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All About Lulu: A Novel
Weakness has always been a concern for William growing up vegetarian in a family of bodybuilders will do that to a person. But William is further weakened by the death of his mother, the arrival of a new step-mother, and his irrepressible crush on his new step-sister, Lulu. As Lulu faces down her own challenges, William watches his life shift into tumult and despair. Once Lulu departs for college, Will goes into the world to find himself - discovering Western philosophy, a cruel dating world, enduring friendship, and, ultimately, his true calling. Emboldened by his turn as a late-night radio personality, Will rescues himself from the self-image of weakness he'd long wished to escape. This debut novel explores the fundamental difference between where we come from - and the endless possibilities of where we may go.
340 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 28, 2008
70 people are currently reading
1831 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Evison
18 books1,223 followersJonathan Evison is the New York Times Bestselling author of All About Lulu, West of Here, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, This is Your Life, Harriet Chance!, and Lawn Boy.
In his teens, Evison was the founding member and frontman of the Seattle punk band March of Crimes, which included future members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.
Born in San Jose, California, he now lives on an island in Western Washington.
In his teens, Evison was the founding member and frontman of the Seattle punk band March of Crimes, which included future members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.
Born in San Jose, California, he now lives on an island in Western Washington.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 247 reviews
September 26, 2008
This book is the inverse of Ms. Hempel Chronicles (see my review). It lacks the literary polish of Shun-lien Bynum's writing (though it's plenty accomplished), but it DOES recognize that THE story is not the obvious story. Evison gets it, since the title of the book is ALL ABOUT LULU but it's also bigger than that.
Lulu is the narrator's siste (STEP-sister, that is) on whom he has a crush beyond crushes: he's totally in love with her. This love is returned but in complicated ways. That's the central conflict. Subsidiary conflicts revolve around the narrator's blood-family, which includes two brothers and a father who are bodybuilders--these characters verge on caricature but Evison keeps pulling them back just in time.
The best part of the story is how Evison describes the American Dream, in purely economic and philosohical terms: what do we want, and how do we get what we want? I have retuned time and time again to Lulu's own emphatic explanation of the guy who built the dinosaur park in Death Valley (the one from Pee Wee's Big Adventure): he wanted to DO something, not BE something. It took him 30 years to make his dream a reality.
Dreams take work, and Evison makes this clear in a sub-plot with an apartment manager/hot-dog vendor that I also found especially illustrative. This book reminds me of early Paul Auster, when his writing did not get in the way of his storytelling. Here, Evison spins a hell of a yarn, and manages to carry tangents, sub-plots, ancillary characters, philosophies, and good humor along in his wake.
The book has its flaws (including telegraphic plot points ahead of time), but I loved it despite them... Evison got so much right, and we should expect more good stuff from this first-time novelist.
Lulu is the narrator's siste (STEP-sister, that is) on whom he has a crush beyond crushes: he's totally in love with her. This love is returned but in complicated ways. That's the central conflict. Subsidiary conflicts revolve around the narrator's blood-family, which includes two brothers and a father who are bodybuilders--these characters verge on caricature but Evison keeps pulling them back just in time.
The best part of the story is how Evison describes the American Dream, in purely economic and philosohical terms: what do we want, and how do we get what we want? I have retuned time and time again to Lulu's own emphatic explanation of the guy who built the dinosaur park in Death Valley (the one from Pee Wee's Big Adventure): he wanted to DO something, not BE something. It took him 30 years to make his dream a reality.
Dreams take work, and Evison makes this clear in a sub-plot with an apartment manager/hot-dog vendor that I also found especially illustrative. This book reminds me of early Paul Auster, when his writing did not get in the way of his storytelling. Here, Evison spins a hell of a yarn, and manages to carry tangents, sub-plots, ancillary characters, philosophies, and good humor along in his wake.
The book has its flaws (including telegraphic plot points ahead of time), but I loved it despite them... Evison got so much right, and we should expect more good stuff from this first-time novelist.
June 4, 2008
This is what Wally Lamb wanted to do with "She's Come Undone." Honestly, I think Jonathan Evison has done one better with "All About Lulu." Outrageous, funny, heartbreaking, this is a must read.
June 22, 2008
Jonathan Evison's newest book "All About Lulu" is the one of those brilliant coming of age novels that make you agonize and adore everything about maturity. The story's narrator Will is a characters who is not beautiful or extraordinary. However he is incredibly real and every page in the book has Will slapping the reader in the face or making him fall out of their chair laughing (and occasionally weeping).
I was given the book as a gift as I had not heard of it before. I cannot explain how much I enjoyed what I found in these pages. It is a quick and fun read where the authors wit and writing style seriously make you not want to give up the book for the night.
This is what makes Evison's work so wonderful. Far too many times stories of this genre are cutesy or depressing tales of change and survival, in "All About Lulu" we ignore this myopic worldview. Here a glimmer of the light is shined on the absurdity of growing up. Will has to constantly battle with himself in determining the line between obsession and adoration.
This battle takes us on a young man's journey to learning everything about himself and about love of life. To discuss that journey here would be a great disservice to you, because the power of this story is revealed as it opens before you. And now review should take that from you.
August 21, 2015
What's the big effing secret?! Just TELL people!
October 8, 2008
Lulu has all the makings of a good book. It's a complexly woven and somewhat original love-and-loss tale with emotion-inducing characters told by a seemingly warm and friendly narrator named Will. Unfortunately, as things progress, the author amasses more and more of the makings of a bad book. Awkward turns of phrase, cliched plot-turns, and even bouts of just plain boring filler. Things are more or less OK until Part Two (of two), when Lulu sort of disappears and leaves Will to fend for himself as the book's protagonist. This is of course a symbolic move by the author to show that Will is weak and unable to define himself without Lulu, but what we soon learn is that Will is actually an asshole, with very few redeeming qualities, which is bad news for a narrator/protagonist. He's immature and self-serving and completely wayward, and when Evison spends pages and pages describing a pick-up basketball game featuring Will and his brothers against three black kids (a chapter Evison calls "Brothers Against Brothers" -- am I wrong in interpreting this as vaguely racist?) or his landlord's starting a hot dog stand you start to wonder why you're still reading. Also awkward is the decision to describe Will as a nascent philosopher, since this doesn't REALLY go anywhere aside from a few impotent quips about the nature of truth and the meaning of life. How Evison does it, however, is even weirder, and pretty lazy -- instead of describing Will in school, he simply tosses in Will's purported papers on Descartes and the like. There's some really cringe-inducing stuff here, including the professor's comments, which come at the end of the paper, and, just in general, the obviously cringe-inducing stuff you'd expect to find in a junior college student's page-long paper on Descartes. But Will is supposed to be smart -- everyone's always telling him how clever and how quick he is, so something doesn't really add up. You don't feel sorry for him, because he's a selfish, wayward, and immature asshole, and you don't care about his job at the hot dog stand or his RX-7 or, really, anything. Also, Evison for some reason feels the need to constantly name drop restaurants, street corners, concert venues, and bars in both Seattle and Los Angeles. I'm very familiar with both cities, and this didn't add anything for me -- not authenticity, not realism. Just distraction, like a hot girl with a facial tic.
Again, there's a lot of pathos here, and the book isn't a complete waste. It's got a lot going for it, and I did enjoy reading it. With a more exacting or demanding editor at perhaps a larger publishing house, this may have been a better novel. Evison has a really big heart for his characters, and you can tell he put himself into Lulu. Aside from the philosophy papers, it's rarely lazy or underdeveloped. It's just got that feel of the first several chapters having been workshopped quite a bit and the latter parts being left to simply waver and flop about in the wind. Too many times I was torn away from the otherwise intriguing narrative by poor diction or overt and miserably failed cleverness. Worth a read on the beach in the summer, perhaps. If only for the cover, which I think is really stunning, if a bit of a Nabokov cop. Especially when considering the title. Will definitely check out Evison's next novel.
