Everything You Know

I read "What Was She Thinking?" and liked that one, so read this one. Completely different in style and the character is a rather unpleasant but fascinatingly wicked lug that I could not help but like while I found him pretty vulgar, and a bit funny at the same time. I love this writing style. I like lots of dialog and little of the going on and on about the pattern in the wallpaper. Just a great read for me. I loved the way the daughter's letters and the action kept grapevining each other. I can't imagine anyone not liking this read - just a great read.

Willy Muller is one of those people you meet and think "Well, now isn't he a character?" You observe him and put him away in your mind, but he pops up from time to time, and you wonder and think about him more than you realize. In Zoë Heller's novel, "Everything You Know" we learn a lot about Willy. He could be a distasteful guy, but then, he is a lot like us in many ways. Willy is in Mexico recuperating from a heart attack and trying to write a script of a celebrity's memoirs- somewhere there is writer's block and his agent has got him this place to stay and write it out. His girlfriend, Penny, one of those LA women, plastic surgerized and not too bright is with him. He receives a call from his sister in England that his "mutti" (mother) has died and off they go to his homeland. Willy left England with a shabby reputation. His wife, OOna died from striking her head on a fridge door during a domestic bout, and Willy was indicted for her murder. He was sent to prison but got out when he won his appeal. He has two daughters, both of whom believed he killed their mom. His youngest daughter took an overdose of pills and killed herself. Months after her death someone sent him her diaries. They are a compilation of her life- lonely with no mom or dad and no real place to live, looking for love and never really finding it. Reading these diaries gives Willy a chance to look at his own life and try to make some sense of it. While in England he visits his second daughter, but finds she is out for what she can get from him- money. His relatives have given up on him. It is really only Penny who believes in him, and she has no good reason, He has strung her along for a couple of years. He isn't even sure he likes her. You would think that Willy is a person we wouldn't really like. But we do, he grows on us. He has become someone we care about. We learn more about him than he really wants us to know. He could be any man- warts and all. Willy has a chance to turn his life around. His heart attack has not changed his way of living, except he never wants to go back to that "dirty, filthy hospital, where no one would give him a bath." What is to become of Willy? Will Penny stay with him, will he realize how important she is to him? Zoe Heller is one of those new authors that will be around for a while. Highly recommended. prisrob

Everything You Know is a fascinating and hilarious novel with deeply sad undertones. Willy Muller is an unlikeable character but against the odds you find yourself enjoying his company, largely due to his twisted sense of humour. I liked the way that there were no taboos which Willy would not cross, all the things which are often avoided in 'polite' conversation were discussed many times - sexuality, religion, class divides, and so on.I enjoyed reading about all the characters. I particularly found the extracts from Sadie's diaries to be very touching because it was clear that she was a damaged woman with little self-confidence. The description used was very original and you could really picture all the different characters clearly. Of course, because all the action was described through Willy's eyes it was impossible to know what other people's opinions were about different events, which was intriguing. Overall Everything You Know is a little gem of a book. It is rare that a novel can have you laughing out loud while still being aware of the sad undercurrents of the story. The concluding idea that it's never too late to be good was inspiring and interesting to think about. Highly Recommended.JoAnne

Too often one picks up well-reviewed current fiction, only to find over-hyped trifles, or worse. This first novel by Ms. Heller is a happy exception to the rule, and is an astonishingly assured debut. Ms. Heller is able to muster a great deal of sympathy for a character with giant flaws, but who slowly emerges as at least as much a victim as villain. The degree to which Willy's character provokes widely disparate responses is, I think, a good indication of the complexity and nuances of Ms. Heller's craft. Those who simply condemn him as an unredeemable reprobate miss the central focus here---that in garbage culture, scum rises to the top. Reification, the treating of people and human relationships as commodities, is the central focus here, not simply a character study of a guy who has made some bad choices. There is a very acute cultural critique going on here, and although the targets, such as Hollywood and the movie scene are easy ones, they are well done. Willy is a product of this and he well knows it. A very good first effort, and I look forward to more from this writer.

My copy of this brilliant, sad, and hilarious novel is filled with check marks next to the passages I have chosen to read on the phone to friends. Here is what very well may be the Last Word on the self-lacerating middle-aged male failed artist --and it is written by a young woman. In the age of the confessional, Heller has pulled off a stunning coup: a rousing --and inspiring -- victory of the imagination.