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248th out of 1,712 books
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All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well: A Novel
by
Tod Wodicka (Goodreads Author)
Meet Burt Hecker: he's a mead-addicted medieval re-enactor from upstate New York who prefers oat gruel to French fries—because potatoes were unavailable in Europe before 1200 A.D.—and is mourning the death of his wife. After an incident involving the police and an illegally borrowed car, Burt is forced to join a local music therapy workshop to manage his anger. With this g...more
Hardcover, 272 pages
Published
January 29th 2008
by Pantheon
(first published January 1st 2007)
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Although I really can't relate, I can't help but be fascinated with people who are so uncomfortable in their own skin that they reject their gender, species, culture and/or time period in favor of another. And Burt Hecker - protagonist of Tod Wodicka's horribly titled debut novel - is one such person.
Burt (known as Eckbert Attquiet to his fellow medieval enthusiasts) is a man lost in time. Orphaned at birth and raised by nuns in an upstate New York monastery, Burt had always felt that he was be...more
Burt (known as Eckbert Attquiet to his fellow medieval enthusiasts) is a man lost in time. Orphaned at birth and raised by nuns in an upstate New York monastery, Burt had always felt that he was be...more
Dozens of copies of this book were stacked in a second-hand bookshop in Newtown, Sydney, going for $AUD4.95 each... I was intrigued enough by its cover (a reproduction of a detail of Ghirlandaio's wonderful painting 'Portrait of an Old Man and a Boy) and by the blurb on the back.
This novel is purportedly the story of the protagonist, Burt Hecker, who cannot stand the modern world, and has retreated into a world of 'historic mediaeval re-enactment' in which he indulges himself together with the...more
This novel is purportedly the story of the protagonist, Burt Hecker, who cannot stand the modern world, and has retreated into a world of 'historic mediaeval re-enactment' in which he indulges himself together with the...more
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(My full review of this book is longer than Goodreads' word-count limit; find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)
The longer I'm a full-time arts critic, the more I'm starting to realize just how important the following three facts about the arts are, things I had always suspected when I was an artist myself but am now coming to understand with a certainty now that I'm a reviewer:
--Within traditional Western storytelling, the single biggest de...more
The longer I'm a full-time arts critic, the more I'm starting to realize just how important the following three facts about the arts are, things I had always suspected when I was an artist myself but am now coming to understand with a certainty now that I'm a reviewer:
--Within traditional Western storytelling, the single biggest de...more
It's interesting to read the other reviews on this; a lot of people really hated it, despite the fact that it is a beautifully written book. I loved it. It reminded me of Confederacy of Dunces, with the same type of main character: useless in modern society, probably impossible to live with, fascinated with medieval society. Burt Hecker is person I wouldn't like at all in real life, but can't help really liking while I'm in his head. All Shall Be Well shares Confederacy of Dunces' tone of heartb...more
Burt Hecker enjoys re-enacting medieval times in upstate New York. A former history teacher, he spends his time overindulging in homemade mead and wearing a tunic everywhere.
Quirky? Yes. Odd? Certainly. Mentally unstable? Not so sure. Burt has so much on his mind. Now coping with the death of his wife and the estrangement between him and his two children, Burt has let his behavior spiral out of control. This leads us to our story. . .
A medieval chanting workshop takes Burt to Europe, where, amo...more
Quirky? Yes. Odd? Certainly. Mentally unstable? Not so sure. Burt has so much on his mind. Now coping with the death of his wife and the estrangement between him and his two children, Burt has let his behavior spiral out of control. This leads us to our story. . .
A medieval chanting workshop takes Burt to Europe, where, amo...more
Quite often, I have to read 50 or more pages to succumb to a book's world. Far more rarely do I succumb with glee on page 1 and am bored to tears by page 80 or so. Wodwicka has created a marvelously flawed hero, but when he tells the story of Kitty, entirely in italics for some strange reason, it began to lag. Moreover, too much defies my ability to suspend disbelief. like the Lemko in Poland who were not Polish.