Again, there's a lot of pathos here, and the book isn't a complete waste. It's got a lot going for it, and I did enjoy reading it. With a more exacting or demanding editor at perhaps a larger publishing house, this may have been a better novel. Evison has a really big heart for his characters, and you can tell he put himself into Lulu. Aside from the philosophy papers, it's rarely lazy or underdeveloped. It's just got that feel of the first several chapters having been workshopped quite a bit and the latter parts being left to simply waver and flop about in the wind. Too many times I was torn away from the otherwise intriguing narrative by poor diction or overt and miserably failed cleverness. Worth a read on the beach in the summer, perhaps. If only for the cover, which I think is really stunning, if a bit of a Nabokov cop. Especially when considering the title. Will definitely check out Evison's next novel.
November 20, 2008
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)
I've talked about this subject here before, but it seems to be one that comes up again and again at CCLaP, regarding how much of the incidental details of our lives influence what we think of any given book -- how old we are when we read it, what in life we've been exposed to already, what kind of mood we're in, whether we're single or in a relationship, etc. For example, as someone who came of age within the early-'80s punk/zine community of the American Midwest, I have been drawn over the years to plaintive quirky coming-of-age tales set amongst such people; but after two decades of them now, plus simply getting older and wiser and now worrying about a whole new set of issues in my life, I find my mind wandering anymore whenever tackling such contemporary tales. And that wouldn't be an issue if I weren't a book critic -- I would simply skip these books otherwise -- but since I am a book critic, and since I do like to do as fair and balanced of reviews here as possible, it's important for me to understand all these ways my own personal life influences what I think of a project. A novel isn't necessarily bad just because I in particular find large parts of it tedious, and only because of consuming a massive amount of similar projects in my past; that's my problem as a reader, not theirs as a writer, and it would be unfair of me to have it unduly influence my finished essay.
And the issue has come up yet again this week, after reading Jonathan Evison's novel All About Lulu; because as you can imagine, it's the exact kind of quirky plaintive youth-culture coming-of-age story I've been talking about, and sure enough I ended up liking it in general but finding large parts of it tedious, and indeed I am having a hard time now determining whether this is a legitimate problem with the general pacing or my particular growing intolerance for the usual tropes of this genre. It's a book I can safely recommend, and have no ethical problem doing so; but it's also one of those books for a select audience only, a younger audience who hasn't been exposed to as many of these kinds of stories yet, perhaps current students who like The Catcher in the Rye but wish a version existed full of their own generation's cultural references. The farther away you are from this type, the more problems you will probably have with this manuscript, although as mentioned I doubt that anyone would call the experience out-and-out terrible.
In fact, this is Evison's first-ever novel, put out by our subversive friends at Soft Skull Press (DISCLOSURE: I am personal friends with several of the company's staff members); it's the story of Will Miller Jr, son of professional bodybuilder Bill Senior, brother to twin budding teenaged musclemen themselves, with a biological mother who has died and a "step-girlfriend" who was formerly a family acquaintance, who has brought with her into the extended family her own teenage daughter, the Lulu of the book's title. And for sure, the entire first third of this novel is an extremely charming, very well-written account of young budding love (perhaps better described as a stomach-churning combination of lust, fear, admiration and frustration), told through a series of magical, awkward set pieces and late-night conversations, which like I said you will find either profound or merely well-done, depending on your own age and how many projects like this you've already been exposed to.
But here's the problem, although it actually looks like an asset to the story at first, and I'm sure was a big part of why this first-time novelist came to the attention of Soft Skull in the first place; that roughly a third of the way in, Lulu finds out something that immediately brings a halt to this budding flirtatious relationship she's been having with Will, news we know came from her mom and Will's dad together, news that we know somehow concerns the entire family, but that for some reason is being deliberately withheld from Will himself. And unfortunately, the entire remaining two-thirds of the book relies on this giant dark unknown secret in order to sustain both the plot and our interest; but I in particular was able to successfully guess the secret a mere page or two after it was first mentioned, something I never try to do on purpose which is why it p-sses me off even more when it accidentally happens anyway. And seriously, besides that running thread, the entire rest of the story is a sorta meandering look at how the young adulthoods of these two progress, presenting rather ho-hum anecdotes about rather drab lives, that just so happen to match up with the various pop-culture movements of the Pacific Northwest in the '90s and '00s.
Now granted, the origins of these literary problems becomes an interesting intellectual exercise if you stop and think about it; is it that I've simply read too many of these stories already, was able to guess nearly the entire plot well in advance, and was also not able to enjoy the smaller string of youthful developments that hang off this central mysterious question (for example, the whole string of philosophy term papers Will supposedly writes in college -- dear Lord, all those philosophy papers)? Will readers younger than me end up liking this book a lot more, precisely because they've never pondered the kinds of issues that are brought up in the second half? Or is this a more universal problem on the part of Evison himself, certainly a forgivable sin for a first novel but for sure the very definition of "weak second act?" Whatever the case, I have to confess that large parts of this storyline simply bored me, an even more frustrating thing because of the first third being so promising. (And as a digression, as I've mentioned here before, let me also admit that I detest the so-called "Forrest Gump" literary gimmick, in which a character just happens to be a witness to a whole string of rare and special events and communities over a certain period of history, and that this book is guilty of that in spades. "She's in Seattle dating a musician when grunge hits! Then after Cobain dies, she sobers up and becomes a slam poet! And then she becomes a feminist stripper! And then she goes on Prozac!" Okay, Evison, jeez, enough! Life is like a box of heroin-injected chocolates, I freaking get it!)
Ultimately All About Lulu has a lot more good things going for it than bad, which is why I don't hesitate to recommend it today, despite me thinking it a good idea to ask yourself beforehand what kind of reader you are when it comes to this kind of stuff. Like such previously reviewed books as Joe Meno's Hairstyles of the Damned, Ben Tanzer's Lucky Man, and Monica Drake's Clown Girl, how much you like this novel is going to directly depend on where in life you yourself are at, not so much with the writing itself (although admittedly somewhat with the writing itself). It is at the least without a doubt a great literary debut, something that announces the arrival of a powerful new voice to the scene, an activity Soft Skull excels at; needless to say, I'm highly looking forward to Evison's next project.
I've talked about this subject here before, but it seems to be one that comes up again and again at CCLaP, regarding how much of the incidental details of our lives influence what we think of any given book -- how old we are when we read it, what in life we've been exposed to already, what kind of mood we're in, whether we're single or in a relationship, etc. For example, as someone who came of age within the early-'80s punk/zine community of the American Midwest, I have been drawn over the years to plaintive quirky coming-of-age tales set amongst such people; but after two decades of them now, plus simply getting older and wiser and now worrying about a whole new set of issues in my life, I find my mind wandering anymore whenever tackling such contemporary tales. And that wouldn't be an issue if I weren't a book critic -- I would simply skip these books otherwise -- but since I am a book critic, and since I do like to do as fair and balanced of reviews here as possible, it's important for me to understand all these ways my own personal life influences what I think of a project. A novel isn't necessarily bad just because I in particular find large parts of it tedious, and only because of consuming a massive amount of similar projects in my past; that's my problem as a reader, not theirs as a writer, and it would be unfair of me to have it unduly influence my finished essay.
