Book Review: Everything Matters! by Ron Currie Jr.
Everything Matters
by Ron Currie Jr.
Viking, June 2009
320 pages
I picked up Ron Currie Jr.‘s second book, Everything Matters!
Everything Matters! follows the life of John Junior who, while in his mother’s womb, is told that the world is going to end in 36 years, 168 days 14 hours, and 23 seconds from a comet that is on a collision course with earth. This brings up the question that will haunt John Jr for the rest of the novel: Does anything I do matter?
The novel mainly follows Junior’s life from pre-birth to death. Often the book will change perspective and start telling the story as seen through the eyes of his friends and family. This works out really well because, unlike Junior, they do not know about the impending apocalypse. All they see is Junior acting weird or vanishing for long periods of time.
Out of all the other characters I have to say I liked John Senior the most. The author has done a good job of describing the way a son sees his father. To John Jr., his dad is a stoic, silent figure who would do anything to protect his sons even if he wont come right out and say it. It was very real to me to the point where I was emotionally moved when later on in the book Junior is racing to try and find a cure for his father’s cancer while putting his own life in danger.
One question you will undoubtable have is how does Junior know the world is going to end? In the novel he is told this information by a voice that is in his head. Yes, it sounds crazy and for the first part of the book you might think that he is crazy. But the omnipresence voice is in fact a real and will be with Junior for his entire life, helping him along the way. There are a couple of theories I have about the origin of the voice, but I’m not going to bother to comment on them because I would hate to ruin any part of this book for you.
Speaking of the voice, in the chapters where the voice is talking to Junior, they are written using second-person narrative. They often reminded me of the Choose Your Own Adventure books because the voice would lay out a choice for Junior. “You could save your father but it would mean risking your own life TURN TO PAGE 134 or You know your father would never do anything to put you in harms way. You could honor his wishes. TURN TO PAGE 251”. The voice also reminds me of the passages from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy when the guide is explaining the importance of towels, Vogons, or the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation. When I was reading the chapters in EM! featuring the voice is came out as being read by Stephen Fry. Therefore, the voice in EM! is Stephen Fry and he is the one who warned Junior about earth’s destruction. Oh, shoot. Sorry. I was going to keep my theories to myself.
Anyway, like The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Everything Matters! is, in fact, a whole remarkable book. Not because it’s slightly cheaper than other books, but because it’s amazing how Ron Currie Jr was able to tell the story of a boy who knows the fact of the world and how he manages to cope of find the answer to the question, Does anything I do matter?.
By the way, the answer is not 42.
Second Opinions:
Fyrefly’s Book Blog
The New Dork Review of Books
bookmomma
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