Everything Solid has a Shadow

by Michael Antman

Charlie Alessandro is a musician and a marketing executive who ought to be happily satisfied. He is successful in his career, involved with a sleek and confident woman, and enjoying a fulfilling creative outlet with his guitar. Yet his seemingly complete life is troubled at every turn by something dark that happened to him when he was very young. Everything Solid has a Shadow is an intricately plotted novel driven by two intertwined mysteries—his investigation of that long-ago occurrence and the mysterious apparition of a woman he barely knows who invades his brain as he sleeps. Charlie’s journey into these two mysteries, his relationship with three beautiful young women in his life, and the very surprising resolution, make for an eerie and absorbing tale.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

283 pages, Hardcover

Published October 5, 2021

About the author

Michael Antman is the author of the novels Cherry Whip (ENC Press, 2004), Everything Solid has a Shadow (Amika Press, 2017), and the forthcoming memoir Searching for the Seagull Motel, and is a two-time finalist for the National Book Critic Circle’s Balakian Award for Excellence in Book Reviewing. He also is the Global Head of Marketing for a Fortune 500 company.

Reviews

[N.N. Heaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can you tell the difference between dreams and reality? Are you sure? What happens when your dreams intermingle with reality and you're not quite sure what's real and what isn't? This is the premise behind Everything Solid has a Shadow. Antman has created such an original concept, I couldn't stop reading. A thought-provoking story that sticks with you and I highly recommend!

My Rating: 5 stars

[Bill Selby · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the surface, EVERYTHING SOLID HAS A SHADOW is an account of psychologically damaged guy trying to come to terms with the three most important women in his life – but that description doesn’t do it justice. This novel has a compelling, ‘haunted’ quality. The author embraces just the right amount of ambiguity regarding a devastating childhood tragedy, then goes about slowly unraveling the mystery surrounding the event. I really got caught up in the main character, Charlie’s, obsessive first person narrative. Beautiful language, with flashes of poetic brilliance, and a couple of tour de force sequences just this side of the paranormal that I returned to and reread. We’re dealing with dreams here; with what’s real and what’s imagined. With love and death and healing. With how the passage of time warps our (mis)perceptions, our truth. The characters and settings are finely drawn, and the resolution is canny and emotionally satisfying. Hard to put down. Once you start reading, I guarantee you’ll finish it.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

For several years I was a book reviewer for a popular culture website and discovered that the thing I liked least about reviewing was being obliged to write a negative review. I hammered books by Don DeLillo, even John Updike, because they deserved it. I took no pleasure in it, so I quit. But I wish I’d had Everything Solid Has a Shadow assigned to me back then. This, Michael Antman’s second novel (Cherry Whip being his first), is a very fine novel in all the ways that matter: a suspenseful, compelling narrative; limpid, masterful prose; living, breathing characters, and an ending that snaps shut like clasps on a briefcase full of gold. This novel is unique. I can’t think of another author’s work to compare it to. The complexity of each character’s private dilemma is as clear and comprehensible as a lepidopterist’s description of a cecropia moth, while rich in imagery, emotional depth, and human compassion. I won’t go into the plot, except to say that from the very first chapter, it will take you and hold you fast. The ending gave me shivers.

[Mark Guerin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Antman's second novel, EVERYTHING SOLID HAS A SHADOW, is a fascinating story with psychological twists and turns, Hawaiian beaches, unethical bosses, alcoholic parents, aspiring musicians and modern-day relationships. It colorfully details the everyday life of Charlie, a marketing exec/musician living in Chicago, while revealing through strange dreams and premonitions the truth about a tragic accident that happened when Charlie was a boy and continues to haunt him into his thirties. Compelling reading!

[Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything Solid Has A Shadow (Building the Perfect Chicago Book Collection, #1)

Michael Antman’s debut novel, Everything Solid Has A Shadow, is a kind of coming-of-age story for an everyman hero whose troubling past has stymied his maturation. The novel darts between the mental and physical, past and present, dream state and reality, as Charlie Alessandro attempts to solve the cold case at the core of his identity. Doing so might allow Charlie a path to a healthier adult existence.