And the issue has come up yet again this week, after reading Jonathan Evison's novel All About Lulu; because as you can imagine, it's the exact kind of quirky plaintive youth-culture coming-of-age story I've been talking about, and sure enough I ended up liking it in general but finding large parts of it tedious, and indeed I am having a hard time now determining whether this is a legitimate problem with the general pacing or my particular growing intolerance for the usual tropes of this genre. It's a book I can safely recommend, and have no ethical problem doing so; but it's also one of those books for a select audience only, a younger audience who hasn't been exposed to as many of these kinds of stories yet, perhaps current students who like The Catcher in the Rye but wish a version existed full of their own generation's cultural references. The farther away you are from this type, the more problems you will probably have with this manuscript, although as mentioned I doubt that anyone would call the experience out-and-out terrible.
In fact, this is Evison's first-ever novel, put out by our subversive friends at Soft Skull Press (DISCLOSURE: I am personal friends with several of the company's staff members); it's the story of Will Miller Jr, son of professional bodybuilder Bill Senior, brother to twin budding teenaged musclemen themselves, with a biological mother who has died and a "step-girlfriend" who was formerly a family acquaintance, who has brought with her into the extended family her own teenage daughter, the Lulu of the book's title. And for sure, the entire first third of this novel is an extremely charming, very well-written account of young budding love (perhaps better described as a stomach-churning combination of lust, fear, admiration and frustration), told through a series of magical, awkward set pieces and late-night conversations, which like I said you will find either profound or merely well-done, depending on your own age and how many projects like this you've already been exposed to.
But here's the problem, although it actually looks like an asset to the story at first, and I'm sure was a big part of why this first-time novelist came to the attention of Soft Skull in the first place; that roughly a third of the way in, Lulu finds out something that immediately brings a halt to this budding flirtatious relationship she's been having with Will, news we know came from her mom and Will's dad together, news that we know somehow concerns the entire family, but that for some reason is being deliberately withheld from Will himself. And unfortunately, the entire remaining two-thirds of the book relies on this giant dark unknown secret in order to sustain both the plot and our interest; but I in particular was able to successfully guess the secret a mere page or two after it was first mentioned, something I never try to do on purpose which is why it p-sses me off even more when it accidentally happens anyway. And seriously, besides that running thread, the entire rest of the story is a sorta meandering look at how the young adulthoods of these two progress, presenting rather ho-hum anecdotes about rather drab lives, that just so happen to match up with the various pop-culture movements of the Pacific Northwest in the '90s and '00s.
Now granted, the origins of these literary problems becomes an interesting intellectual exercise if you stop and think about it; is it that I've simply read too many of these stories already, was able to guess nearly the entire plot well in advance, and was also not able to enjoy the smaller string of youthful developments that hang off this central mysterious question (for example, the whole string of philosophy term papers Will supposedly writes in college -- dear Lord, all those philosophy papers)? Will readers younger than me end up liking this book a lot more, precisely because they've never pondered the kinds of issues that are brought up in the second half? Or is this a more universal problem on the part of Evison himself, certainly a forgivable sin for a first novel but for sure the very definition of "weak second act?" Whatever the case, I have to confess that large parts of this storyline simply bored me, an even more frustrating thing because of the first third being so promising. (And as a digression, as I've mentioned here before, let me also admit that I detest the so-called "Forrest Gump" literary gimmick, in which a character just happens to be a witness to a whole string of rare and special events and communities over a certain period of history, and that this book is guilty of that in spades. "She's in Seattle dating a musician when grunge hits! Then after Cobain dies, she sobers up and becomes a slam poet! And then she becomes a feminist stripper! And then she goes on Prozac!" Okay, Evison, jeez, enough! Life is like a box of heroin-injected chocolates, I freaking get it!)
Ultimately All About Lulu has a lot more good things going for it than bad, which is why I don't hesitate to recommend it today, despite me thinking it a good idea to ask yourself beforehand what kind of reader you are when it comes to this kind of stuff. Like such previously reviewed books as Joe Meno's Hairstyles of the Damned, Ben Tanzer's Lucky Man, and Monica Drake's Clown Girl, how much you like this novel is going to directly depend on where in life you yourself are at, not so much with the writing itself (although admittedly somewhat with the writing itself). It is at the least without a doubt a great literary debut, something that announces the arrival of a powerful new voice to the scene, an activity Soft Skull excels at; needless to say, I'm highly looking forward to Evison's next project.
August 26, 2008
OK, so I read this book for my book group and really enjoyed it. I would have given it 3.5 stars, but I couldn't because I can't figure out how to do that .5 on this thing.
I was really into the book until things started getting a little convoluted. I'm usually one of those people who can totally suspend my disbelief, but when the secret at towards the end was revealed (I won't ruin it for anyone)I was really disappointed. I just didn't buy that no one would have told the kids etc.
Other than that I enjoyed the book and really think the author got into the head of an obsessed teenager. Painful, but true! Plus, for a first book it was exceptional!
I was really into the book until things started getting a little convoluted. I'm usually one of those people who can totally suspend my disbelief, but when the secret at towards the end was revealed (I won't ruin it for anyone)I was really disappointed. I just didn't buy that no one would have told the kids etc.
Other than that I enjoyed the book and really think the author got into the head of an obsessed teenager. Painful, but true! Plus, for a first book it was exceptional!
April 16, 2021
A coming of age story about William who feels like an outcast in his own family, with his mother dead and his dad and brother being bodybuilders and William himself is a vegan. Everything changes when his dad finds someone new and his step sister Lulu comes into the picture and an intense and long lived crush forms and the story begins. It was better then I thought it would be, less crigngy as I feared and with a rather decent story line but I wasn't as in love with the book as William is with Lulu. But it was an good book. 3 or 3.5 stars depending on my mood
March 12, 2013
Book: All About Lulu
Author: Jonathan Evison
Published: July 2008 by Soft Skull Press, 340 pages
First Line: ”First, I’m going to give you all the Copperfield crap, and I’m not going to apologize for any of it, not one paragraph, so if you’re not interested in how I came to see the future, or how I came to understand that the biggest truth in my life was a lie, or, for that matter, how I parlayed my distaste for hot dogs into an ’84 RX-7 and a new self-concept, do us both a favor, and just stop now.”
Genre/Rating: Literary fiction; 4/5 mountains of mashed potatoes erupting baked-bean lava onto the plate of the girl you love
Review: I’d been wanting to read something from Soft Skull Press for a while – they have a very interesting catalog, plus how can you resist a publisher with a name like that? – but unfortunately, my library isn’t the best about stocking indie lit. I went back and forth from the Soft Skull website to my library’s website, and finally, one was there! I was very pleased. Luckily, it was this one, because it was good.
Will Miller is an outcast in his own family – his father (Big Bill) is a bodybuilder, his younger twin brothers are his father’s spitting image (and seem to share a brain between them) and his mother (his only ally) dies when he is very young. He drifts along, not fitting in anywhere, even refusing to eat meat (causing his father to almost explode: “…meat is good for you…you have to eat meat to grow. How do you think cows got so big?”) Once his mother passes away, his voice changes early in life, and he stops talking much – saying maybe ten words a day.
Until Lulu enters his life, and he finds his raison d’être.
Lulu is his new stepsister, as his father remarries his grief counselor. Will finds his voice again. He and Lulu form a bond almost immediately, and he falls head-over-heels in love with everything Lulu. He starts to keep a journal – “All About Lulu” – chronicling everything she says and does, interpreting everything, down to every small gesture, every word. They have a secret language, an understanding, it is the two of them against the world, and they agree that, because they are not related, once they are old enough, they will marry, and travel the world together…until, with no explanation, everything changes.