Nor, apparently, were they living in the 20th or 21st centuries. It strained my cre...more
Nor, apparently, were they living in the 20th or 21st centuries. It strained my cre...more
Despite the middling review, this is a really good book. I loved the subject matter -- a man so troubled that he practically loses himself in historical re-enactments. The good balance between fine writing and faster-paced narratives; the stilted and realistic interactions between family members; the wry observations from the protagonist; the locations being places I was moderately familiar with -- all kept me eagerly reading until the end.
inadvertent spoilers:
But the end was unsatisfying. It wa...more
inadvertent spoilers:
But the end was unsatisfying. It wa...more
Synopsis: An older man tries to find redemption for his life after the death of his wife, his separation from his children and the loss of everything he's ever known.
An okay read. I don't know if it was the fact that I didn't have a lot of time to read it that made me take so long, or if I was not thrilled with the subject matter. It's very well written, and the arguments are very well done. It doesn't end up wrapped up neatly, but it does manage to bring disparate elements together. Some thing...more
An okay read. I don't know if it was the fact that I didn't have a lot of time to read it that made me take so long, or if I was not thrilled with the subject matter. It's very well written, and the arguments are very well done. It doesn't end up wrapped up neatly, but it does manage to bring disparate elements together. Some thing...more
So, this is a novel about a through-and-through nerd, and it is not a power-to-the-nerds story. The narrator of this novel, Burt, has a lot of the stereotypical geek traits you might see in a pop film. He's obsessed with the Middle Ages, and he is terribly ugly, and he has extremely limited social skills, and he was a virgin until some unspecified but presumably embarrassing age. He is the founder of a medieval re-enactment society called the Confraternity of Times Lost Regained. The CTLR is rou...more
This story of Burt Hecker, medieval reenactor, begins with the best description of Hildegard von Bingen's entombment as an anchorite at the age of 14 I could ever imagine: "They bury you alive so that you will never have a chance to sin. The ceremony is frightening but you cannot cry because Christ is there....Funeral rites are administered. You are bathed in holy water,scrubbed--and you will not cry. ... There are burial hymns. You are a gift this day, and you pray that you are worthy."
Hildegar...more
Hildegar...more
This is a novel about avoidance. The smartass that dwells in me would then say "therefore avoid this novel!" But as one learns to do when one pretends to be civilized, I have to repress my inner smartass and say this is not a novel that must be avoided, but I'm sad to say that it didn't quite live up to its potential.
The main avoidance is that the main character, Burt Hecker, pretends that he is Eckbert Attquiet a medieval man, not a 20th century man who has lost his wife, his mansion and all co...more
The main avoidance is that the main character, Burt Hecker, pretends that he is Eckbert Attquiet a medieval man, not a 20th century man who has lost his wife, his mansion and all co...more
I always fall for the lousy guys... not necessarily the big bad wolf just those pathetic no good can't help themselves type. maybe because i'd think those are the faults that i can imagine i'd do as well. well, this guy is one of them though he's also funny in a dry sort of way. it's those small comments or opinions he throws out once in a while that makes his sorry story feels entertaining. only, somehow... i'm thinking maybe this book is too short. i was still trying to picture how his n his w...more
ManFiction along the lines of earlier Richard Russo, Richard Ford, Phillip Roth, or even Michael Malone. Wodicka has a tremendous talent for smooth transitions in his writing; he refers to past and future, while never leaving the reader stranded or confused. And his descriptions can be delightful... for example, while the main character is involved in a medieval reenactment, his daughter, who hates this hobby of his, plows through the sea of participants with her car. "...in the backseat of June...more
I really tried. I went back to it several times, because my philosophy, which I spin to my kids is "Do not quit", but this is a book that I just had to leave in the end. There are too many other books out there on my "To Read" list. The prose is slow, the characters are not particularly likeable (not that that matters; I did not like the characters in Gillian Flynn's "Gone Girl" either) but they never seem to develop. It just wasn't gripping in the sense of being an "I'll just read another chapt...more
One star does seem so very harsh. It wasn't that I didn't like it. It was that the author seemed to be looking for the story himself and couldn't find it. The characters never came into their own, so you never really cared about them. The dead wife, the immigrant mother-in-law, the lawyer friend, the distant daughter, the son - never came into full view - they just kinda lurked there in the shadows not helping the story at all. If you're gonna have a character make them pull their weight - make...more
