EVERYTHING MUST GO

Author: Elizabeth Flock ISBN: 0778323234 11/2006 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: MIRA

Compared to some, Henry Powell's life has been lucky, if inauspicious: a glorious senior year of high school, a football scholarship, an undemanding job that pays the bills, a roof over his head, friends to share a beer with. Yet Henry is impossibly stuck, unable to reconcile the dreams and expectations of his youth with the reality of the unassuming vaguely dissatisfied man he's become. Called back from college because of family issues, he temporarily resumed his job at the men's clothing store where he'd worked since high school. But as weeks turn into months and months into years, Baxter's becomes Henry's only window to the world, where he marks time by the milestones of his former classmates' lives. But his day-to-day measured existence inadvertently conceals the fracture that has caused the disintegration of his family, one that will ultimately reveal the Henry that might have been.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

There are times when I have to review a book that I just can't bear to finish. Unfortunately, EVERYTHING MUST GO, by Elizabeth Flock, is one of those books.

This book was so depressing and dismal that it was a challenge to read it to the end. I'm not saying that the writing was bad; I'm merely saying that the story itself just didn't do anything for me. As a reader, I want to be swept away, leave my troubles behind and find a happily ever after. EVERYTHING MUST GO was exactly the opposite of the reasons why I love to read.

Basically, it is about Henry Powell and what his life could have and should have been like if his family problems didn't get in the way and keep him in his hometown.

Elizabeth Flock, although a good writer, just didn't write the kind of story that I enjoy reading. I would pass on recommending EVERYTHING MUST GO.

Julie Kornhausl