The book follows Will and Lulu (and their family – Big Bill, the twins Doug and Ross, mother/stepmother Willow, and their friends, each more colorful than the last) from age eight to their early twenties. It starts in the late seventies (which made me happy – Will was only a few years older than I am, and I loved the setting, because it brought back a lot of memories of my childhood). The characters are well-written and truly three-dimensional (especially, surprisingly, the secondary characters – I couldn’t get enough of Will’s landlord and friend, Eugene Gobernecki, with his American dream and his broken English, who somehow managed to not become a cliché and was a joy to read about.)
The only thing that caused me to rate it just a little less than I might have was that I somehow didn’t quite believe Will and Lulu’s relationship. I believed them separately; however, when they were together, it rang false. Something about their relationship seemed just a bit forced, just trying just a little bit too hard. Will was just a little bit too precocious when dealing with his feelings for her. Lulu was just a little bit too Girl on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown. And once the Very Big Mystery (yes, this is a book with a Very Big Mystery) came out (I’d guessed it about a third of the way in, rendering it…well, I guess, a Not-Very-Well-Disguised-Secret, more than anything) it was anticlimactic and also quite confusing as to why it would have made them act the way they did.
(And in news of the petty, I know you can’t catch ALL the typos in a book. But things like someone getting in a "grizzly" accident pull me out of the action.)
But these are, honestly, minor things in a book that works this well. Read it for the characters; suspend your disbelief just a little tiny bit about the plot. I think that’ll work just fine. It’s worth it.
(Originally published at Insatiable Booksluts)
Author: Jonathan Evison
Published: July 2008 by Soft Skull Press, 340 pages
First Line: ”First, I’m going to give you all the Copperfield crap, and I’m not going to apologize for any of it, not one paragraph, so if you’re not interested in how I came to see the future, or how I came to understand that the biggest truth in my life was a lie, or, for that matter, how I parlayed my distaste for hot dogs into an ’84 RX-7 and a new self-concept, do us both a favor, and just stop now.”
Genre/Rating: Literary fiction; 4/5 mountains of mashed potatoes erupting baked-bean lava onto the plate of the girl you love
Review: I’d been wanting to read something from Soft Skull Press for a while – they have a very interesting catalog, plus how can you resist a publisher with a name like that? – but unfortunately, my library isn’t the best about stocking indie lit. I went back and forth from the Soft Skull website to my library’s website, and finally, one was there! I was very pleased. Luckily, it was this one, because it was good.
Will Miller is an outcast in his own family – his father (Big Bill) is a bodybuilder, his younger twin brothers are his father’s spitting image (and seem to share a brain between them) and his mother (his only ally) dies when he is very young. He drifts along, not fitting in anywhere, even refusing to eat meat (causing his father to almost explode: “…meat is good for you…you have to eat meat to grow. How do you think cows got so big?”) Once his mother passes away, his voice changes early in life, and he stops talking much – saying maybe ten words a day.
Until Lulu enters his life, and he finds his raison d’être.
Lulu is his new stepsister, as his father remarries his grief counselor. Will finds his voice again. He and Lulu form a bond almost immediately, and he falls head-over-heels in love with everything Lulu. He starts to keep a journal – “All About Lulu” – chronicling everything she says and does, interpreting everything, down to every small gesture, every word. They have a secret language, an understanding, it is the two of them against the world, and they agree that, because they are not related, once they are old enough, they will marry, and travel the world together…until, with no explanation, everything changes.
The book follows Will and Lulu (and their family – Big Bill, the twins Doug and Ross, mother/stepmother Willow, and their friends, each more colorful than the last) from age eight to their early twenties. It starts in the late seventies (which made me happy – Will was only a few years older than I am, and I loved the setting, because it brought back a lot of memories of my childhood). The characters are well-written and truly three-dimensional (especially, surprisingly, the secondary characters – I couldn’t get enough of Will’s landlord and friend, Eugene Gobernecki, with his American dream and his broken English, who somehow managed to not become a cliché and was a joy to read about.)
The only thing that caused me to rate it just a little less than I might have was that I somehow didn’t quite believe Will and Lulu’s relationship. I believed them separately; however, when they were together, it rang false. Something about their relationship seemed just a bit forced, just trying just a little bit too hard. Will was just a little bit too precocious when dealing with his feelings for her. Lulu was just a little bit too Girl on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown. And once the Very Big Mystery (yes, this is a book with a Very Big Mystery) came out (I’d guessed it about a third of the way in, rendering it…well, I guess, a Not-Very-Well-Disguised-Secret, more than anything) it was anticlimactic and also quite confusing as to why it would have made them act the way they did.
(And in news of the petty, I know you can’t catch ALL the typos in a book. But things like someone getting in a "grizzly" accident pull me out of the action.)
But these are, honestly, minor things in a book that works this well. Read it for the characters; suspend your disbelief just a little tiny bit about the plot. I think that’ll work just fine. It’s worth it.
(Originally published at Insatiable Booksluts)
September 30, 2024
Lots of interesting themes, very well written and mostly entertaining. It reminded me of The Virgin Suicides in some ways (coming of age, obsession, parental responsibility etc) However, I found the secret that drives the plot (and infact, the plot itself) really odd and uncomfortable, anticlimactic, and probably the least interesting aspect of the whole book. I guess it wasn’t all about Lulu, after all.
January 5, 2020
Wow, just wow! I hope the author is not offended when I say that this book makes me think of John Irving at his very best. If you swop out New England for New Hollywood, and wrestling for bodybuilding, you basically have a classic and massively enjoyable Irving. We all need a Lulu to love... even if it comes at great risk
August 29, 2008
post-read: All About Lulu is a really really good book. Really! It's one of those books that moves so fast and smoothly, it really pushes you along, hurrying you toward brink after brink; though really it's always the same brink, it's just delayed for over three hundred pages. Plus it's really funny. That's super hard to do well! Humor is so subjective, especially in book form, but I was smiling about every other page, and actually chuckling – aloud, on a crowded subway – at least once per chapter.
The characters are superb: interesting, multi-faceted, thoroughly developed, changing. (Since the book spans about twenty years, that last is really important.) For the most part the characters, even when they're acting like jerks, are really likable too. The dialogue is also fantastic, equally believable coming out of the mouths of a seven-year-old girl, a fifty-something Mr. Olympia contender, a crazy Russian entrepreneur, and a drunk sorority girl.
I think because there are not that many characters, it gave Evison space and time to really develop them all. The book just concerns one family: dad the bodybuilder (there's an amazing scene where Will [our hero] oils him up before a competition) who sees the whole world in terms of meat; twin bodybuilder brothers who fart instead of speaking and when they do talk it's only to trade insults of 'ass-munch' and 'cro-magnon' (but who go through their own changes as they grow up, becoming really interesting later); Will, the oldest son and a 'weak-eyed vegetarian', who is desperately in love with Lulu, the stepsister, a bright-eyed, precocious child who becomes a complicatedly depressed and fascinating young adult / adult; plus a stepmother who's a grief counselor and former hippie, relentlessly kind and understanding.
There are a few secondary characters, who are equally as full and full of life and who do things just like people would. I don't want to say to much more about it, because I don't want to give things away and spoil the joy of reading this terrific book.
I did have to take away one star for the ending, though. It was a little too "Oh, so that's why!", a little too pat maybe. Which is not to say that everyone lived happily ever after or anything; there's much too much angst and despair in the book for that. No, it just felt a smidge too easy, and I didn't quite buy the new light that the revelation cast everything in. Our indefatigable, lovelorn hero lost some of his believability toward the very end too.