Charlie looks and acts and talks like a well-adjusted young man—good job, pretty girlfriend, artistic aspirations—but he’s not. He fears he’s “cracking up.” His deep-seated problems began when he and a neighbor friend, then eight years old, shirked their babysitting duties, with a dead infant as the result. His family returned to their native Argentina in shame, but were back in Chicago not many years later, to resume, in somewhat undramatic fashion, their old lives. Now an adult, Charlie doesn’t blame himself, not really—he was only eight—but he recoils from feminine criticism, and he fears becoming a father, and he blocks out emotionally-charged events, and he struggles to forge lasting relationships. He’s a realist, and knows, intellectually, that no eight-year-old should have been put in the position to care for a baby. Still.

Chicago is the scene of the crime (accident, in this case), and that is where Charlie begins to assemble his clues. Though Charlie never saw his friend Willa after her baby sister, Elizabeth, rolled out of bed to her death on their watch, she remains in his thoughts. Charlie’s mom and dad are back in Argentina, assuming the role of long-distance burdens, his father periodically sending out flares when crises related to excessive gambling and drinking get especially difficult.

The novel is divided into three parts, each representing a romantic partner: Alisa, Willa, and MariAngela. Conflict presides over each of the three relationships, but they’re not so much separate ordeals as part of the puzzle Charlie needs to solve to become whole again.

Charlie’s mundane life—his girlfriend Alisa is fine, his advertising job is fine, his musical side gigs are fine—gets upset when his waitress friend MariAngela seemingly walks right into his skull. Coincidental to sharing his dream, Charlie learns that MariAngela has been diagnosed as having the horrific and deadly disease, ALS.

MariAngela is the first in a series of sidekicks that Charlie unwittingly enlists in his quest to get to the truth of his own existence. There is also Dr. Nemerov, a brilliantly blunt psychiatrist, and eventually Willa and Willa’s older sister. Alisa is also a partner, even if her time as a girlfriend fits Charlie’s long-established pattern of short-lived.

Ultimately, this is a story about self-reflection, only it balances external and internal events in the manner of a good mystery. Charlie is seeking to solve the mystery of himself. Doing so positions Charlie to become a better man, especially as regards the people closest to him.

The success of this novel relies on its strong narrative voice and expert pacing. Charlie tells this story like he’s telling a story, and creates the impression that he’s figuring out all its elements along the way. This is a difficult literary device to pull off, but when done well, as here, it forges a bond between reader and narrator. The title is yanked from an object Charlie found in his rental house, namely a dollhouse the owner presumably constructed for his children and which leaves the illusion of a shadow. This metaphor subtly guides the reader as the author expertly lays down tracks for a page-turner that also engages the reader in deep metaphysical exploration. Charlie’s methodical charm and wit offset his dives into fear, sadness, and desperation. This is not a joyous story, but it is told in such an engaging way as to make confronting mortality seem like a game you can win.

Chicago is not the only setting—Charlie vacations in Hawaii (and there reunites with Willa while overseeing the end of Alisa) and road trips to St. Louis (to shake the truth out of Willa’s sister Beatrice). But Chicago is the primary place where this story takes place, and it is vital to its spirit. Antman’s descriptive powers serve character better than place, but he does fix the landscape through brilliant details and suggestions, such as when he describes Charlie’s farmhouse-turned-family home’s basement as, “a dank, crowded, spiky, and tangled cave.”

Everything Solid Has A Shadow merits a place on my Chicago bookshelf because I loved the characters (most of all Dr. Nemerov), and it made me laugh, and I wanted—needed—to know how this all turned out. I found myself, even after a second read, going back to the book’s ideas, and that is a sure sign that a novel has lasting value.

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything solid has a shadow is a very engrossing novel. The descriptive language is very evocative . The author does a great job of dealing with significant psychological questions through the story's action; I have read a number of novels lately that spend the majority of the book explaining things rather than showing things through events. There is a nice balance here. The story is moved along both through the action and dialogue that is very natural. The novel has memorable characters dealing with life altering issues in believable ways. Definitely plan to go and read Antman's first novel, Cherry Whip.