I loved Part 2 of this book, when we were exploring Burt's flawed relationships with his family, the meeting and courtship of his wife, the coping with the even-then-apparent hatred and bitterness of his eventual mother-in-law, all in the context of his own foibles and obsessions. The first part had laid out those obsessions, Burt's interest in medieval re-enactment and the distancing effect on his family, but I never really felt invested in any of them. Part 2 is where Burt becomes emotionally...more
I picked this up solely because of the spine and the fact that Wodicka looks a lot like my name and was right next to Wodehouse at the library. Very good litficcy litfic - a bit much for me - about a man obsessed with the middle ages, unable to really work out how and why his life has turned out the way it has, unsure about the mistakes he's made or if there was ever a way around them. I didn't like the modern lit-y lack of real resolution or even of coherent plot, but it was still a good book e...more
A quirky premise (medieval reenactor seeks son and redemption in Prague) yields a modest yet exceedingly true novel. Not all of the characters are vivid, but the ones that matter are (Burt and Kitty). Drunk and lost and stupid and smart, Burt Hecker fumbles through the wake of his wife's death, through a world where no one (least of all his children) understands him, or his love of Kitty or Kitty's love of him or why he won't consume anything that wasn't available in 13th century Europe. It's sw...more
This book was more reflective, more deeply troubling, and much sadder and heart wrenching than I expected it to be. I picked it up as a former (or should I say reformed) medieval re-enactor and was looking forward to this book. It didn't disappoint.
In it, the main character's (Burt Hecker) life spirals out of control when his wife dies of cancer. Burt is very child-like in so many ways and needs someone as his care taker. He feels like a displaced person in his time period, refuses to eat anyth...more
In it, the main character's (Burt Hecker) life spirals out of control when his wife dies of cancer. Burt is very child-like in so many ways and needs someone as his care taker. He feels like a displaced person in his time period, refuses to eat anyth...more
The entire time I was reading this book, I was trying to decide how I felt about it. It didn't push me away, but it certainly didn't pull me in. The story was there and I was there and we were both just there, hanging out, not really accomplishing anything or interacting with each other. There were times when I had to stop and appreciate the beauty of the writing (this is why it gets 3 stars and not less), but I never stopped to consider the beauty of the story—it simply wasn't beautiful to me....more
A friend lent me this book and I read it in a day. It's more of a character study than anything else.
The main character, Burt Hecker, is a medieval recreationist who goes by the name Eckbert Attquiet. He is also an alcoholic. We meet him while he is in Germany with his music therapy group recreating an experience from the childhood of Hildegard of Bingen. After their performance he sets out for Prague to find his estranged son, Tristan. As he travels we learn about his past through flashbacks....more
The main character, Burt Hecker, is a medieval recreationist who goes by the name Eckbert Attquiet. He is also an alcoholic. We meet him while he is in Germany with his music therapy group recreating an experience from the childhood of Hildegard of Bingen. After their performance he sets out for Prague to find his estranged son, Tristan. As he travels we learn about his past through flashbacks....more
Many aspects of this book were fascinating. Trying to live as if in the middle ages while in the 21st century. Going to a chant retreat in Germany to overcome anger issues. Hosting medieval reenactments and inviting a daughter who is a Trekkie. Many parts of this book held my attention, but the relationship between Burt and his lawyer, and especially with his children was so frustrating. There was so much jumping between time periods, it was sometimes hard to know which version of reality was be...more
The gentleman who read the audio version (Jason Culp) did a great job, but I think I'd recommend reading this on the page over listening to the audio. It's a long enough novel that I had trouble sustaining engagement with the story in the middle hours. But that's just me. There was both a droll humor and deep sadness to this story, and also Hildegarde von Bingen and medieval reenactors, which are all interesting. Sometimes the tone reminded me of Dear American Airlines (crusty old guy's ruminati...more
I enjoyed this book greatly, as much as any that I have read in the past year or so. It is very well written. The main character, Bert, is passionate about making history come alive. For the past 30 years he has done this through medieval re-enactment, with the support of his wife, Kitty. However, his inability to cope with her death has brought his family and its history near to extinction. This book is the story of how things came to this pass and Bert's last ditch effort to salvage his family...more
Wow. I teach my students that all stories need conflict. Nobody wants to read a book, or watch a TV show, or a movie (I say) about a person who wakes up in the morning and has just the best day ever and then they hop into bed that night with a smile on their face. Authors mine misery and that's how we end up with sad, beautiful, laugh-out-loud funny books like All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well.