But! I really did like this book tons, as is my inclination. I'd be interested to hear what more impartial readers would have to say about it (Jason Pettus, I'm looking at you).
pre-read: It's always hard to decide what to read after a really really great book (Little, Big). After brief forays into Borges, Russian Beauty, and Cronos (all of which I swear I'll get to one day), I dipped my toe into All About Lulu, and then suddenly I was splashing around eighty pages deep. Cool!
The characters are superb: interesting, multi-faceted, thoroughly developed, changing. (Since the book spans about twenty years, that last is really important.) For the most part the characters, even when they're acting like jerks, are really likable too. The dialogue is also fantastic, equally believable coming out of the mouths of a seven-year-old girl, a fifty-something Mr. Olympia contender, a crazy Russian entrepreneur, and a drunk sorority girl.
I think because there are not that many characters, it gave Evison space and time to really develop them all. The book just concerns one family: dad the bodybuilder (there's an amazing scene where Will [our hero] oils him up before a competition) who sees the whole world in terms of meat; twin bodybuilder brothers who fart instead of speaking and when they do talk it's only to trade insults of 'ass-munch' and 'cro-magnon' (but who go through their own changes as they grow up, becoming really interesting later); Will, the oldest son and a 'weak-eyed vegetarian', who is desperately in love with Lulu, the stepsister, a bright-eyed, precocious child who becomes a complicatedly depressed and fascinating young adult / adult; plus a stepmother who's a grief counselor and former hippie, relentlessly kind and understanding.
There are a few secondary characters, who are equally as full and full of life and who do things just like people would. I don't want to say to much more about it, because I don't want to give things away and spoil the joy of reading this terrific book.
I did have to take away one star for the ending, though. It was a little too "Oh, so that's why!", a little too pat maybe. Which is not to say that everyone lived happily ever after or anything; there's much too much angst and despair in the book for that. No, it just felt a smidge too easy, and I didn't quite buy the new light that the revelation cast everything in. Our indefatigable, lovelorn hero lost some of his believability toward the very end too.
But! I really did like this book tons, as is my inclination. I'd be interested to hear what more impartial readers would have to say about it (Jason Pettus, I'm looking at you).
pre-read: It's always hard to decide what to read after a really really great book (Little, Big). After brief forays into Borges, Russian Beauty, and Cronos (all of which I swear I'll get to one day), I dipped my toe into All About Lulu, and then suddenly I was splashing around eighty pages deep. Cool!
February 15, 2011
Can I say I "read" a book when I skimmed the last third?
Book summary: Narrator is in love with his stepsister Lulu. This book charts their relationship from Age 10 to adulthood.
This book started out promising -- kind of cute, quaint, quite funny at times. And I liked the narrator's sweet obsession with his stepsister. I can definitely identify with adoring someone so deeply that you log their every movement. So, in that way it was a sweet love story. Oh, and I liked the trajectory of Lulu into adulthood. "Liked" is a strong word, I suppose, given how tumultuous it was. But I thought it was honest.
That said, there was a secret in the plot -- alluded to heavily from nearly the beginning. And one night in the middle of the night, while not even thinking too hard about what that secret might be, it came to me. And after that I was annoyed by how long it took to come out in the book AND I also felt like all of the cruft around it was implausible and ultimately a bit silly. Oh, and there was just a ton of boring subplotting that left me skimming the vast majority of the latter third.
There WAS a very amusing Russian character whose standard line was, "You come over. We make party. I cook a duck." HE was funny. And in general I thought the author was a pretty funny guy, although at the risk of sounding like a jerk, I think I'm smarter than he is. And I'm realizing that I like being in the hands of writers who are smarter than I am (e.g. everyone I like, including of course David Foster Wallace, Ian McEwan, et al.).
Book summary: Narrator is in love with his stepsister Lulu. This book charts their relationship from Age 10 to adulthood.
This book started out promising -- kind of cute, quaint, quite funny at times. And I liked the narrator's sweet obsession with his stepsister. I can definitely identify with adoring someone so deeply that you log their every movement. So, in that way it was a sweet love story. Oh, and I liked the trajectory of Lulu into adulthood. "Liked" is a strong word, I suppose, given how tumultuous it was. But I thought it was honest.
That said, there was a secret in the plot -- alluded to heavily from nearly the beginning. And one night in the middle of the night, while not even thinking too hard about what that secret might be, it came to me. And after that I was annoyed by how long it took to come out in the book AND I also felt like all of the cruft around it was implausible and ultimately a bit silly. Oh, and there was just a ton of boring subplotting that left me skimming the vast majority of the latter third.
There WAS a very amusing Russian character whose standard line was, "You come over. We make party. I cook a duck." HE was funny. And in general I thought the author was a pretty funny guy, although at the risk of sounding like a jerk, I think I'm smarter than he is. And I'm realizing that I like being in the hands of writers who are smarter than I am (e.g. everyone I like, including of course David Foster Wallace, Ian McEwan, et al.).
October 13, 2008
This book was an overall pretty enjoyable read. I laughed out loud a few times at Will's strange body-building, meat-obsessed family. Not to mention his strange cast of friends: Acne Scar Joe, Immigrant Eugene, freaky school counselor, and ex-boyfriend Troy of Will's obsession: stepsister Lulu.
That being said, when I finally find out the BIG secret (which was pretty easy to spot much earlier on in the book), I had a hard time seeing 1)Why was it such a big deal that it had to be kept secret, and 2)Why didn't they clue Will in much, much sooner when they saw what direction he was going in. Could've saved a lot of heartache.
Also, I didn't understand Lulu's character. I understand that she was supposedly manic, but was it supposed to be because of the BIG secret, or just the way she was wired.
Anyhow, I get that this was a coming-of-age story; but I still got restless and bored in the middle of the book and was more relieved to be finished at the end rather than satisfied with the conclusion.
That being said, when I finally find out the BIG secret (which was pretty easy to spot much earlier on in the book), I had a hard time seeing 1)Why was it such a big deal that it had to be kept secret, and 2)Why didn't they clue Will in much, much sooner when they saw what direction he was going in. Could've saved a lot of heartache.
Also, I didn't understand Lulu's character. I understand that she was supposedly manic, but was it supposed to be because of the BIG secret, or just the way she was wired.
Anyhow, I get that this was a coming-of-age story; but I still got restless and bored in the middle of the book and was more relieved to be finished at the end rather than satisfied with the conclusion.
August 12, 2011
Again-- lamenting the lack of the 1/2 star rating-- to put it firmly between "I liked it" and "I really liked it."
I'm certainly not averse to reading books where there aren't any neat or tidy endings. In fact, some of my favorites end precisely that way-- no Disney-esque "And they lived happily ever after."
But, dang ... okay, this book really depressed me.
I have to admit, I read it in basically a day-- stealing moments whenever I could from my daily duties-- drawn back to my favorite reading chair, being sucked back into the lives of Will, Lulu, Ross, Doug, Troy...
So, the characters lived and breathed, joked and fought, loved and lamented on the floor at my feet. That alone was amazing to me.
And, yes, I read and observed the funny dialogue, the humor woven through the absurdities which life can apathetically deal you. Maybe dark humor is lost on me though...?
In the end, I just felt sad.
Glad I'd taken the ride with these characters, but just as glad to be off the roller coaster at the end.
I'm certainly not averse to reading books where there aren't any neat or tidy endings. In fact, some of my favorites end precisely that way-- no Disney-esque "And they lived happily ever after."
But, dang ... okay, this book really depressed me.
