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232nd out of 576 books
—
520 voters
Everything You Know
by
Zoe Heller
"I am bad. A bad, bad man," Willy Muller tells us, and on first evidence the reader might be inclined to agree. A suspected murderer and a confirmed hack, the protagonist of Everything You Know is a Hollywood-style bottom feeder with no evident sense of shame. In London, years ago, Willy went to prison for killing his wife. Once released on appeal, he alienated his few rem...more
Published
(first published January 1st 1999)
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Although I love Zoe Heller's writing (always have) and this book is well-written (of course), the topic is just so depressing and dreadful that all it does is depress the shit out of you about the state of humanity, and there is no end to it. It's certainly a hard-core depiction of the underbelly of society. The protagonist is a tired out, shitty, self-absorbed sex addict who is so reprehensible he has sexual thoughts about his own daughters. Plus he's surrounded by shitty weird hangers on and a...more
I really enjoyed Heller's other books, including "Notes on a Scandal" and "The Believers", so I assumed I would also enjoy this one. And I am very impressed that a young beautiful woman like the author can write so realistically a story narrated by a prickly old guy who is recovering from a heart attack and reminiscing on his past mistakes as a drinker, womanizer, and absentee father. However, I am tired of the genre of the old guy seeking redemption for his atrociously bad conduct, while still...more
1 like · like · see review
Initially I thought I wasn't going to like this book, with its bitter, misanthropic narrator Willy, who appears to be quite comfortable with his own nastiness. But the second half was better and more interesting than the first, as Willy starts to recognise how badly he has failed the family he abandoned, and realises that "only when you die do your run out of chances to be good". There are some scenes here that are so excruciating (e.g. Willy's encounter with his older daghter) that they make yo...more
Pleasure was had from Zoë Heller's first novel Everything You Know, which has one of the most acerbic misanthropes I've encountered in the past year or so. His hatred of London and New York is so intense and so exquisitely described that any reader who hasn't been to these cities would probably never want to visit. He has a troubled relationship with his daughters (one of whom kills herself) and in his youth had served time for the murder of his wife (acquitted on appeal). Despite his dislike fo...more
I absolutely loved this book. My only concern was at one point the echoes of the following excerpt from a letter by Evelyn Waugh were so close that it did make me wonder ... however knowing Heller's excellence as a writer I believe that this is either a coincidence or an unwitting echo from something she read a long time ago and had forgotten.
"In the hope of keeping him [= Winston Churchill's son] quiet for a few hours Freddy and I have bet Randolph £20 that he cannot read the whole Bible in a f...more
"In the hope of keeping him [= Winston Churchill's son] quiet for a few hours Freddy and I have bet Randolph £20 that he cannot read the whole Bible in a f...more
Moja prvá ozajstná recenzia, ak by bol niekto taký dobrý a chcelo by sa mu to prečítať a povedať, čo si o tom myslí, budem rada :)
Everything you know - Zoe Heller
Hodnotenie : 3.5/5
Cover : 2.5/5
Dátum čítania : 5.4. - 23.4. 2011
Chudák Willy má ťažký život. Jeho neveľmi príťažlivá priateľka Penny ho neustále štve svojou hlúposťou. Po finančnej stránke to veru nie je bohviečo (ak možno takto označiť dlžobu cca. 200 000 $). Ak chce svoju situáciu zlepšiť, musí knihu o manželkinej smrti, ktorú nezapr...more
Everything you know - Zoe Heller
Hodnotenie : 3.5/5
Cover : 2.5/5
Dátum čítania : 5.4. - 23.4. 2011
Chudák Willy má ťažký život. Jeho neveľmi príťažlivá priateľka Penny ho neustále štve svojou hlúposťou. Po finančnej stránke to veru nie je bohviečo (ak možno takto označiť dlžobu cca. 200 000 $). Ak chce svoju situáciu zlepšiť, musí knihu o manželkinej smrti, ktorú nezapr...more
1 like · like · see review
Jul 06, 2011
Siria
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
20th-century,
british-fiction
I read this book thinking it was a new one from Zoe Heller, but Everything You Know is in fact her first book, written before Notes on a Scandal. It's not as well-crafted an effort—the structure not quite strong enough to sustain it even over just 200 pages—and I'm not sure that her main character (Willy Muller, a philandering fiftysomething writer best known for the book he wrote in the aftermath of being acquitted of his wife's murder, who lives in self-imposed exile from the UK and has nonexi...more
Willy Muller is a great character, the anti-hero at the diseased heart of Zoë Heller's debut novel. What makes the book so satisfying is not its originality; rather, it is the delicate and wickedly funny way that Heller makes her germophobic protagonist sympathetic even as the situation gets worse.
