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All I Have in This World: A Novel Paperback – November 11, 2014

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Michael Parker (Author)
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Michael Parker (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars 22 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Algonquin Books (November 11, 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1616204486
  • ISBN-13: 978-1616204488
  • Product Dimensions: 1 x 6 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,256,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsSharing and forgiveness, past and present
By TChris TOP 500 REVIEWER on March 24, 2014
Format: Hardcover
The literary device that binds the characters in All I Have in this World is a Buick Electra. The reader first encounters it at an assembly plant in 1983. A year later, the first black car salesman hired by a Cleveland dealership sells it to a math teacher. Subsequent owners include a doctor in Kansas whose son drives it to Austin and a rancher's widow. Slices from the life of each car owner (as well as an assembly plant worker and the used car dealer who sells it last) are dispersed throughout the novel. The book's structure -- the use of the Buick to tie together lives of disparate people who share universal traits -- is part of its appeal.

Twenty years after it drives off the Cleveland lot, the Buick ends up in Pinto Canyon, Texas, where it brings together Maria and Marcus, the novel's principle characters, each of whom is embroiled in a family drama. Although the novel bounces around in time, it begins in 1994, when 17-year-old Maria enters adulthood in the wake of a tragic experience (for which she is unfairly blamed) that solidifies her desire to leave Pinto Canyon. She does not come back for her father's funeral but returns to Pinto Canyon in 2004. Her mother, with whom she has rarely had contact, has inherited a motel and claims she is too tired to run it by herself -- a claim that Maria credits, given that her mother took care of her dying husband and her dying lover before finding herself alone.

Marcus, having discovered that there is no profit in founding a nonprofit educational center dedicated to flytraps and having lost the land he owned jointly with his sister, packs everything he owns into a pickup truck and drives until he reaches Pinto Canyon, where his truck is stolen while he's hiking near the Mexican border.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsAbout the transition from self-condemnation to self-acceptance
By B. Case TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on April 19, 2014
Format: Hardcover
"All I Have In This World," by award-winning author Michael Parker, is a subtle, psychologically rich, and emotionally satisfying literary novel about the torturous and strange paths that some individuals follow on the way from self-condemnation to self-acceptance. A sky blue, 1984 Buick Electra is the plot element that ties this remarkable book together.

The main characters are a man and a woman, both separately wrestling with hidden guilt due to the hurt and damage they've caused within their respective family circles. These two injured souls meet on a used car lot in West Texas at the very moment when both decide they want to buy the same low riding, big, blue Buick Electra. It's 2004 and the Buick is already 20 years old, but it only has 60 thousand miles on the odometer. Unexpectedly and almost inexplicably, they agree to buy the Buick together and share it. Somehow they've managed to make an uncanny immediate connection through body language realizing almost instinctually that they are kindred spirits adrift in the same sea of self-recrimination and pain. In order to communicate, they know they need to keep verbal communication to the minimum. This type of intuitive understanding of what the other needs continues throughout their relationship and serves and the foundation of their ultimate strong support and growing love for one another.

This 311-page book is structurally designed as a 267-page novel interspersed with seven linked short stories that add an additional 44 pages. The stories deal with the emotional connections that particular individuals have with this same 1984 Buick Electra over the course of its twenty-year life span from "birth" to "death." The first story takes place at the exact moment that--"I pronounce you chassis and body"--the Buick is created.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsA terrific story about 2 lost souls who come together to form an unusual friendship
By J. Luiz on May 9, 2014
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
This is a terrific novel about two lost souls who come together and help one another find peace and a modicum of joy in their lives. One is a woman, Maria, who suffered a traumatic experience with a high school boyfriend. Because her family is one that suppresses rather than discusses experiences and feelings what transpired haunts her for decades. The other is 47-year-old man, Marcus, who brought on his own misery by trying to start a flytrap museum on the North Carolina farm he inherited with his parents. When that business fails, the bank reclaims the property and he runs away, afraid to tell his sister that he's squandered their inheritance. Marcus and Maria meet in Texas, near Maria's home, a used parking lot when they both become interested in a decades-old Buick Electra. They end up deciding to share the car and become friends. The novel starts with a blockbuster first chapter in which we learn of Maria's traumatic history with her high school boyfriend. It then shifts between the two main characters' points of view, but interspersed we get intriguing vignettes about all the people who touched that Buick Electra before them - from the Detroit workers who assembled it to all the previous owners. It would seem like a distracting device, but it's not. Each story is compelling. After that jaw-dropping opening chapter, the novel does slow down a bit as we get to know Maria and Marcus muddling along in their own lives - and it takes a while for the two of them to get together. But their back stories are fascinating. This is a novel of rich characterization. One of the "bad" people in the book would seem to be Maria's mother, who is so shut down and unable to communicate that she seems to be the source of all of Maria's troubles.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsA Novel About Forgiveness

They come together in Texas. Both are searching, lost in their lives and hoping to find a way to a better place. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Sandra Iler Kirkland
5.0 out of 5 starsHe captures brilliantly the urgency of youth as it settles into middle...

Michael Parker is a world-class writer working on a small stage. He captures brilliantly the urgency of youth as it settles into middle age, and the things we learn to live... Read more

Published 11 months ago by Chillville, CA
2.0 out of 5 starsWaiting for the action

I'm currently reading this, but I'm not sure I can force myself to finish it unless it gets better quickly.

Published 15 months ago by Amused at the Nutty Left
5.0 out of 5 starsAlgonquin does it again, another Parker story with a different twist

One of my favorite writers, a former writing teacher. Sense of humor underlies the story in an enticing way, characters are quirky but real. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Fierce Red Pen
3.0 out of 5 starsIt was an okay book. The characters were a ...

It was an okay book. The characters were a little quirky. Odd ending.

Published 19 months ago by Kay E
2.0 out of 5 starsDidn't give it a chance

I only read 7% of this book. I just didn't like it. I really don't think I have a right to rate it if I haven't read it, but I was so disappointed. Read more

Published 20 months ago by Lana A. Osborne
1.0 out of 5 starsA Real Stinker.

The reviews for this book were generally good, and I thought the premise was promising. "Two strangers meet over the hood of a used car in Texas. Read more

Published 21 months ago by Michael Milhaud
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat Book

Can't wait to read the whole thing? When will it be offered? Why isn't it offered now so we can finish it.

Published 22 months ago by Kathleen E. Watterson
4.0 out of 5 starsA Car Tale

Marie has been gone from her mother’s house for quite a long time. Marcus’ dream of building a Museum honoring the Venus Fly Trap has dissolved into rot and weeds. Read more

Published 22 months ago by NLE
3.0 out of 5 starsDragged myself through it.

I kept waiting for something to actually happen in this book. It ended about as strangely as it began. I can't say I will read this author again if this is a sampling of his work.

Published 22 months ago by C. Gadbois

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