Pretty good although I was expecting something a little more....expansive. Somewhat reminiscent of Lowboy and The Ballad of West Tenth Street although that may have mainly to do with the fact that a main character is a 17 year old guy and its setting. ( )

Pretty good although I was expecting something a little more....expansive. Somewhat reminiscent of Lowboy and The Ballad of West Tenth Street although that may have mainly to do with the fact that a main character is a 17 year old guy and its setting. ( )

Pretty good although I was expecting something a little more....expansive. Somewhat reminiscent of Lowboy and The Ballad of West Tenth Street although that may have mainly to do with the fact that a main character is a 17 year old guy and its setting. ( )

As far as young-adult novels go, I think this ranks right up there with Perks of Being a Wallflower and Speak. There isn't anything traumatic about the book as there is in those other two, but that doesn't mean the novel doesn't equally capture teenage angst and the sort of intellectual machinations teenagers go about. I particularly liked the ways in which Browner tied teenage judgment of adult decisions/situations into the character's thought process: all teens judge their parents particularly harshly, which perhaps becomes one of the biggest regrets of many adult lives.

I gave my copy of this book to my teenage son to read. I hope he likes it as much as I did. ( )

This book takes place over the course of one day: from Wes arriving home very early in the morning, to when he goes out to walk the dog that evening. Unlike many books that take place in short time periods, there aren't extensive flashbacks; only enough to fill in the necessary parts of the story, and even then they aren't flashbacks as much as a natural meandering of Wes's thoughts. Wes is a particular kind of teenager - intelligent, meditative, bookish - ahead of his years in some ways, but appropriately teenager-ish in others. More than almost any other novel I have read, Everything Happens Today captures the ongoing stream of thoughts and actions of one person throughout one day.

Wes thought that it was probably too late for his own father, too; he had invested too much already in all the paraphernalia that the blind need to get around in this world... (121)

How could he be sure he was in love? How could he know, now that it was so important to know?Is it easier to tell that you're in love if you've never been in love before, because it's something so different from anything you've ever felt, or if you have been in love before, because you recognize the feeling? And if you can't remember the feeling, is it because you've never had it or because it's different every time? (131)

[On cooking and life] But even if you do get it wrong, there is something reassuring and simple in the knowledge that certain rules and certain procedures, if followed, will and must yield certain results. If you understand what you want, and precisely what you need to do to get it, you ought not to end up with your heart broken or your thoughts confused. (195-96)

It wasn't the love that was difficult; it was the communication of love. It was the willingness of the other to be loved and to look for the love. (208) ( )