Willy might have been gleefully played by Jack Nicholson in his prime. We cringe to watch him, but we peek through our fingers to see what he will do next. Also, we hope against hope that he might sud...more
Willy might have been gleefully played by Jack Nicholson in his prime. We cringe to watch him, but we peek through our fingers to see what he will do next. Also, we hope against hope that he might sud...more
This is the first Zoe Heller book I've read. Perhaps not the best place to start, reading some of the reviews. She writes well, technically, but the characters are all so unattractive. She writes from the point of view of the male lead, who is a singularly unattractive, mysoginistic and self-absorbed character. If this is her view of men (it probably isn't), then that's a shame. Even the female characters are either dumb, or passive or otherwise unlovable.
There is a sort of black humour througho...more
There is a sort of black humour througho...more
Heller's freshman effort, Everything You Know, shows what would happen if she'd never learned to dial back some of her baser instincts: unbelievable pairings, absurd situations and characters too wrapped up in their own drama. The choice of protagonist alone takes getting used to: Willy, a curmudgeonly writer, follows up a health crisis by reading through his daughter's journals, the only connection left months after her suicide. Willy and the type-ridden supporting cast has a lot of implausible...more
A well written but ultimately not terribly absorbing story told by a 50 something misanthrope now self-exiled in America. He spent time in prison for murdering his wife though he was later acquitted, he's estranged from one daughter while the other has committed suicide, and he has at least 2 girlfriends to fuel his sex life. He's unpleasant, all the characters are in their different ways unpleasant. Why should I want to spend a rainy weekend in their company?
I always find Zoe Heller's books about redemption of sometimes disgusting characters intriguing. The characters have got just a crack of goodness in them somewhere, and that's enough. The books usually end with the character taking just one step toward the better part of themselves, and it's up to you to imagine the rest. She really knows how to describe the sometimes ugly nitty-gritty of humanness though. Not all the characters "see the light" either.
One of those books in which not a great deal happens, but the writing is of such a consistently high standard, as well as being very funny, that it hardly matters. Like Zoe Heller’s other novel ‘Notes on a Scandal’, this features a dislikeable narrator and a lot of sniffy commentary, and aside from a slightly curious ending, I enjoyed it. What I was most impressed by was the creation, by a female author, of a male narrator who is most definitely, unquestionably, a Bloke.
I love the way Zoë Heller writes her characters. Her first person narratives really dig into the character's psyche and showcases all the warts, immoral thoughts and true dichotomy that lives within all us.
This novel follows a couple weeks in the life of Willy Muller. A British man acquitted of killing his wife years ago, living in LA who just received noticed that his daughter committed suicide. We watch Willy recover from a heart attack, cheat on his girlfriend, attempt to reconcile with his...more
This novel follows a couple weeks in the life of Willy Muller. A British man acquitted of killing his wife years ago, living in LA who just received noticed that his daughter committed suicide. We watch Willy recover from a heart attack, cheat on his girlfriend, attempt to reconcile with his...more
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Wow, was that depressing. Nothing like a creepy, cheating father who is accused of killing his wife. Oh wait, yes, he reads the diaries of his daughter who has committed suicide. Oh, and then the other daughter lives with a drug dealer in some squalid Holborn house. Ugh. Great writer, needs better happier subjects.
This is Zoe Heller's first book, but I am reading it last, having read her only other two before this one. Now that I have finished this book, I have to say I did not like it as much as the other two, perhaps because I had little identification with the main character, a would-be writer who had been suspected of killing his wife.
Nov 16, 2008
Kim
is currently reading it
Haven't read much so far, but I have read this writer's other novel, Notes on a Scandal, which was made into a film starring Judy Dench. Who was quite brilliant, by the way...I much preferred the book, but the film is worth watching just to see how Dame Judy and Cate Blanchett play off of each other. Anyway...a bit of a tangent...Zoe Heller is a well-known journalist in GB, and I have to wonder, after having read her fiction, what kind of experiences she's had as a journalist to create such dark...more
Great fast read, even though I was terribly depressed by the time that I finished the book.
Willy reminds me of a few folks that I've known. Terribly bitter and sarcastic, and yet you get the feeling that they are absolutely at peace with being terribly bitter and sarcastic. Will grumbles and bitches about his terrible life, which really isn't that terrible at all at the moment. When he receives a bundle of journals from his dead daughter, he starts reading them... and the tone goes dark. For, a...more
Willy reminds me of a few folks that I've known. Terribly bitter and sarcastic, and yet you get the feeling that they are absolutely at peace with being terribly bitter and sarcastic. Will grumbles and bitches about his terrible life, which really isn't that terrible at all at the moment. When he receives a bundle of journals from his dead daughter, he starts reading them... and the tone goes dark. For, a...more
I loved the descriptions, really original, wish I could write like it. Interesting that the author writes as a older man and yet is so convincing. Perhaps though if I were an older man I would think differently and feel that the author has got us all wrong!