[M J Frishman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read and enjoyed Cherry Whip, I was looking forward to reading this latest novel from Michael Antman, Everything Solid Has a Shadow. To say that it met my high expectations is not quite accurate—it exceeded them. This book is unique, and succeeds on many levels. The story is engrossing from the beginning. Artful use of language, complex and compelling characters, suspenseful, and psychologically deep, the many twists and turns are handled by Antman like a master juggler. And it doesn’t let up until the unexpected and emotionally powerful ending. An intelligent page-turner—highly recommended.

[Bob Boone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Midwest Book Review: “Unique, original, and consistently entertaining and showcases author Michael Antman’s genuine flair for narrative driven storytelling.… Deftly written…intricately plotted and thoroughly reader engaging novel that is especially and unreservedly recommended.”

[Allyn Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly beautiful

A wonderfully poetic journey through the lives of intricately carved characters. One of those rare works that will stay with you long after the final page.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know those people that always insist on telling you their dreams and you’re thinking “WTF (why the fudge) are you telling me your dream? It makes no sense. I don’t care. I’ve never cared. Please never tell me again” but really you just sit there and wait for the whole debacle to be over? That is this book. It is one very self-centered dude who thinks he’s very special and so therefore tells everyone about his dreams. And his general other life failings. Let me back up.

There’s a story going on in this book—it’s the story of the life of the main character, Charlie. He had a traumatic event happen to him early in life, and it haunts him in many ways, as you might imagine a traumatic event would do. He seems to be pretty successful on the outside—he has a good job, he has a girlfriend, he has a hobby that he likes. But after being inside this man’s head for so many pages I just want to eye roll emoji all over the place because I'm thinking a little self-awareness would have gone a long way here. I’m pretty sure this was not the author’s intention. Charlie is self-deprecating in the way that is annoyingly close to him actually thinking he’s more awesome than everyone in the whole world, even though he likes to act and tell everyone how he’s actually not. He manifests this by being a general twit all the time to pretty much All the People. Many people don’t put up with it, but some do. He obviously believes he has some sort of magical juju, seeing as he goes around telling everyone his dreams and thinks they’re interesting enough for people to actually listen. And listen. And listen. Because, you see, he’s some kind of telepathic mind reader or psychic or something extra ordinary (as you might think a jerk would fancy himself). He believes a woman friend comes to speak to him like a dream—but it’s not a dream. It was actually the woman speaking to him psychically (she does not agree with this, by the way. I think she lets it slide so he’ll just stop being so weird). So much of this was just so strange and could just so annoyingly be that he is just imaging this that I felt sorry for the people in the story who were forced to listen to him tell about his weird dreams again and again. Except for the psychiatrist, who is paid for such shenanigans. I did like the weirdness of the psychiatrist. That was an entertaining twist. I do think that the psychic dreams could have had potential, but they just ended up feeling so circumstantial that it never really made that cross over into what could have actually been something paranormal. I think it just stopped at being coincidental.

I wanted to like the main character, I wanted to find his story interesting, and I just didn’t. I did think his back story had some promise, and the interlude that had to do with that was a fun sidebar. Maybe a male reader would find this character more appealing, because as a female reader it just pretty much confirmed what I think men with little to no self-awareness are actually like on the inside. So in that way, it was life-affirming.

The writing of the book is decent, and that wasn’t the issue at all. This is obviously not Antman’s first whirl. I was pleased that the writing wasn’t also an issue. The book itself just really was not my thing.

Read my full review here: http://readingforsanity.blogspot.com/...

[doug.whatzup · Rating 4 out of 5]

My stepson Grant died 14 years ago last month. Just shy of his twentieth birthday and weeks away from reporting for duty to the U.S. Navy, he was hit by a drunk driver who then fled the scene. We were told that he died instantly, so perhaps the fleeing the scene part of it is not important, even though it makes the image of him left to die on the side of the road even more unshakably haunting than it might have been had the driver had the human decency to stop.

Grant was the youngest of five step-siblings, each of whom could have been raised in completely different households by completely different parents, so little did they resemble each other in personality and character. An easy-going, always affable kid, Grant was the bond that held it all together. In a household rife with teenage insecurities, emotional strife, and shifting sibling and familial rivalries, he was the one nobody could stay mad at, the peacemaker who could be both ally and conciliator, the one everyone loved wholeheartedly and without reservation. His sudden, tragic death exploded the tenuous bonds that held our blended family together and left each of us struggling to find a way out of gaping, separate (but presumably equal) chasms of grief.

