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499th out of 1,192 books
—
890 voters
Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever: Stories
Justin Taylor's crystalline, spare, and oddly moving prose cuts to the quick. His characters are guided by misapprehensions that bring them to hilarious but often tragic impasses with reality: a high school boy's desire to win over a crush leads him to experiment with black magic, a fast-food employee preoccupied by Abu Ghraib becomes obsessed with a coworker, a Tetris pla...more
Paperback, 208 pages
Published
February 9th 2010
by Harper Perennial
(first published February 1st 2010)
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I'm still reading these because I don't read a book of short stories the way I read a novel. (I will say that while I'm reading, it's hard not to go on to the next story as if it were the next chapter.) These stories are so vivid, I feel like I'm falling into Harry Potter's pensieve when I start one, and I come out startled and not sure where I am. I checked the book out from the library weeks ago, and I just can't bring myself to turn it in until I finish it.
I'm becoming more and more a fan of short story collections than ever before. It's funny—what I used to find most problematic about short stories, the fact that I would get invested in characters only to have to give them up within a few pages, I'm starting to enjoy more and more. A good short story collection really gives you insight into many memorable characters and situations, and while there are certain stories you wish to be longer, the collection is often like a buffet—sometimes there wil...more
I'm more of a novel girl myself, so keep that in mind when reading this review. Taylor's stories remind me of an exceptional fine art photograph: At first glance, it's slightly mundane, but then you notice the details and suddenly you're intrigued. If I didn't have a stack of library books, I would go back and read this again immediately, and probably like it a whole more. There's a lot in there that a 2-hour front-to-back read won't catch (which, unfortunately, is how I read it). The weather pl...more
One of the downsides to short story collections by a single author is that, if there are a number of stories with similar plots and aspects, they can all blur together in your head. You read the last story, then look at the table of contents and wonder how you possibly read all of these, when you can't remember a single thing that happened in any one of them until you read their opening lines again. Sometimes the stories are all distinctive enough so this isn't a problem, and usually there are a...more
I picked up this book both because I'd heard it was great (the hype around it was big, at least) and because I was genuinely interested from a business/cultural point of view as to why it was so popular, a first book of short stories by a relatively unknown author whose main connection to the indie lit world was through HTMLGiant.com and the (somewhat insular) Brooklyn scene.
There were some real gems in this collection, and Taylor is obviously a talented writer with more to come. But there was u...more
There were some real gems in this collection, and Taylor is obviously a talented writer with more to come. But there was u...more
Everything Here Is The Best Thing Ever by Justin Taylor, besides being a book with an incredibly long title, is a collection of short stories, basically about hipsters being unemployed doing unglamourous things. The book is small, topping off at 185 pages. The stories are gritty. Some I related with and some I did not.
Read the rest of my review here
Read the rest of my review here
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I actually enjoyed most of the stories in Everything here is the best thing ever. They were kind of average and not as zany as the description on the back led me to believe, but a couple were outstanding (well, mostly Tetris - I'm a sucker for apocalypse stories, I guess).
And then I got to the last two stories, "Jewels Flashing in the Night of Time" and "Whistle Through Your Teeth and Spit". I didn't like the former, but I actually kind of hated "Whistle...". I didn't really get why people were...more
And then I got to the last two stories, "Jewels Flashing in the Night of Time" and "Whistle Through Your Teeth and Spit". I didn't like the former, but I actually kind of hated "Whistle...". I didn't really get why people were...more
Yo, Justin! Over here, dude.
Sorry to have to tell you this, bro. I was happy to overlook the obvious points working against you - the quintessential hipster bio, that disturbing glint of naked ambition in your jacket photo, the cover puff quote by a former talent gone seriously awry (Padgett Powell*), the information that you are working on your first novel and that you live in Brooklyn. Because everyone deserves a chance, so I gave you one.
But you blew it, bro. Big time. Turns out you had absol...more
Sorry to have to tell you this, bro. I was happy to overlook the obvious points working against you - the quintessential hipster bio, that disturbing glint of naked ambition in your jacket photo, the cover puff quote by a former talent gone seriously awry (Padgett Powell*), the information that you are working on your first novel and that you live in Brooklyn. Because everyone deserves a chance, so I gave you one.
But you blew it, bro. Big time. Turns out you had absol...more
16 likes · like · see review
"She was worrying that the oak tree might come through her ceiling, wood obliterating wood, like a miracle running backward" (2).
