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Jesse Browner

Everything Happens Today: A Novel Paperback – September 27, 2011

by Jesse Browner (Author)

7 ratings

3.4 on Goodreads

298 ratings

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“A stupendous, thought-provoking, devilishly delicious novel that reads like Zen koan meets Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man . . . Highly recommended” (Library Journal, starred review).

Everything Happens Today records a single day in the life of Wes, a seventeen-year-old who attends Manhattan’s elite Dalton School and lives in Greenwich Village in a dilapidated town house with his terminally ill mother, distant father, and beloved younger sister. In the course of one day everything will happen to Wes: he will lose his virginity to the wrong girl and break his own heart, try to meet a Monday morning deadline for a paper on War and Peace, and prepare an elaborate supper he hopes will reunite his family. Wes struggles through the day deep in thoughts of sex, love, Beatles lyrics, friendship, God, and French cuisine―a typical teenager with an atypical mind, a memorable young man who comes to the poignant understanding of how fragile but attainable personal happiness can be.

“A deeply compassionate novel by a very fine writer.” ―Joseph O’Neill, author of Netherland

Print length

216 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Europa Editions
Publication date

September 27, 2011
Dimensions

5.3 x 0.63 x 8.2 inches
ISBN-10

1609450515
ISBN-13

978-1609450519
See all details

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Everything Happens Today

"A deeply compassionate novel by a very fine writer."
—Joseph O'Neill, author of Netherland

"Browner (The Uncertain Hour) has crafted a stupendous, thought-provoking, devilishly delicious novel that reads like Zen koan meets Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man with some modern "english" that sets the plate spinning. Highly recommended."
—Library Journal (starred review)

"A light, modern and keen look at the discord between whimsy and prudence."
—Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Jesse Browner's The Uncertain Hour

"A sumptuous and affecting novel."
—Michael Lukas, San Francisco Chronicle

"If I say that Jesse Browner's The Uncertain Hour is a truly original work of art, I hope I won't scare anyone off. It's also the most engrossing page-turner I've picked up in a long while."
—Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours

"The Uncertain Hour is that very rare thing—an historical novel of love and ideas not only free of pedantry but also serious and entertaining...As one would expect from an award-winning translator of both Jean Cocteau and Rainer Maria Rilke, it's also elegantly written with a narrative so well-relaized that it's easy to overlook the 46-year-old author's formal audacity."
—Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times

"The Uncertain Hour is...elegant meditation on such matters as the nature of love, what makes a good life, and whether there can be such a thing as a perfect death. I don't know which to praise more: the author's feat of historical reconstruction, or his boundless powers of invention."
—Sigrid Nunez, author of The Last of Her Kind

About the Author

Jesse Browner is the author of four books including the novels Conglomeros (Random House 1992), Turnaway (Random House 1996) and The Uncertain Hour (Bloomsbury 2007). He has also translated a number of notable books including the award winning Celine: A Biography. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and two daughters.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Europa Editions (September 27, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 216 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1609450515
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1609450519
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.3 x 0.63 x 8.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,655,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,620 in Teen & Young Adult Fiction about Being a Teen (Books)
- #4,756 in Teen & Young Adult Fiction on Dating & Sex (Books)
- #60,787 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction

Customer Reviews:
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Rebecca Hughes

Absolutely wonderful

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 10, 2011

Verified Purchase

I saw this book received a starred review in a book-industry publication, and once I saw that it's about a private-school kid in Greenwich Village and was being compared favorably with "The Catcher in the Rye," I ordered it immediately. Within minutes. Such high expectations don't usually pan out very well, but the story (and its wonderful protagonist) captivated me from the first page, and over the next two days I carried it everywhere with me so I could read at every opportunity. By the time I finished it, I knew I had found a new favorite.