The anniversary of his death was last month and the anniversary of his birth this month so, naturally, this is the time of year that Grant’s absence weighs most heavily on my wife and me. It’s not unusual that we would find ourselves binge-watching the Harry Potter series this time of year. That I found myself reading a copy of Michael Antman’s Everything Solid Has a Shadow that a friend happened to give me early in mid-October, however, seems almost too coincidental to be real.

I’ll explain.

Grant was an avid reader who read the Potter books over and over again. He was eagerly anticipating the theatrical release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth in the series, at the time of his death. The movie opened the day after what would have been his 20th birthday, about six weeks after his death, and as a sort of homage to his memory our family – including most of his siblings and a couple of his young nephews, along with his girlfriend – went to see the film immediately upon its release.

We were unprepared for the fact that Cedric Diggory, as played by Robert Pattison, so closely resembled Grant in both manner and appearance, and his death at the film’s end had all of us leaving the theatre in tears. I distinctly remember some of the faces of people going into the theatre as we were leaving, their eager and anticipatory expressions rapidly giving way to dismay and apprehension about what they might be walking into.

There’s a scene in Antman’s book in which the protagonist describes walking down a busy New York City sidewalk and finding himself not just examining, but momentarily inhabiting each and every approaching face, He he describes the experience this way: “… and then suddenly I slipped into an even more abstracted state and began to imagine that, for each face in each slide of a second that I glimpsed them, that I not only knew them, I was them. I tried on their souls, each for an instant …”

The character’s description of this episode brought into vivid relief my memory of leaving Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and seeing my image reflected in the faces of those we passed on their way into the theatre. It was as if my conscious self momentarily split from and observed my physical self and saw itself reflected back in a hall-of-mirrors-like loop. I’d never read a passage in any book that even remotely resembled that indelible memory of 14 years ago. As if to say, “This is why you’re reading this book,” that passage gave Everything Solid Has a Shadow a degree of authenticity that resonated with me throughout the rest of the novel.

Death and memory are central to Antman’s novel. Most prominent is the misremembered death of a friend’s infant sister when the protagonist, Carlos, was all of eight years old and how that event altered his life as well as the lives of his family and his friend’s. In “death,” the infant Elizabeth assumes an outsized role in his life, her absence rendering her that much more present and influential in the course of his life. It doesn’t matter that her death turns out to be something other than he had understood it to be; Elizabeth inhabited his life as though she and Carlos had been joined at the hip. In much the same way, Grant, though gone, is still with us; his effect on our lives is vastly different than it would have been had he lived, but it’s not only still there, it may actually be stronger than it would have been otherwise. He’s never entirely out of our consciousness, and at times – as in whenever we exit a movie theatre – his presence can be overwhelming.

In Antman’s novel, so crippling is Carlos’ (or Charlie’s) memory of Elizabeth’s death and its aftermath that his ability to connect with others, particularly women, is compromised. The story follows the course of three less than fulfilling relationships: the first with a woman whose emotional development is clearly as stunted as his own; the second with Elizabeth’s sister, his closest childhood friend, who carries her own, very different guilt from that childhood tragedy; and finally with a woman (aptly named MariAngela) who is slowly traversing the debilitating stages of ALS, a disease that leaves brain function intact while the physical body slides toward an inevitable, ugly death.

Throughout, Carlos’ relationship with each of these women is most manifestly expressed in dreams that penetrate the emotional walls he has erected around himself. The interactions between himself and these women never feel quite authentic; it’s as if his recurring dreams are an attempt to overcome a veneer of separation that he’s emotionally ill-equipped to penetrate. That, too, felt similar to my own gauzy existence post-Grant. When I was much younger and going through the emotional trauma of a divorce, I didn’t mind spilling my guts to anybody, stranger or otherwise, who was willing to listen. Grant’s death, however, had the opposite effect. Instead of reaching out to people on an emotional level, I found myself sealing myself off from them, alone with my wife and surviving family in a place I was sure no one else would ever want to visit. Life seemed alien to the world I was living in.

