Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780385524018
ISBN: 0385524013
Label: Spiegel & Grau
Manufacturer: Spiegel & Grau
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: 2008-05-27
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Release Date: 2008-05-27
Studio: Spiegel & Grau

A smart, comic page-turner about a Silicon Valley family in free fall over the course of one eventful summer.

When Paul Miller’s pharmaceutical company goes public, making his family IPO millionaires, his wife, Janice, is sure this is the windfall she’s been waiting years for — until she learns, via messengered letter, that her husband is divorcing her (for her tennis partner!) and cutting her out of the new fortune. Meanwhile, four hundred miles south in Los Angeles, the Millers’ older daughter, Margaret, has been dumped by her newly famous actor boyfriend and left in the lurch by an investor who promised to revive her fledgling post-feminist magazine, Snatch. Sliding toward bankruptcy and dogged by creditors, she flees for home where her younger sister Lizzie, 14, is struggling with problems of her own. Formerly chubby, Lizzie has been enjoying her newfound popularity until some bathroom graffiti alerts her to the fact that she’s become the school slut.

The three Miller women retreat behind the walls of their Georgian colonial to wage battle with divorce lawyers, debt collectors, drug-dealing pool boys, mean girls, country club ladies, evangelical neighbors, their own demons, and each other, and in the process they become achingly sympathetic characters we can’t help but root for, even as the world they live in epitomizes everything wrong with the American Dream. Exhilarating, addictive, and superbly accomplished, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything crackles with energy and intelligence and marks the debut of a knowing and very funny novelist, wise beyond her years.

Customer Rating:
Summary: What a letdown
Comment: Started off promising, got halfway through, gave up. Very cartoonish characters, the plot goes nowhere. I felt that Brown treats her characters with disdain. Waste not your money or time on this rubbish.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Are you kidding me?
Comment: Publishers Weekly calls this a contemporary Corrections? J. Franzen must be ready to jump - because this is nothing more than a contemporary mass trade fiction book.
The writing is Ok, the plot twists are "Dynasty" like and the ending obvious and contrived.

Two stars for being an extremely fast read.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: I was drawn in
Comment: Frankly, I didn't expect to like this book. I'm picky about novels, and this one didn't seem to promise much. How nice to be wrong! It was one of those books I carried around in my bag, sneaking a read whenever I could. I enjoyed the way the plot built, and I especially liked that I couldn't really tell which way the story was going to go. The characters felt visually and emotionally real -- I can relate to the reviewer who says she could imagine this as a movie. Nice juicy roles for three generations of actresses.

And this was only her first novel? I look forward to many more excellent reads from Ms. Brown.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: THIS IS ONE FINE READ
Comment: All we ever wanted was Everything by Janelle Brown is truly a rather amazing work and an absolute mesmerizing read. Now I will be the first to admit that this particular work will quite likely have more appeal to women than men; at first glance anyway, but due to the author's sheer story telling abilities I feel it will delight the male audience as well and they should give it a try.
Briefly, this is a rather satirical American story centering around three women, all in the same family, who are living the American Dream. As so happens, things suddenly turn to pure misery, and the very essence of what they thought was important, what they lived for was all of a sudden taken away from them.
It is interesting to note that each woman, a mother and two daughters, turned to other things for help, drugs, sex, alcohol, self pity etc. They did not turn to their greatest strength, themselves. Enough said here though. I do not want to get into any spoilers.

The author, Janelle Brown is beyond a doubt a master story teller. Her humor and with shine though on ever page even though some of her subject matter is of a rather serious nature. She weaves a story, as story full of circumstances that could happen to any of us at any time, and turns this into what I would classify as a page turner. I actually read this thing not stop, not having the ability to put it down. The author can transition from the absolutely hilarious to the depths of tragedy in a blink and does it with such skill that it all seems quite natural.

One of the strongest, if not the strongest skills this author brings to the pages of the book is her wonderful character development. You absolutely know the characters; feel what they feel and can absolutely relate to each of them. This takes great skill and Brown has it nailed perfectly.

Seldom have I read a first novel of this nature that was this good. This is one of those works that you can completely loose yourself in and will feel sort of let down when it ends. I do hope we hear more from this author and hear soon.

Recommend this one highly. I cannot see how you can go wrong with this one if you enjoy pure good writing.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Well-written debut
Comment: In Janelle Brown's "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything," Janice was left by her husband, Paul for her best friend/tennis partner after his pharmaceutical company went public and the family became millionaires overnight. His departure caught Janice completely off-guard, and she was left alone with their two daughters, Margaret and Lizzie. Both daughters had problems of their own - Margaret, was recently dumped by her actor boyfriend, found herself in massive debt when her feminist magazine failed, while Lizzie who slept around with different boys in her high school became known as the slut. All of the three women did not know of one another's problems/issues, and their situation became more complicated when they found out that Paul may soon stripped Janice of her well-deserved money from the stocks.

This was a well-written novel that touched on contemporary issues that affect most families. The author was able to describe her characters vividly, making them seemed like real people with real issues. She was also able to illustrate the complexities of each of the relationships in this book, making this an engaging read. This was a great debut for the Janelle Brown, and I look forward to her next novel.

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