This is the story of senior citizen Burt Hecker, or Eckb...more
This is the story of senior citizen Burt Hecker, or Eckb...more
There was just something about this book. The main character is not especially likable, but the author brings us into his world, and he feels like a real person. One of the things I liked best about this book is that it is a description of a dysfunctional family from a perspective that I haven't seen very much of - the father.* His memories of the way his daughter has shut him out for her entire life are particularly poignant. And, you can see where her frustrations come from, yet at the same ti...more
A somewhat literary novel about an aging man who has lost his wife to cancer and his two grown kids to estrangement. All his life he has been into medieval reenactment, and it is his obsession with this hobby that is both the symbol of and the cause for his estrangement from the world and his family.
The book is well written and has several very poignant moments, as well as several very funny ones, and sometimes the two are so close to one another that it makes the emotional effect even more pow...more
The book is well written and has several very poignant moments, as well as several very funny ones, and sometimes the two are so close to one another that it makes the emotional effect even more pow...more
This is a nicely done story of a dysfunctional family and particularly of a misfit who feels he doesn't belong in this century. Burt Hecker is a former history teacher who has devoted most of his life to medieval reenactment, going so far as to found the society he has named the Confraternity of Times Lost Regained (CTLR), a group who stages regular reenactment events. Burt is constantly true to his displacement in time, wearing nothing but tunics, brewing his own honey mead, and refusing to eat...more
I found this novel both disappointing and lacking on more than one level. Despite a title borrowed from a prayer by Julian of Norwich and much reference to and about Hildegard von Bingen, there is little to no talk of matters of the spirit or any real conversion. Why would a character like Burt Hecker choose a historical period so closely aligned with Christian spirituality to re-enact if he didn't have strong feelings about his faith - either positive or negative? I would classify Burt as apath...more
A pleasant surprise. It could’ve been a complete bore, but the author somehow managed to make the narration of a pitiful man work. The narrator reenacts the medieval European world with an odd circle of friends, as well as on his own. It keeps them from having to actually live in the current world. This is hardly an earth-shattering revelation, but the author makes it fresh with excellent writing, an unusual voice, and a host of characters that are escaping from the real world in a variety of wa...more
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Raised in Queensbury, New York, Tod Wodicka currently lives in Berlin, Germany.
His first novel, All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well, was published in July 2007 by Jonathan Cape in the UK and in January 2008 by Pantheon in the US. Vintage has published a paperback in the US and the UK.
In 2007, it was also translated into Dutch and published by Nieuw Amst...more
More about Tod Wodicka...
His first novel, All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well, was published in July 2007 by Jonathan Cape in the UK and in January 2008 by Pantheon in the US. Vintage has published a paperback in the US and the UK.
In 2007, it was also translated into Dutch and published by Nieuw Amst...more
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“The sun tells the best joke of a day full of them, setting so spectacularly that you can almost smell the tropical paradise lazing somewhere over this rim of endless, gray socialist towers. Miles of square windows explode orange, red, and purple, like a million TV sets broadcasting the apocalypse. Clouds unspool. The sky drains of birds.”
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“In medieval times, contrary to popular belief, most knights were bandits, mercenaries, lawless brigands, skinners, highwaymen, and thieves. The supposed chivalry of Charlemagne and Roland had as much to do with the majority of medieval knights as the historical Jesus with the temporal riches and hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, or any church for that matter. Generally accompanied by their immoral entourage or servants, priests, and whores, they went from tourney to tourney like a touring rock and roll band, sports team, or gang of South Sea pirates. Court to court, skirmish to skirmish, rape to rape. Fighting as the noble's substitution for work.”
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