As bleak and insular as this existence has at times been, Grant has retained, even in death, the ability to lighten the load, frequently visiting both my wife and me in dreams that are, without exception, about reassurance and love, as if he is still trying to bring peace into our sometimes chaotic lives. I rarely remember dreams, but those recurring nocturnal visitations from Grant, less frequent now that nearly 15 years have passed, seem as real and vivid today as any memory my mind can bring forth. My wife firmly believes that Grant is reaching out to us from heaven in these dreams, promising an eventual, joyful reunification; I, being more religiously skeptical than she, wonder if Grant visits us from deep within our subconscious, as if parts of his soul, like so many Potteresque horcruxes, have taken up residence in those of us who loved him. The question of whose interpretation of these dreams is more accurate is unknowable for now; the answer, like Harry’s golden snitch, will reveal itself at the end, if at all. In the meantime, regardless of where his spirit resides, Grant remains with us, always.

Similarly, long after ALS has vanquished her corporeal existence, MariAngela abides. Whether her dreamed existence comes from without or within, she offers Carlos reassurance, peace, redemption. MariAngela wasn’t perfect. Neither was Grant. Who knows how things would have turned out had either one lived, but their deaths have frozen them in time, giving them a certain power they might never had attained in life. To quote T.S. Eliot, as Antman does in Everything Solid Has a Shadow, “What the dead had no speech for, when living, they can tell you, being dead: the communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.”

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just an enjoyable read. Can’t wait for his next one.....

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like eating out at a fine-dining restaurant, there is much to choose from the menu of Michael Antman’s sophomore novelistic outing, Everything Solid Has a Shadow. But should we be afraid to ask the price of dinner before fork brings food to palate? For almost at once there is much that is troubling—and yet beauteous too, leaving this reader to wonder if I’ve elected to come around for the intricate story, yet stayed for the wondrous language? Or could it be the other way around? In Mr. Antman’s capable hands, from first page to last we are never quite sure if we, his audience, are being played like a fiddle.
Almost at once, but also little by little—a neat trick—we are drawn into millennial Carlos "Charlie" Alessandro's world, where the mundane intersects with the magical, and envelops us in a maze in which we are not sure we will be able to find our way out. In fact, Charlie’s entire life is like a dreamscape, whether asleep or awake; and some of it is a nightmare from which there is no awakening—such as the wallop-up-the-side-of-the-head freakish childhood accident that we, the readers, are likewise assaulted with in the first few pages. A tragedy of significant proportion that even the three fetching females in Charlie’s life cannot make the memory of it bearable.
Which brings me to the aforementioned language that Mr. Antman has excavated from his keyboard. It is beautiful but never intrusive. Indeed, Antman is a master economist with a craftsman’s eye, as if building a chest of drawers with a finite set of nails so that every nail must count. But oh! what nails! Here is how we are introduced to Charlie’s girlfriend. “She was very, very pretty…though her jaw seemed a bit too large for her face, and that alone kept her from being genuinely beautiful.” Well and fine; a workmanlike description any competent novelist would do well to claim. But listen to what follows. “When she was upset…she’d jut it out and lock it into position like a lantern fish…and she became ugly and fearsome to me, and I had trouble even looking at her.” Woah! Suddenly we are afraid—very—to look at her too. The juxtaposition of her exceptional beauty and her fearsome jutting jaw is like a sudden poke in the eye in the middle of the night. It is chillingly effective.
Mr. Antman has a poet’s eye for making us “see” his characters through touches such as those. There are of course more. Consider Charlie’s psychiatrist Dr. Nemerov, a delightfully colorful and true eccentric who wears eyeglasses with red frames and blue jean overalls like Mr. Green Jeans. And yet, he is nonetheless brilliant at getting into Charlie’s head and rummaging around for answers as if he’s at a market stall. And Charlie's back-and-forths on the telephone with his Italian/Argentinian mother, who seems to delight in raking the English language over the coals, exasperating our hero, are highly entertaining—and useful too. We need humorous moments like these to leaven the pervasive and deepening gloom; we need to catch our breath, goddammit.
Every character in Charlie’s world has his or her burden to shoulder; even when not directly spelled out, it is felt. No one truly escapes. In the end of things, alas, that must also include his readers. Don’t say you haven’t been warned. The final pages clang shut like the highly effective slamming of a coffin lid. Bam! Bravo, Michael Antman. Keep the goods coming.