"The shallow hole was surrounded by salvaged chairs and shaded by a blue canvas canopy they'd stolen from some resort because property was always already theft anyway, and plus they had really wanted that canopy" (17).
"Not having cable wasn't a statement. Maybe the statement was being made by the people who paid out a monthly portion of their slave wages for endless in...more
"The shallow hole was surrounded by salvaged chairs and shaded by a blue canvas canopy they'd stolen from some resort because property was always already theft anyway, and plus they had really wanted that canopy" (17).
"Not having cable wasn't a statement. Maybe the statement was being made by the people who paid out a monthly portion of their slave wages for endless in...more
I was browsing the new books section at my library and saw this book with a great title. I am normally not a huge fan of short story collections but there was one called Tetris...how bad could it be?
For me, the most frustrating part about these stories can be summed up with two points: (1) In almost every story, the characters are the same and speak in nearly identical first person voice. Some variety would have been nice. (2) Nothing really happens to the characters. They don't really do anythi...more
For me, the most frustrating part about these stories can be summed up with two points: (1) In almost every story, the characters are the same and speak in nearly identical first person voice. Some variety would have been nice. (2) Nothing really happens to the characters. They don't really do anythi...more
To be honest, I'm a bit shocked by the amount of Goodreads ire directed at Justin Taylor's excellent short story collection, Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever. The complaints of solipsism (or, worse yet, that this is merely a "hipster" book) strike me as ill-placed, and inaccurate anyway.
I mean, I get it: you can't write a book that references Will Oldham and the Silver Jews and freegans (and, let's face it, be twenty-seven years old at the time of publication) and not get a handful of peop...more
I mean, I get it: you can't write a book that references Will Oldham and the Silver Jews and freegans (and, let's face it, be twenty-seven years old at the time of publication) and not get a handful of peop...more
Though slim, this collection weighs heavily on the reader’s heart, and more often, on the reader’s patience. Justin Taylor precedes the stories with a quote from writer-of-grim-stories Gary Lutz: “I sang the way I still talk. Every song was the worst way I could think of to ask for what I did not yet know how not to want.”
This knot is a perfect introduction to Taylor’s world, where nearly every inhabitant complicates life by choosing the path of the most resistance. Sympathy gives way to horror...more
This knot is a perfect introduction to Taylor’s world, where nearly every inhabitant complicates life by choosing the path of the most resistance. Sympathy gives way to horror...more
Here's where I wish goodreads had a half-star - this is more than a 3-star book, but it's not a 4-star-er... This collection of shorts from an incredibly talented twenty-seven year old shows so much promise that it almost carries you over the spots where you can't help but notice yourself reading a twenty-seven year old's first collection of shorts. Writing with a spare, slective pen, Justin Taylor could turn out to be a major voice - even in the most lackadaisical of the stories here he can tur...more
Pretentious (and not in the way I like). The author notably inserts vocabulary such as the "freegan" in one of his stories, in what comes across largely as an attempt to show how cool he is (in that ironic, understated way). Ugh. The loosely constructed stories didn't seem to have a point, but I kept reading, hopeful that the next one would be better. No? Well, maybe the next one, until I'd finished the book and realized I'd wasted a good deal of the afternoon.
I'm all for listening to undergroun...more
I'm all for listening to undergroun...more
Review copy
I sat down this morning to start ANOTHER collection of short stories, this one from author Justin Taylor. After completing it just a short 16 hours later, I was forced to admit two things: One, that I can really do some damage when I buckle down and focus on reading. Two, that I am also starting to enjoy short stories.
They are short and sweet. They get right to the point. There are no long-winded, uninteresting side-stories that pull you unwillingly away from the main plot. They don't...more
I sat down this morning to start ANOTHER collection of short stories, this one from author Justin Taylor. After completing it just a short 16 hours later, I was forced to admit two things: One, that I can really do some damage when I buckle down and focus on reading. Two, that I am also starting to enjoy short stories.
They are short and sweet. They get right to the point. There are no long-winded, uninteresting side-stories that pull you unwillingly away from the main plot. They don't...more
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Some of the stories made me want to rate this three stars. But not quite enough. (Didn't make me want to quite enough, or not enough of the stories, take your pick.)