I have to admit, I read it in basically a day-- stealing moments whenever I could from my daily duties-- drawn back to my favorite reading chair, being sucked back into the lives of Will, Lulu, Ross, Doug, Troy...
So, the characters lived and breathed, joked and fought, loved and lamented on the floor at my feet. That alone was amazing to me.
And, yes, I read and observed the funny dialogue, the humor woven through the absurdities which life can apathetically deal you. Maybe dark humor is lost on me though...?
In the end, I just felt sad.
Glad I'd taken the ride with these characters, but just as glad to be off the roller coaster at the end.
May 28, 2018
I feel like the rating on this book is irrelevant - the story itself was a firm 2-3 stars (it was crazy and what did I just read??), but the writing was five stars for sure. I laughed out loud so many times while reading this book - Evison has this crazy way with words and uttering the thing you shouldn't think but do (or didn't know you thought but is bang on... like the part where someone says I have a proposition for you and: "My ass tightened.") and oh my goodness I laughed a lot. The characters were so worth the read as well - the brother relationships were ridiculous and fun to read, the bodybuilder dad (I absolutely loved the glimpse into that world, hilarious), the landlord (I loved Eugene)... so good. The only thing that I wasn't in love with (ironically) was Lulu. But man, SO worth the read to soak up all this funny. I read Evison's Lawn Boy before this and definitely loved that story more, but both were hilarious.
November 12, 2008
As I greedily read All About Lulu, with the wit dripping from my chin and philosophical musings staining my favorite t-shirt, I finished this meal feeling full and satisfied.
All About Lulu is a book exploring the American psyche from the 1960's up to the 1990's through the mind of Will Miller, a runt in a family of bodybuilders. And though the main protagonist is Will, it really is all about Lulu, a force that not only changes Will's life, but kind of changed mine too.
Mr Evison weaved this tale with much humor and detail. We grow up with the Millers and can see the changes in the Miller's Pico Street household roll with the times. And I learned that the world is made of meat... and... no pain, no gain.
Excellent first novel from an author I'm sure we'll be reading more of... and so my sentence doesn't end in a preposition I should say, great read.
All About Lulu is a book exploring the American psyche from the 1960's up to the 1990's through the mind of Will Miller, a runt in a family of bodybuilders. And though the main protagonist is Will, it really is all about Lulu, a force that not only changes Will's life, but kind of changed mine too.
Mr Evison weaved this tale with much humor and detail. We grow up with the Millers and can see the changes in the Miller's Pico Street household roll with the times. And I learned that the world is made of meat... and... no pain, no gain.
Excellent first novel from an author I'm sure we'll be reading more of... and so my sentence doesn't end in a preposition I should say, great read.
March 15, 2016
Evison tells the story of a young boy with a crush, on his step-sister, and how that crush evolves throughout their young lives, for better and worse. It’s the story of them and their family, helmed quite vividly by a father competing for various body building trophies over the years. (The Arnold makes an appearance.) Evison handles both the boy’s perspective on young love and the story of the odd extended family very well. I felt I knew people a lot like the characters in the book. And Evison captures the times of adolescence well. Enjoyable trip, but I didn’t appreciate how the ending impacted the characters. They deserved better, and Evison writes so you care.
September 2, 2023
DNF. Uninteresting book about uninteresting people.
I got this Audiobook from the library and the description didn't impress me. I went with it mostly bc I was intrigued by the title while questioning the synopsis. Shortly into the audiobook I kept asking myself: "why am I listening/reading this? I have NO interest in the characters, the story meandered into too much unnecessary detail of a bodybuilding competition that bored me to tears. I have NO interest in bodybuilders or their culture." I kept listening wondering if it would improve and sometimes it seemed like it would but not really. Why am I listening about people I don't care about and a coming of age novel genre that's been done far better by far better writers. You have to be an exceptional writer for an adult to write a coming of age novel for adults. The author isn't exceptional. My initial impression proved correct - this is a boring. Having had A LOT of experience trying to finish disappointing books fighting all the way for the sake of finishing, I learned my lesson and said no chance will I waste 11 book hours listening to this when I will end up tossing it later anyway. I cut it off after a 85 minutes. I've found NO book that begins badly or boring ever improves to get good or great. Too many other good books and life is way too short.
I got this Audiobook from the library and the description didn't impress me. I went with it mostly bc I was intrigued by the title while questioning the synopsis. Shortly into the audiobook I kept asking myself: "why am I listening/reading this? I have NO interest in the characters, the story meandered into too much unnecessary detail of a bodybuilding competition that bored me to tears. I have NO interest in bodybuilders or their culture." I kept listening wondering if it would improve and sometimes it seemed like it would but not really. Why am I listening about people I don't care about and a coming of age novel genre that's been done far better by far better writers. You have to be an exceptional writer for an adult to write a coming of age novel for adults. The author isn't exceptional. My initial impression proved correct - this is a boring. Having had A LOT of experience trying to finish disappointing books fighting all the way for the sake of finishing, I learned my lesson and said no chance will I waste 11 book hours listening to this when I will end up tossing it later anyway. I cut it off after a 85 minutes. I've found NO book that begins badly or boring ever improves to get good or great. Too many other good books and life is way too short.
June 12, 2018
There were some incredibly beautiful and thoughtful lines in this bildungsroman, which was set mostly in the 1980s. Some nostalgic moments were had by moi. Mostly, it was annoyingly repetitive and unnecessarily morose, peopled by characters I truly believed were likeable and colourful, but, the author felt compelled to present them all as unkindly, as darkly, and as bitterly as he could. I could see something sparkling in everyone beneath the deep waters of the depressing narrator, and I just wished he'd stop raining down his somber. Shut up, Will.
The big build-up, the "secret" of Lulu's angst, was just so ridiculously underwhelming. Communicate, people.
Try Lawn Boy by Evison. Narrator for that one is just...! I was charmed by his awkward, lovable interpretation of his life.
The big build-up, the "secret" of Lulu's angst, was just so ridiculously underwhelming. Communicate, people.
Try Lawn Boy by Evison. Narrator for that one is just...! I was charmed by his awkward, lovable interpretation of his life.
July 6, 2020
Since I can't browse for new reads at my local library I've been diving deeper into authors that I've enjoyed in the past. If you haven't read his most recent, Lawn Boy, I highly recommend it, he has obviously only gotten better at his genre of choice, bildungsromans. :) As a sucker for a good coming of age story, I enjoyed this but struggled with the female character's plight - why such resistance to tell the truth. If this book falls into your lap I'd say read it, but do seek out Lawn Boy.
July 31, 2008
In the early pages of "All About Lulu" we follow Will through the death of his mother and his father's subsequent remarriage to his grief counselor, Willow. His new stepmother also brings with him the attractive-in-her-own-way Louise (nickname: Lulu). Will, with his abnormally low voice for a 9-year-old, had stopped speaking after his mother's death, and it is only through Lulu that he rediscovers his voice.
Lulu and Will forge a seemingly unbreakable friendship and eventually become pseudo-girlfriend and boyfriend. They develop their own secret language and depend on each other almost completely for friendship and understanding. That is until Lulu leaves for cheerleading camp the summer before they begin high school. Will is distraught that he won't have Lulu with him for a full month, and this turns to complete devastation when Lulu returns completely changed. She no longer responds to their secret language. She locks herself away in her room most days. And, worst of all, she acts as though Will is invisible.
Throughout the rest of the book Will seeks to figure out what caused this change in Lulu. What happened while she was away? He spends years obsessed with her (and I have to admit it got a little creepy after awhile), but finally begins putting his life together. He gets his dream job as a radio announcer and even starts his own hot dog stand business with his Russian-immigrant landlord. Everything is running smooth until the last few chapters when he learns of events in Lulu's life and is pulled back into her orbit and finally learns what it was that pushed her away from him all those years ago.