A difficult read at times but I enjoyed it.
A difficult read at times but I enjoyed it.
A quick read full of characters, though broken & sometimes cruel, who I cared about. Sometimes bitterly honest, sometimes beautifully poignant, it felt believable & honest. It's nowhere near as brilliant as Notes On a Scandal, but I really enjoyed the story.
mostly this was ok for me. I am not sure I was in the right mood for it, but it just didn't hold my attention really--didn't go to enough places.More of an internal thoughts book but from a third party looker-so it wasn't in depth enough maybe?
A man was accused of killing his wife in the 1970s and ultimately freed on appeal after a trial, which made him into a minorly notorious celebrity. He receives a package in the mail from his adult daughter who has recently killed herself. He starts reading her journal and reflecting a bit on what an unlikable person he is.
I found this interesting and well-written, but it is a depressing novel with few redeeming characters - the two stars is to discourage anyone from buying it without reading several pages.
An old man recovering in Mexico reads the diary of the daughter that had committed suicide and rethinks his life. Interesting, well written with rough language and lots of drugs
I enjoyed this book - although the narrative voice of the self centred central character wasn't likeable I thought it worked well the juxtaposition of his trivial and pointless existance with the intimate diary written by his daughter who had recently committed suicide. I wanted to hear more about her life, I felt like reaching out to help her.
I picked this up while traveling when I had limited options. It was short enough to be a worthy read. It is certainly a unique book.
Agile handling of a difficult protagonist (or antagonist), dead-on psychology, deft plotting. Takes no prisoners.
Still not as good as "Notes on a Scandal," but not an awful waste of an afternoon.
One argument is all it took to for Willy to lose everything in life that he held closest, including his two daughters. After he suffers a heart attack, Willy begins to start seeing things in a slightly new light. After all of this time, can he start to change his life, or is it too late?
Heller is successful again in this very interesting, compelling novel. The characters are dynamic and the story is not a predictable one. While there aren't many characters to root for, which is a Zoe Heller trai...more
Heller is successful again in this very interesting, compelling novel. The characters are dynamic and the story is not a predictable one. While there aren't many characters to root for, which is a Zoe Heller trai...more
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“I could feel Monika nudging me furiously at this point, but I refused to look at her. I wasn’t feeling particularly reverent about my mother’s deadness, or about the vicar, but I do despise that ghastly, ‘You’ve got to laugh, haven’t you?’ approach to religious occasions. As a young man, I often goaded my believing friends with crudely logical questions about God. But as the years have passed, I have found myself hankering more and more for a little cosy voodoo in my life. Increasingly, I regard my atheism as a regrettable limitation. It seems to me that my lack of faith is not, as I once thought, a triumph of the rational mind, but rather, a failure of the imagination - an inability to tolerate mystery: a species, in fact, of neurosis. There is no chance of my being converted, of course - it is far too late for that. But I wish it wasn’t.”
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4 people liked it
“Meir, let me ask you something,” I said after a while.
“Sure.”
“Do you think I’m a bad person?”
“Only God knows that for sure, Willy.”
“So you don’t have an opinion at all?”
“Not one that really matters.”
“Okay, let me ask you something else. If the Polish peasant who hid Jews from the Nazis is a hero, what is the Polish peasant who turned the Jews away? Is he a coward?”
Meir smiled, “Of course.”
“Really? A coward? A bad man?”
“A coward isn’t a bad man, necessarily. You can’t know if you’re a bad man until you die.”
“You’ve got to wait until you hear god’s decision?”
“Well, yes, that’s true. But I meant something else. Only when you die do you run out of chances to be good. Until then, there is always the possibility of turning yourself around.”
—
4 people liked it
More quotes…
“Sure.”
“Do you think I’m a bad person?”
“Only God knows that for sure, Willy.”
“So you don’t have an opinion at all?”
“Not one that really matters.”
“Okay, let me ask you something else. If the Polish peasant who hid Jews from the Nazis is a hero, what is the Polish peasant who turned the Jews away? Is he a coward?”
Meir smiled, “Of course.”
“Really? A coward? A bad man?”
“A coward isn’t a bad man, necessarily. You can’t know if you’re a bad man until you die.”
“You’ve got to wait until you hear god’s decision?”
“Well, yes, that’s true. But I meant something else. Only when you die do you run out of chances to be good. Until then, there is always the possibility of turning yourself around.”
Wonderful quote from the book; too bad...more
Nov 03, 2010 11:38am