too much about *me*. If you are sarcastic and like dark humor it is a book for you.