I'd have liked this book three stars or better about 15 years ago, though. Not because I am that much ahead of the up-to-date/pseudo-counter-culture characters Taylor portrays, but because I could relate more to "stuff disaffected white youngsters like" back then. (Apologies for the way too meta joke. Sometimes I can't help myself.)...more
I'd have liked this book three stars or better about 15 years ago, though. Not because I am that much ahead of the up-to-date/pseudo-counter-culture characters Taylor portrays, but because I could relate more to "stuff disaffected white youngsters like" back then. (Apologies for the way too meta joke. Sometimes I can't help myself.)...more
Ugh. No thanks. I couldn't make it all the way through, honestly. If the first story wasn't bad enough (second person, mundane, generally unappealing, weak) I had to read about some gross guy vaguely sniffing his cousin's underwear after he drowns her cat. I felt icky and unsatisfied. Is this what the author was going for, that feeling of remorse you get after having a bad make out session with someone out of boredom? Well, maybe that's the whole damn point. But I don't want to revisit those kin...more
An interesting model for how the modern short story collection should work. Each piece propels you into the next. A lot of the reviews on here seem to believe that they all sound the same and are about similar characters, which I think is rather untrue. If you think that all of the characters in this book are the same, then we're not reading the same book. The writing style is singular and dynamic in a way that's soft spoken and genuine in the way that it conveys average people dealing with the...more
Some of the stories in this collection are gimmicky and reminiscent of something from Miranda July or McSweeney's. Perhaps Barthelme redux is in literary vogue right now.
Taylor also seems obsessed with mining the Nick Hornby lad lit territory of record stores, musical experiences, sexual (in)experience, and pot smoking to give his slacker 20-to-30-something male characters authenticity and angst.
Some of the stories are well constructed and reveal startling epiphanies at the end; others just fe...more
Taylor also seems obsessed with mining the Nick Hornby lad lit territory of record stores, musical experiences, sexual (in)experience, and pot smoking to give his slacker 20-to-30-something male characters authenticity and angst.
Some of the stories are well constructed and reveal startling epiphanies at the end; others just fe...more
My professor slash mentor slash brilliant writer (slash friend?) Miro Penkov suggested I read this book because it's making the same kind of moves I make. I see what he's saying, but Justin Taylor does what I do a lot better than I do. Chop off the last two stories and this would be a pretty perfect short story collection. It's not that they're bad, though; it's more that they don't click like most of the other ones do. As it is, there are some brilliant stories in here, like "What Was Once All...more
Cuentos inconclusos. Trozos de historias que podrían acabar de cualquier modo pero que se quedan ahí dando coletazos sin un enemigo al que abatir.
Hay dos o tres cuentos con los que comulgo. Bien escritos y cuyas historias segmentadas han entrado en mi mirada de lector escéptico. Pero otras muchas me han dejado frío.
Seré yo. Será que ayer nevó. Será que siempre tengo conflictos con los cuentos. Será que al señor Taylor le queda un largo camino por delante.
Sin embargo, tiene la valía de saber qué...more
Hay dos o tres cuentos con los que comulgo. Bien escritos y cuyas historias segmentadas han entrado en mi mirada de lector escéptico. Pero otras muchas me han dejado frío.
Seré yo. Será que ayer nevó. Será que siempre tengo conflictos con los cuentos. Será que al señor Taylor le queda un largo camino por delante.
Sin embargo, tiene la valía de saber qué...more
A few quite good stories, a lot of so-so stories. Very reminiscent, to me at least, of Miranda July. More preoccupied with hipsters than with greater, more universal themes. But excellent description of the hipster pathos.
The stories are often 'artistic' in the fashion of the last few decades, meaning that they don't center on plot and don't give the reader a great payout. Unless you consider ambiguity and anticlimax to be great payouts.
Taylor's descriptive talent saves the stories, which are a...more
The stories are often 'artistic' in the fashion of the last few decades, meaning that they don't center on plot and don't give the reader a great payout. Unless you consider ambiguity and anticlimax to be great payouts.
