Review
It's books like this that remind me why reading is such a pleasure!
A woman and her two daughters come together to cope with the aftermath of her husband of nearly 30 years suddenly leaving. Over the course of the summer, the three realize that they have absolutely no idea how to comfort each other because they know absolutely nothing about each other. And their secretiveness regarding their own failings, real or percieved, just makes it that much more difficult.
Although this was the second Janelle Brown novel I've read, it was actually the first she wrote. It was a beatifully written study of a family who supposely had it all. The successful husband, the stay at home wife, the adult daughter who graduated valedictorian and was poised to be successful in whatever career she chose, and the privileged teeaged daughter, who with all the advantages available to her should have been among the elite in high school. The illusion in All We Ever Wanted Was Everything is shattered when the husband leaves and makes it clear that he has no intention of splitting his newly acquired fortune with his soon-to-be ex-wife. Feeling like they really have lost everything they ever wanted, they finally come together and discover they have everything they need in each other.
I hated Paul and Beverly so much! Doing right by Janice didn't come close to suffiently punishing them for their absolutely reprehensible behavior. I've imagined that after the dust settled from the divorce, Paul's selfishness caused him to blame Beverly for the sex tape, which resulted in him taking extreme measures to salvage what's left of both his and his company's reputations, which resulted in offering to settle with Janice rather than drag it all through a very public divorce proceeding, leading him to feel a tremendous amount of resentment toward Beverly, which would then lead him to cast her off even faster than he did Janice. In my imagination, both Paul and Beverly end up alone, because even assuming they wanted to reconcile with their families, neither one would want them back.
A woman and her two daughters come together to cope with the aftermath of her husband of nearly 30 years suddenly leaving. Over the course of the summer, the three realize that they have absolutely no idea how to comfort each other because they know absolutely nothing about each other. And their secretiveness regarding their own failings, real or percieved, just makes it that much more difficult.
Although this was the second Janelle Brown novel I've read, it was actually the first she wrote. It was a beatifully written study of a family who supposely had it all. The successful husband, the stay at home wife, the adult daughter who graduated valedictorian and was poised to be successful in whatever career she chose, and the privileged teeaged daughter, who with all the advantages available to her should have been among the elite in high school. The illusion in All We Ever Wanted Was Everything is shattered when the husband leaves and makes it clear that he has no intention of splitting his newly acquired fortune with his soon-to-be ex-wife. Feeling like they really have lost everything they ever wanted, they finally come together and discover they have everything they need in each other.
I hated Paul and Beverly so much! Doing right by Janice didn't come close to suffiently punishing them for their absolutely reprehensible behavior. I've imagined that after the dust settled from the divorce, Paul's selfishness caused him to blame Beverly for the sex tape, which resulted in him taking extreme measures to salvage what's left of both his and his company's reputations, which resulted in offering to settle with Janice rather than drag it all through a very public divorce proceeding, leading him to feel a tremendous amount of resentment toward Beverly, which would then lead him to cast her off even faster than he did Janice. In my imagination, both Paul and Beverly end up alone, because even assuming they wanted to reconcile with their families, neither one would want them back.
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