In brief, the story is about a seventeen-year-old Dalton School kid named Wes who, in the course of one day, works on a paper about "War and Peace," attends a party, loses his virginity to the wrong girl, takes care of his critically ill mother and sweet, funny little sister, walks his dog, and argues with his father. Browner is masterful in his management of these elements-- both the ordinary and the life-changing-- and deftly weaves a story based on a concept that, in less expert hands, might have seemed gimmicky or contrived. What he offers the reader instead is a wholehearted, optimistic, deeply compassionate tale, and one so vividly imagined that the reader feels convinced that this is a real family, and we really are in Greenwich Village, standing just an arm's length from Wes.

This is literary fiction for sure-- a highly intelligent novel, introspective and character-driven. I highly recommend it to readers who enjoy such stories. As a writer I am sometimes asked, "What book are you an evangelist for?" I found this book purely by happenstance-- I didn't know the author-- and now when I am asked that question, I can say, "this one." Reading it was a pure joy.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Reader

A beautifully written, thought-provoking book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 16, 2011

Verified Purchase

EVERYTHING HAPPENS TODAY tells the story of one critical day in the life of Wes, a brainy, deep-feeling student at Dalton, in New York. Browner's prose soars and his characters, all of them, are vivid and appealing. I found this book deeply moving, almost haunting in its beauty. I highly recommend it to lovers of literary fiction and their teenaged kids as well.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

In addition he has a major assignment on War and Peace due on Monday and he wants to cook a special meal in hopes of having all

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 4, 2017

Wes is the lovable, seventeen year old protagonist of this novel. He attends the prestigious Dalton school in Manhattan. Wes is there on scholarship and lives in a run down house in Greenwich Village with he terminally ill mother, a father who brings his girlfriend home, and his younger sister Nora, who he is very protective of. As the novel begins we learn that Wes has lost his virginity to the wrong girl and is sure he has ruined his life. In addition he has a major assignment on War and Peace due on Monday and he wants to cook a special meal in hopes of having all of his family together and happy.

What a delightful read and protagonist you'll root for. The entire novel takes place in a single day and since Wes is a literary lover, the novel has loads of literary references, some serving as metaphors for the things he is dealing with. There's some touching scenes when he spends time caring for and talking with his ailing mother which really moved me. I loved Wes and think this novel will stay with me for a while. (4.5/5 stars)

Helpful

Linda

Modern day Catcher in the Rye

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 23, 2012

I picked this up a few hours ago and was not at all expecting to finish it in one sitting, but once I started, I couldn't stop (the fact that it has no chapters and thus no natural pause points, helped). It was a delight going backwards and forwards over the course of about 48 hours with Wes, a typical wannabe-novelist, literature-obsessed teenager who just takes himself way too seriously. He imagines himself as Prince Andre from "War and Peace", but of course, he's much more Holden Caulfield. Because of his intellect and interest, there were literature, musical and political references aplenty, which I love. My only hesitancy is in the constant references to Twitter, Facebook, iPhones, etc. but I'll let history determine whether this book has a shelf life. All I know is I loved it.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Stephanie Bauer

Nothing really happened that day

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 23, 2012

One chapter? One chapter?!?! I love chapter breaks. They're like little high fives congratulating you for your reading progress. My heart skips a beat whenever I get to a chapter break and unfortunately Browner took away that small piece of joy in my life. Woe is me. Ok ok, I'll stop whining...onto the review.

I wavered on how I felt about this book. At times, it proved true to the comparisons to Catcher in the Rye and was completely enjoyable. At other times, it just kind of felt like I was reading a boring person's diary. It was written in the style of stream-of-conscience, which tended to drag a little after the 80th run-on sentence in a row. Things that were touted as important seemed non-significant to me. Things that could have been huge plot points were regularly skimmed over.

I absolutely loved the relationship between Wes and his sister as well as the snippets we saw of Wes and his new love interest Lucy. I would have appreciated, if not direct dialogue, at least some background on the relationship between Wes and his dad. They were so emotionally distant from each other and I wanted to understand why. This relationship laid the foundations for an awesome storyline, but Browner passed over it without so much as a second glance. All in all, I think 'Everything Happens Today' had a ton of potential, but just didn't fully live up to it.

3 people found this helpful

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