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Bryan Charles

There's a Road to Everywhere Except Where You Came From: A Memoir Paperback – November 2, 2010

by Bryan Charles (Author)

21 ratings

3.8 on Goodreads

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There's a Road to Everywhere Except Where You Came From is the memoir of a young Midwestern man struggling to carve out a life as a writer, and to find meaning, or at least a job, in his new and alien landscape of New York City. In a voice at once coolly detached and utterly confident, we follow Bryan Charles's journey navigating love, work, and family, from the streets of Manhattan to the upper floors of corporate America. This is a gripping meditation on the self, ricocheting between the multitudes and solitude, and between the industrial-turned-residential spaces of Brooklyn and the towers of the World Trade Center, where his life takes an unexpected turn. Charles's story is a spare, honest, and often hilarious narrative of expectation and loss, and of the ordinary becoming the extraordinary.

Print length

254 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Grove Press, Open City Books
Publication date

November 2, 2010
Dimensions

5.4 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches
ISBN-10

1890447579
ISBN-13

978-1890447571
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his third book, Charles (Grab Onto Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way) chronicles his early years in New York. The aspiring writer was 24 when he arrives in 1998 hoping to jump-start a literary career. Instead, he finds himself stuck in a dead-end job rewriting promotional material for Morgan Stanley in their World Trade Center office. The pay is good but the work is dull, fiction rejection notices pile up, and he finds it increasingly difficult to pursue writing. Abortive romances compound his misery. His life (and his memoir) seems to be going nowhere. But the morning of September 11 Charles is sitting at his desk, and thus begins a long and much-needed narrative of his experience fleeing the building, dealing with the horror of the day, the resulting emotional distress, and feelings of survivor's guilt. It's a gripping account told in the muted style of a writer with true authority. (Oct.)
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From Booklist

Midwesterner Charles moved to New York City in 1998, where he rented a squalid Brooklyn apartment with old friends from Michigan and worked a temp job. Broke and homesick, Charles relays both his ambition to make a living by writing and his increasing sense of isolation within the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple. Then he lands a lucrative job as a financial writer at Morgan Stanley in the World Trade Center. His growing bank account and sense of accomplishment are offset by his superficial romantic entanglements and soul-deadening work. He is at work on the seventieth floor of the second tower at the World Trade Center on 9/11. His matter-of-fact recitation of the panic and confusion that ensued while walking down the stairwell contrast with his post-9/11 siege of nightmares and panic attacks, which culminate with his decision to quit his job and devote his time to creative writing. With a spare style, subtle humor, and huge dollops of emotional angst, Charles (Grab on to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way, 2006) puts a modern spin on the urban memoir. --Joanne Wilkinson

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press, Open City Books (November 2, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 254 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1890447579
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1890447571
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.4 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,895,646 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #54,706 in Memoirs (Books)

Customer Reviews:
21 ratings

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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 9, 2022

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This book was just okay for me. There was a moment here and there where I thought "Okay, NOW maybe it's going to improve/get exciting/reveal a purpose" etc but then I'd quickly realize I was wrong.
There were a lot of people mentioned within the pages but it never went deep enough to really get to know any of them -- including the author. Largely, rather than Morgan Stanley or an earlier company he worked for, he could have been any random guy working as a janitor, a factory worker or farmer, a teacher, or cook at some "greasy spoon" talking about his vague hopes for the future on occasion, the crushes and occasional sexcapades, the codependent unable to hold herself accountable mother but mostly, he talked about the day to day grind of his job and life.
I don't like not finishing a book so I finished this one. It ended VERY abruptly and that only added to my disappointment in the book.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 3, 2014

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A memoir is meant to open the smallest of windows into the heart of the writer. At its best, it makes real the tiniest details, the moments, in our human experience, and, ultimately, leaves us wanting to know more about the protagonist. In this, Mr Charles has succeeded. I wanted to hear more about the overcrowded, over-the-top, overwhelm that is New York City, more about his mama-dramas and his personal take on our collective trauma. The language is raw and wryly wrought, and the sentiments honest. It tastes like something between Catcher in the Rye and Just Kids to me...

4 people found this helpful

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Wes Tefft

The Title Says It All

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 19, 2015

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The author's memoir is at times funny and exciting, but more often the moments are sad and disconnected. They remind me of my own experiences after college searching for a job and trying to make a living following your passions. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes Donna Tartt or Bret Easton Ellis.

One person found this helpful

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Jeff Snavely

Meh...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 9, 2012

The author just droned on and on about his boring bleak life after moving to NYC and all the sex he's having.
It's just not very engaging or well-written.
I've read much more engaging memoirs that discuss life, love, jobs, etc.
"House of Cards" is similar but much better.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 30, 2012

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I would definitely recommend this book. If anyone has ever felt that your dream was impossible or that fate/life is stacked against you, then this book I proof that one can never give up on hope. One should not wait until calamity strikes before making changes necessary for your own sanity. This book provides this message loud and clear.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 20, 2020

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Made me feel as if I had grown up friends with the author.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 3, 2013

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Loved it. This is the only 9/11 memoir I've allowed myself to read - and I'm glad I found it. Anyone who was in New York or DC that day should pick up this book. Charles captures something really important worth sharing. I recommend it.

6 people found this helpful

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AB

A good book, but itcould have been better

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 28, 2011

First off this was a good book. If you liked Charles's first book Grab onto Me Tightly, then you will enjoy There's a Road to Everywhere. However, I don't think it lives up to his first novel, and this feels at times more like an early draft than a completed book. Don't get me wrong, Charles has an amazing voice and knows how to use language. There are several gems in this work like the parts about his father or even the quirky story about the toilet paper bandit. But this book was plagued by random once-named characters, disorienting and distracting relationships, and a distance from the author that would ordinarily seem appropriate except for when in a memoir. The voice is too similar to that in Grab onto Me Tightly, and it feels more like a sequel than Charles's personal history. Now that I am being critical I have to point out some of the typos. Right after Bryan escapes the World Trade Center he calls his family. At the end of the brief exchange his step-dad says, "I love you, Brian." It could be a nickname he never mentioned, or Charles spelled his own name wrong. Hmmm...it gets even better. Just three pages later his co-worker Whelan's name suddenly changes to Brian. I mean really who edited this? Oh, oh, oh, while I'm picking I was really bothered by the amount of times he said he was nursing a drink. Nursing a gin and tonic, nursing a cup of coffee, by the fourth or fifth time I was like you nurse babies not drinks! Though this may have been due to the choppy nature of the novel--it definitely felt like it was written in pieces and then put all together. There is nothing wrong with that as long as you go through it and make it flow, but little things like "nursing" or the inconsistent names suggest that more revision was needed. Overall, this was a good relatable tale full of heart, humor, and despair, but with a little more effort this could have been a fantastic novel.

5 people found this helpful

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