Taylor's descriptive talent saves the stories, which are a...more
I feel like I owe this a review? I felt shy about doing one at the time I read it (September '10), but here we go:
I read almost every story twice. This collection is great, and for those who are skeptical of my biases, I read this before that and it blew me away, so there. My favorite story in EHITBTE, and one of my favorite (favorite seems weird to say about things that are good because they make you uncomfortable, so let's say one of the best) stories I've read anywhere, is "Jewels Flashing in...more
I read almost every story twice. This collection is great, and for those who are skeptical of my biases, I read this before that and it blew me away, so there. My favorite story in EHITBTE, and one of my favorite (favorite seems weird to say about things that are good because they make you uncomfortable, so let's say one of the best) stories I've read anywhere, is "Jewels Flashing in...more
One of the stories in this collection is called "Jewels Flashing in the Night of Time". I think that title is an apt description of the 15 stories in this collection. Although a slim volume, the stories contained herein have a crystalline quality like stars or jewels. I'm reminded of the phrase from Disney's Aladdin: "diamond in the rough". In a world of uninteresting literary creations, Justin Taylor has fashioned some flashing and valuable jewels.
These stories are like looking through windows
...more
Justin Taylor’s debut collection of stories seems to be guided by some universal list of all things hipster and disaffected. The Pixies are namechecked, we’re treated to the namedropping of Trotsky and Derrida. The fifteen stories are the lives of young Floridians and Manhattanities, endlessly aimless, and oblivious to the world beyond them.
It’s such a package of hipsterism that the collection itself nearly becomes meta, the epitome of Taylor’s description of Hot Topic packaging the conformist l...more
It’s such a package of hipsterism that the collection itself nearly becomes meta, the epitome of Taylor’s description of Hot Topic packaging the conformist l...more
I'll admit I picked up this book for its attractive cover and catchy title. It all looked so pretty. I read the jacket cover; themes of loneliness, disconnection, post modern blahblahblah, okay fine, sounds promising. The first story is strong, deceptively strong. The rest of them are annoyingly repetitive and just cliche. Yeah, they capture the grunge of the 90s really well and the apathy of the generation is clearly there, but it was just blasé. Boring even. 2 stars.
Taylor skillfully writes in a tone of what 30 feels like in 2012. "Weekend Away" really just felt a lot like me these days. I'm not sure what that says about me, but it's probably depressing.
Not every story is a winner, but that's the joy of short stories. They are short. I found it wonderful to read in bars when waiting for realtors/brokers. It gave me some solidarity in my frustration with the housing market in Manhattan.
Not every story is a winner, but that's the joy of short stories. They are short. I found it wonderful to read in bars when waiting for realtors/brokers. It gave me some solidarity in my frustration with the housing market in Manhattan.
"Chords fill the air, ooze like oil from a slab of deli meat." Jesus. If Jonathan Lethem teaches writing classes, do you think he uses Justin Taylor as an example of how not to do similes?
"Jewels Flashing in the Night of Time" is not bad for its ideas but the writing is mostly Conrad, Bataille, and the Abu Ghraib reports so maybe Taylor has a niche there.
That's the second to last story and the last story "Whistle Through Your Teeth and Spit" actually shows a human relationship so maybe skip to t...more
"Jewels Flashing in the Night of Time" is not bad for its ideas but the writing is mostly Conrad, Bataille, and the Abu Ghraib reports so maybe Taylor has a niche there.
That's the second to last story and the last story "Whistle Through Your Teeth and Spit" actually shows a human relationship so maybe skip to t...more
Justin Taylor is clearly inspired by the short fiction of Raymond Carver (via Hemingway), but he isn't just some douchey kid who think he's a lot better than he is. There are some stories in here when the settings and characters were just a tad too up to date and similar to myself or people I know, to the point where it made me uncomfortable. Not that this is a criticism, but Taylor clearly knows what and who he is writing about.
The stories are mostly about people age 16 to 24 who are lost in th...more
The stories are mostly about people age 16 to 24 who are lost in th...more
I'd say this collection was better than Greenman's that I just read, but still left me considering what the stories were actually about. Many had intriguing characters and situations along with self-loathing and men being mistreated by women (for a change) and a lot of references to Jews. Overall, solid writing from Taylor (who I think I may have gone to grad school with). I'd be interested in seeing more from him.
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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Justin Taylor is the author of the novel “The Gospel of Anarchy” and the story collection “Everything Here Is The Best Thing Ever.”
The Millions called “The Gospel of Anarchy” a “bold casserole of sensual encounter and deranged proclamation… Loudly, even rapturously, Taylor succeeds in making the clamoring passio...more
More about Justin Taylor...
Justin Taylor is the author of the novel “The Gospel of Anarchy” and the story collection “Everything Here Is The Best Thing Ever.”
The Millions called “The Gospel of Anarchy” a “bold casserole of sensual encounter and deranged proclamation… Loudly, even rapturously, Taylor succeeds in making the clamoring passio...more
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