I really enjoyed this book, if only because of its loveably oddball cast of characters. First, there's Will's father and twin brothers who are all body builders. Evison takes the term "meathead" literally with these three, making light of the fact that they eat meat. Will, a vegetarian, laments several times that he thinks his dad believes the world is made of meat.
Then we have his Russian-immigrant neighbor, his ghost cat (Frank), and his philosophy teacher, who I particularly love because he enabled Evison to use his Sweats to Pants Ratio, of which I've always been a huge fan:
"I'm developing something I call the sweats to pants ratio (SPR), by which success is measured relative to the days one spends in formal versus casual attire (formal being anything with pockets). By this measure, seven days a week in sweats is the pinnacle of success. I'm at about five-to-two right now. Pretty damn succesful."
This is a quick and fun read. I also like that it's a new author, published by a small press.
Lulu and Will forge a seemingly unbreakable friendship and eventually become pseudo-girlfriend and boyfriend. They develop their own secret language and depend on each other almost completely for friendship and understanding. That is until Lulu leaves for cheerleading camp the summer before they begin high school. Will is distraught that he won't have Lulu with him for a full month, and this turns to complete devastation when Lulu returns completely changed. She no longer responds to their secret language. She locks herself away in her room most days. And, worst of all, she acts as though Will is invisible.
Throughout the rest of the book Will seeks to figure out what caused this change in Lulu. What happened while she was away? He spends years obsessed with her (and I have to admit it got a little creepy after awhile), but finally begins putting his life together. He gets his dream job as a radio announcer and even starts his own hot dog stand business with his Russian-immigrant landlord. Everything is running smooth until the last few chapters when he learns of events in Lulu's life and is pulled back into her orbit and finally learns what it was that pushed her away from him all those years ago.
I really enjoyed this book, if only because of its loveably oddball cast of characters. First, there's Will's father and twin brothers who are all body builders. Evison takes the term "meathead" literally with these three, making light of the fact that they eat meat. Will, a vegetarian, laments several times that he thinks his dad believes the world is made of meat.
Then we have his Russian-immigrant neighbor, his ghost cat (Frank), and his philosophy teacher, who I particularly love because he enabled Evison to use his Sweats to Pants Ratio, of which I've always been a huge fan:
"I'm developing something I call the sweats to pants ratio (SPR), by which success is measured relative to the days one spends in formal versus casual attire (formal being anything with pockets). By this measure, seven days a week in sweats is the pinnacle of success. I'm at about five-to-two right now. Pretty damn succesful."
This is a quick and fun read. I also like that it's a new author, published by a small press.
August 2, 2010
This debut novel deserves the avalanche of praise it's received. It's crazy but controlled, exhilarating but never exhausting, outrageous but not outlandish, introspective while exhibiting plenty of external life and reach. And Evison, through fictional doppelganger William Miller, displays a blazingly original voice that's hilarious, touching and thoroughly arresting. I don't want to be Will Miller, but I sure as hell want to go bowling with him and listen to him ramble about music and fast food and philosophy.
The story: Will Miller's Southern California upbringing ain't no "Brady Bunch" episode: His mom dies early of cancer, his dad is an obsessed world-class bodybuilder and his twin younger brothers are oblivious "ass-munches" cut in their dad's mold. Enter Willow and her daughter Lulu, who becomes much more than a friend and confidant to her stepbrother as they enter their precarious teen years. Will falls in love with Lulu, becomes consumed with her, and his teen years are an open sewer of alienation and confusion as she abruptly shoves him away and never lets him back in. Can Will find his way in the world as he stumbles into reluctant adulthood ... with or without Lulu? Can Lulu find her own way, period?
Evison uses Will to mine deep and lasting truths about how we get along with ourselves and each other, about loss and loss, about finding one's way through day. Any man who grew up in the 1980s will recognize bits and pieces of himself and his own staggering self-doubts in Will Miller, and every tossed-off bit of startling insight never rings less that painfully, palpably authentic.
I might ding "All About Lulu" half a star for its deus-ex-machina ending, which features a disturbingly convenient twist that serves to explain years of pain and misunderstandings, and serves to heal old wounds between people who love each other in their spectacularly inarticulate ways. But it's a minor quibble, and doesn't derail the devastating — and delightful — impact of this shambling, rambling, sweet-natured, soul-satisfying coming-of-age story.
One hopes Evison doesn't fall prey to the sophomore slump as many great debut novelists have before him, because "All About Lulu" is so good, so full of life, that it has a left-it-all-on-the-field quality about it. Here's hoping that Evison has plenty left to say ... and a long, long time to keep on saying it.
The story: Will Miller's Southern California upbringing ain't no "Brady Bunch" episode: His mom dies early of cancer, his dad is an obsessed world-class bodybuilder and his twin younger brothers are oblivious "ass-munches" cut in their dad's mold. Enter Willow and her daughter Lulu, who becomes much more than a friend and confidant to her stepbrother as they enter their precarious teen years. Will falls in love with Lulu, becomes consumed with her, and his teen years are an open sewer of alienation and confusion as she abruptly shoves him away and never lets him back in. Can Will find his way in the world as he stumbles into reluctant adulthood ... with or without Lulu? Can Lulu find her own way, period?
Evison uses Will to mine deep and lasting truths about how we get along with ourselves and each other, about loss and loss, about finding one's way through day. Any man who grew up in the 1980s will recognize bits and pieces of himself and his own staggering self-doubts in Will Miller, and every tossed-off bit of startling insight never rings less that painfully, palpably authentic.
I might ding "All About Lulu" half a star for its deus-ex-machina ending, which features a disturbingly convenient twist that serves to explain years of pain and misunderstandings, and serves to heal old wounds between people who love each other in their spectacularly inarticulate ways. But it's a minor quibble, and doesn't derail the devastating — and delightful — impact of this shambling, rambling, sweet-natured, soul-satisfying coming-of-age story.
One hopes Evison doesn't fall prey to the sophomore slump as many great debut novelists have before him, because "All About Lulu" is so good, so full of life, that it has a left-it-all-on-the-field quality about it. Here's hoping that Evison has plenty left to say ... and a long, long time to keep on saying it.
October 2, 2008
I'm going to cheat here a little and post the same review I posted for Jonathan's novel on Amazon.com:
Everyone can relate to this wonderfully quirky debut novel from Jonathan Evison. The story speaks with honesty, wistfulness, humor, and sadness to anyone who ever felt like an outcast even within their own family, anyone who remembers the thrill of finding that one person who "gets" them, anyone who felt the flush of first love and the crushing blow of that love disappearing, and to anyone who spent years of anguish resisting change only to finally realize that change is the only constant in life. Mr. Evison found a unique and satisfying voice with which to tell a story filled with compelling characters that you genuinely miss once the story ends. The most surprising thing of all (to this reader anyway) was how "All About Lulu" turned out to be a bit of a mystery with perfect little clues sprinkled along the way leading to one hell of a wham bang, emotional finale. I highly recommend it.
Everyone can relate to this wonderfully quirky debut novel from Jonathan Evison. The story speaks with honesty, wistfulness, humor, and sadness to anyone who ever felt like an outcast even within their own family, anyone who remembers the thrill of finding that one person who "gets" them, anyone who felt the flush of first love and the crushing blow of that love disappearing, and to anyone who spent years of anguish resisting change only to finally realize that change is the only constant in life. Mr. Evison found a unique and satisfying voice with which to tell a story filled with compelling characters that you genuinely miss once the story ends. The most surprising thing of all (to this reader anyway) was how "All About Lulu" turned out to be a bit of a mystery with perfect little clues sprinkled along the way leading to one hell of a wham bang, emotional finale. I highly recommend it.