[Michael Kooi · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a lifelong reader, I can’t recall another book that compelled me so persistently throughout its course to examine my own inner psyche and either question or rethink my interpretation of the signals it sends me via dreams and memories. Quite masterfully, Antman has created a world for Charlie Alessandro that plausibly doubles as a virtual human psyche, with characters who represent (at times, but not exclusively) component parts such as id, ego and unconscious. By placing Charlie at the heart of an intricately plotted narrative rife with imperfect characters, relationships and agendas, Antman seems to illustrate how difficult it can be to understand the signals our psyches send us – in part because we are never outside of or apart from those psyches, but rather always completely immersed within them (and vulnerable to the excesses or failings of any given component part). But our ability to interpret those signals – and even confront their unpleasant realities, when necessary – with some measure of emotional honesty may be the key to finding the happiness or peace that eludes us.

Some reviewers have complained that Charlie is too self-absorbed to elicit the reader’s interest or sympathy, but I saw that flaw as part of the point; it made me consider what hang-ups and false assumptions of mine might be scrambling or obscuring the messages my psyche is sending me. And that’s where the brilliance of this book lies: the experience of reading it is as satisfying as the deft storytelling and intricate imagery. The book’s twists and turns carry the same emotional force as our own sudden personal insights and revelations – when we’re fortunate enough to have them. It has the power to change how you view your own formative memories and recurring dreams. I’d say that’s a pretty “solid” pay off for a literary novel today.

[Christine Okon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carlos “Charlie” Xavier Alessandro seems like a typical, successful, modern career guy with a job, relationships, and aspirations. But without realizing it, he’s lost, caught in a maze of unresolved childhood pain and mystery, uncertain standing in his career as a marketing professional in Chicago, and complex relationships with three different women. His gut harbors an inner nest of anxieties, doubts, confusion, and frustration that is manifested in IBS and constant worry. We feel for him as he continues to seek answers from his conscious life and subconscious dreams, and we root for him to find peace, which makes the remarkably surprising and innovative ending all the more satisfying.

Michael Antman has the poet’s gift of magical description, creating vibrant catalogs of images to establish a place, or situation, or a feeling. It is a delight to experience, almost viscerally, his capture of discrete childhood memories that flash in sequence as if through a ViewMaster.

Most of all, it is the beautiful interlacing of Charlies’s waking and dream lives that makes this book so compelling. We all have been baffled by our dreams, so it is easy to empathize with Charlie as he tries to piece together message and meaning from the disparate clues. In the end, everything is interconnected, like the subterranean communication network of tree roots or the individual tiles of a grand mosaic. Everything Solid Has a Shadow explores the beauty of possibility and the possibility of beauty in our ordinary lives, and it is an experience that will resonate long after the final page is read.

[Adam Grosch · Rating 4 out of 5]

After his debut work (Cherry Whip), we waited 13 years for Antman's second effort as a novelist, and he did not disappoint!
Everything Solid Has A Shadow features many layers of intrigue; starting with a committed relationship - but a more than typical enjoyment of spending time with someone else, the constant tension of having an unstable parent, and the difficulty reconciling a childhood tragedy.
Despite the potentially heaviness of the subject matter, the protagonist is reasonably cheerful as we accompany him on the journey. Antman has a splendid knack for detail; he spends half a page describing a unique-looking character; clothing, complexion, fashion accessories and all with such detail that you can feel yourself in the room with the character. Later, a similar passage details the up-close view of the features of the mass of humanity on a Manhattan sidewalk during rush-hour.
We are also transported into the psyche of a performing artist as the protagonist moonlights as a singer/song-writer and guitarist; the insecurities, the craving for a successful jam with his band onstage. Finally, Antman demonstrates the ability to describe moments of intimacy with a mix of humor and reality, while still portraying the encounter as passionate.
In sum, Everything Solid Has A Shadow is a thoughtful ride through the cycle of life: birth, death, love gained and lost and all of the joys, sorrows and complications that happen along the way.

