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What Ever: A Living Novel [Paperback]

Heather Woodbury (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Book Description

September 17, 2003
“May be the nearest thing to an American Ulysses . . . wildly funny and infinitely sad.”
—Fintan O’Toole, The Irish times

Focusing on the lives of more than a dozen characters—among them the Oregon rave boy Skeeter; the progressive-thinking octogenarian Violet, remembering her life from her bohemian youth in prewar Paris to her jazz-clubbing in postwar Greenwich Village; and the street-smart prostitute Bushie, holding forth on the profanity of the world—Heather Woodbury has forged a unique kind of fiction that combines the immediacy of performance art with the narrative structure and subtle characterization of a traditional novel. Taking off from her acclaimed one-woman show of the same title, Woodbury continually surprises in this novel with her ability to create new forms while always locating the unique, resonant humanity that links all the characters to one another—and to the reader.

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks (Semiotext(e) / Native Agents) $14.95

What Ever: A Living Novel + Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks (Semiotext(e) / Native Agents)

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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The experience of reading this novel is like attending a dinner party with a most unlikely guest list. In attendance are prostitutes and matrons, ravers and old ladies, their lives running parallel, then unexpectedly intersecting, as they make their way through the wilds of 1990s America. The novel is the print version of an epic one-woman show that Woodbury performs on stage. The author deftly sketches her diverse crew of characters, bringing them to vivid life almost entirely through dialogue. It's easy to imagine that the work makes for a mesmerizing piece of performance art. As a novel, though, it can be challenging. The characters speak in an assortment of accents, idioms, and slang that show off Woodbury's astute ear for language patterns, but that can be distracting for the reader. Also, with so many divergent story lines, it's easy to lose the flow of the story. Still, for readers willing to put in the work, the novel rewards with a snapshot of the American psyche that is at once intimate and sprawling. Karen Holt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Heather Woodbury was born in northern California. After working in New York City as a barmaid, go-go dancer, and catering waitress as well as a performance artist, in 2001 she moved to Los Angeles, where she now lives.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Faber & Faber; 1 edition (September 17, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0571211720
  • ISBN-13: 978-0571211722
  • Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,434,987 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars This book is one of the best I've read all year!, January 4, 2004
By 
This review is from: What Ever: A Living Novel (Paperback)
I LOVED this book. It is outrageous, funny,and deeply moving. Woodbury tells the story of a dozen seemingly unrelated characters on both sides of the continent with such realism and feeling that you can't help sharing in their laughter, their tears, and the general splendid weirdness of Whatever.
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4.0 out of 5 stars What - evuuurrrrrrrr!, May 24, 2005
By 
College Student (Jackson, Mississippi) - See all my reviews
This review is from: What Ever: A Living Novel (Paperback)
I read this book and thought it is good. The violet character was outragously funny and wasn't "cheapened" at all like the "compassionate konservatif" said. This book is for every body with a sense of humor. What - evuuuuurrrrrrrrrr!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and Hilarious, January 3, 2004
By 
"bananabella" (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: What Ever: A Living Novel (Paperback)
Phrases from "Whatever" followed me around for weeks after I read it - particularly the mellifluous ravings of Clove... This book brilliantly draws together the far-flung threads of a dozen or so character's lives and knits them into a complex web of interactions. Great social comentary and really funny!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Our story begins long ago, in the early 1990s, when a couple of old ladies convene at the end of a counter in a bustling Greek diner on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
matter nevermind, yoho renge kyo, dee hat, green sculpture, love fer, yer parents, yer ear, more praying, friendly ghost, space needle
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Aunt Jeanette, Santa Cruz, Magenta Rush, Suicide Watch, Cobain the Friendly Ghost, Puget Sound, Blue Ship Diner, Actual Deaths, Bruce Frye, Bunny Peters, Christian Coalition, Polly Ann, Sheila Marie, Blackberry Pie, Kurt Cobain, Magdalena Rigobar, New Yawk, Paul Folsom, San Francisco, Upper East Side, Dawn Malestrella, Pine Ridge Rez, Sophie Flax, Bodega Bay
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