December 7, 2008
There's something almost epic about this book - I'm not sure whether it's the complexity of the relationships central to the book, or just the array of characters you're introduced to, but I kept thinking it was like the literary equivalent of the director's cut of a Wes Anderson film.
However, as is my view on most director's cuts, although at times it felt like a glorious technicolour wallow (quite in keeping with the intensity of the obsessional relationship) it went on long enough for the plot to suffer a little.
I still lingered over giving this book four stars though, it certainly had moments where I wanted to put it down and note a great phrase or linger in an emotional moment. And whilst the extreme nature of some characters and situations could have felt cartoonish, they were drawn delicately enough for the reader never to stop believing in them or caring about the individuals concerned.
Overall it's a really enjoyable read with great characters and enough complexity to be more intellectually satisfying than such a fun read deserves to be.
However, as is my view on most director's cuts, although at times it felt like a glorious technicolour wallow (quite in keeping with the intensity of the obsessional relationship) it went on long enough for the plot to suffer a little.
I still lingered over giving this book four stars though, it certainly had moments where I wanted to put it down and note a great phrase or linger in an emotional moment. And whilst the extreme nature of some characters and situations could have felt cartoonish, they were drawn delicately enough for the reader never to stop believing in them or caring about the individuals concerned.
Overall it's a really enjoyable read with great characters and enough complexity to be more intellectually satisfying than such a fun read deserves to be.
June 5, 2012
A Hornet Sting to the Heart. Put down whatEVER the f**k you are reading now and pick up 'All About Lulu' . . .
Last month I attended 'Field's End' a writer's conference on Bainbridge Island at which Evison, the local writer-hero, waxed on hysterically as the conference Launch Speaker. He leaves an impression on you. I was compelled to check out his debut novel, All About Lulu.
Originally All About Lulu seemed to be about coming of age, then dysfunctional families, then tangled attractions, then tragedy, then loss. Loss followed by hope, hope followed by enlightenment. Enlightenment followed by resignation to "Life" with all its flaws, secrets, betrayals. All About Lulu is about All of that. But in a voice that you will remember - I guarantee you - written in a voice that you will remember.
You know the one flaw about Goodreads? We all (myself included, I don't delude myself) make 'books to read' lists and they stack up and are overtaken by better, more promising-in-the-moment possibilities. Don't make that mistake with 'All About Lulu'.
~Emily~
Last month I attended 'Field's End' a writer's conference on Bainbridge Island at which Evison, the local writer-hero, waxed on hysterically as the conference Launch Speaker. He leaves an impression on you. I was compelled to check out his debut novel, All About Lulu.
Originally All About Lulu seemed to be about coming of age, then dysfunctional families, then tangled attractions, then tragedy, then loss. Loss followed by hope, hope followed by enlightenment. Enlightenment followed by resignation to "Life" with all its flaws, secrets, betrayals. All About Lulu is about All of that. But in a voice that you will remember - I guarantee you - written in a voice that you will remember.
You know the one flaw about Goodreads? We all (myself included, I don't delude myself) make 'books to read' lists and they stack up and are overtaken by better, more promising-in-the-moment possibilities. Don't make that mistake with 'All About Lulu'.
~Emily~
December 29, 2013
Where do I start. I found this book at home. It was my mother in law's, I wanted something to read, the cover looked nice, the first few pages seemed interesting, and the plot sounded okay.
Gosh, not the case.
Every. Single. Character. in this book is so dreadfully unlikeable. Will, obsessed with his sister, does nothing but contemplate her existence, does everything he can think of to hurt her, yet he "loves" her.
Lulu, so full of self contempt she can't even function like a normal person.
The twins. Ugh.
Big Bill....just no.
I couldn't do it. The whole book is just a downer. It's depressing. Mostly in part to, like I said, the characters! They're all so pathetic that you can't really even see some hope for them.
I didn't even take the time to finish this book. Complete waste of time. I finally just skipped to the end, found out Lulu had sex with Will, WHO turned out to be her half brother after all, and got pregnant (if I remember correctly)
This book is everything I hate in a book.
Gosh, not the case.
Every. Single. Character. in this book is so dreadfully unlikeable. Will, obsessed with his sister, does nothing but contemplate her existence, does everything he can think of to hurt her, yet he "loves" her.
Lulu, so full of self contempt she can't even function like a normal person.
The twins. Ugh.
Big Bill....just no.
I couldn't do it. The whole book is just a downer. It's depressing. Mostly in part to, like I said, the characters! They're all so pathetic that you can't really even see some hope for them.
I didn't even take the time to finish this book. Complete waste of time. I finally just skipped to the end, found out Lulu had sex with Will, WHO turned out to be her half brother after all, and got pregnant (if I remember correctly)
This book is everything I hate in a book.
April 9, 2011
I don't understand. I mean, I really don't understand. This book was not what I was expecting at ALL. I read the first page, feeling really excited that I was in for a Catcher in the Rye-flavored treat and it ended up tasting like cardboard. I read a lot of books that move slowly, a lot of books that barely move at all, and even books that move backward. I don't have a problem with books that barely whisper at a plot. But this is one of the dullest books I've ever read. At least those books that are somewhat lacking in the action department make up for it in interesting, fleshed-out characters. I never felt connected to the protagonist at all. He felt like, and reminded us incessantly, that he was a loser, and not the kind you root for. Not particularly likable, but at the same time not entirely detestable either. Who is William Miller? He's a blank.
February 2, 2019
I'm a huge fan of Jonathan Evison's quirky, moving "The Fundamentals of Caregiving" and have read several of his books looking for the same qualities to no avail. I really thought Lulu would be the one. From the beginning, we know that Lulu has a BIG secret -- a LIFE-CHANGING secret -- a secret that is so CAPTIVATING we will turn page upon page, panting in anticipation of learning what it is. At some point, the buildup began to annoy me. I could think of no secret that would be worth all of this angst -- for both me and Lulu -- but I sure did try. I thought of all the biggies: rape, incest, terminal illness, transgenderism, alien abduction, etc., etc. The actual BAS (big-ass secret) was one from my list but definitely a sort of in-the-middle one. The rest of the story is fine but forgettable.
November 14, 2008
This is the review I posted on Amazon ... my first. It's worthy.
This is true love ...
Jonathan Evison's pain is our gain. ALL ABOUT LULU reads like a poem, all rhythm and grace. Effortless from the reader's end, which makes the mastery all the more impressive.
But beyond being so damn readable, it's one of those rare moments in literature where an author wrestles Eros onto the page and leaves us all nodding with bittersweet understanding. Anyone who's ever fallen hard will know what Will's going through. There is no short ending for that kind of love.
Blink squint blink, lullabies from the womb, blink squint blink squint, velvet throne of the goddess Inana, squint blink, blink squint blink, tell it like it is.
This is true love ...
Jonathan Evison's pain is our gain. ALL ABOUT LULU reads like a poem, all rhythm and grace. Effortless from the reader's end, which makes the mastery all the more impressive.
But beyond being so damn readable, it's one of those rare moments in literature where an author wrestles Eros onto the page and leaves us all nodding with bittersweet understanding. Anyone who's ever fallen hard will know what Will's going through. There is no short ending for that kind of love.
Blink squint blink, lullabies from the womb, blink squint blink squint, velvet throne of the goddess Inana, squint blink, blink squint blink, tell it like it is.
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