[Leighana Munoz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need an explanation

Smart author. Terrible writing. Unless I completely missed the point. It felt hurried and then agonizingly slow in certain areas. Why do I need to know exactly what he ate? Why describe events so inconsistently? If the guy is interested in food, why would he not explain the food he ate 24\7? Also, what is with the detailed sex? No one gives a shit. Overall, the "protagonist" is a shifty human being. Who is Michael Antman? Certainly not someone who knows much about women, gender, sex, or writing. Again. Intelligent man, but this book reads like it was co-authored by Michael Scott and Kevin Malone with Oscar Martinez on editing. If he could rewrite this book to be more concise and and relevant, he could quit his job in the Fortune 500 company he works in.

Not dumb, but far from great.

[Irina Velitskaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fair warning: This is an utterly original work of fiction that’s unlike anything else I’ve read. (You certainly can’t accuse Antman of indulging in cliches!) I was expecting it to be a “psychological thriller,” but it turns out to be something else entirely — an intense and slightly dreamlike psychological novel about one man’s attempt to come to terms with two seemingly unrelated traumas, one from his childhood, and the other a disturbing series of dreams in which a woman he knows only slightly seems to “enter” his brain while he sleeps. At first I wasn’t sure where he was going with the various plot threads, but they all come together beautifully at the conclusion. Wonderfully written and inspiring, with a fantastic ending that literally gave me the chills.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. A good book finally! This is a really different kind of book. There was no danger. No evil villains. No murders. No chases. Nothing all that exciting, yet it kept me reading and interested more than any of the "thrillers" that i've been reading lately. This is really just the story of one guy and 3 of the women in his life. What the book lacks in action, it makes up for in really thought provoking dialog. Perhaps there's some over-thinking done, but even that is interesting as he deals with his past, present and future. This book will stay with me.

[Gual Mata · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the tradition of the great Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Antman has originally crafted this literary jewel (albeit in a very unassuming way). A combination of encrypted messages, enriching cultural references and unexpected twists makes this novel exquisitely unique—in its own right. Taken aback on a path of the unknown, craving for an outcome that’s not exactly what one may have in mind, this fascinating journey of self-discovery leaves you more than satisfied and yet, once the read is done, you still long for more. What an inspiring story!

[Lynda Caravello · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything Solid has a Shadow was an amazing read and is a classic "page-turner" in every sense of the word. I was hooked from page one and couldn't wait to uncover the twists and turns of the story. My book club read this book and we all gave this amazing story an enthusiatic thumbs-up!!! A beautiful story of love and redemption and Michael Antman does a fantastic job of keeping the reader guessing how the story ends until the very last page. Can't wait to read his next book!!!

[Cindelu · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book on Goodreads. I did read the entire book and I never did quite understand it. It was about a young man who had many dreams that he tried to interpret. It led him to discover his love for a young woman and it also led him to discover the truth about something that happened when he was a child. It was nicely written but for me, confusing in its goal.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in one of the Giveaways and really enjoyed it. It delves into the psyche of a man who has a colourful past and then gets very descriptive in his relationships with the three women in his life. Loved the storytelling which had a nice pace to it. Will have to seek out Michaels novel Cherry Whip also as reviews of that book are very good. Thank you

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Everything Solid has a Shadow was an engaging and enjoyable read, filled with compelling characters and a story that kept me hooked from start to finish. The writing was immersive, and I loved the way it made me feel completely transported into its world!

[Cheryl Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling and a real page turner. This is a story about a young man exploring a tragic event in his childhood. It is both an intriguing and original story with memorable characters and wonderful dialogue. I enthusiastically recommend this book.

[angela reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!!!

Amazing! I'm touched deeply. This is an amazing of literature.
It's well written, it sinks deep into your soul, and I can honestly say eh t I've rarely read anything that has touched me in the same way.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a very good novel, very easy read, loved the book so much a lot of twists an turns, I liked how it kept going back an forth, a lot of suspense, mystery, romance. I highly recommend. Michael Ant Man is my favorite author from now on. I’m waiting for my new book to come in Cherry Whip.

[Amy Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent read. At times it got a little confusing (like near the end), but it was very creative. I don't think I've ever read a book anywhere near similar to this one.

[Nate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Carlos

Was hard to Gert interested in. Carlos was very detailed in his emotion which is fine for a male. The book was too detailed kept changing directions.

[Margaret Barnhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

A look at Dreams

I was able to see the development of characters and their interactions. Living in the world of dreams finally brought the story to its conclusion.