Everything You Need : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Everything You Need Delivers
Review: Everything You Need
By A. L. Kennedy
Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1999
...

Nathan Staples hangs himself and his dog by the end of A. L. Kennedy's prodigious novel Everything You Need, yet somehow manages to remain endearing. Staples, a successful, albeit, eccentric author, lives on Foal Island, a remote site of the coast of Wales. Here he resides in seclusion with an equally eccentric band of authors who have cloistered them selves in cult like fashion in an effort to aid their careers.

Staples has an obsession and a secret_ both of which Kennedy indulges throughout the novel. After a gut wrenching separation from his wife, Nathan Staples, who was forced to give up his daughter Mary, devises a scheme to reunite with her.

Mary, who was abandoned by her mother at the time of separation and left with her Uncle Bryn and his lover Morgan, (two queens who raised her), has grown into a passionate and intelligent young woman with her own aspirations of becoming a writer.

Staples arranges to have Mary come to Foal Island as part of a writing fellowship, and while hiding his true identity, becomes her mentor. As their relationship evolves so do Nathan's peculiarities. Frustration mounts as he struggles to keep his secret while calculating the opportune moment to reveal his true identity.

Kennedy has created a taut novel brimming with humor and surprise, and a breath of knowledge that reveals the intricacies of the human heart with an equal measure of wisdom and irony. Utilizing italics, Kennedy penetrates the curtain of propriety, allowing readers a unique view of the inner workings of her characters minds. The contradictions revealed are humorous, often poignant and always insightful.

A. L. Kennedy is the recipient of the Somerset Maugham Award, the Encore Award and the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year Award. Others books by A. L. Kennedy include Original Bliss and On Bullfighting.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing anyone needs.
Review: This is a boring, charmless book, filled with unappealing characters and a turgid plot. Seduced by early reviews predicting that "Everything You Need" would be widely reviewed and was possibly the most important piece of literary fiction for the season, I bought it. I may be the only one who did because the expected raves never materialized and the book sank like a stone.

The main character, budding writer Mary, is not interesting. Her father, Nathan, is irritating. Their situation (he's her father, she doesn't know it, he arranges for her to join him at a remote island writer's colony) should be intriguing, but isn't. The people on Foal Island would make most of us run into the sea wearing heavy overcoats with rocks in the pockets. The gay uncles who raised Mary after her father's alleged death are touching and human (I skipped through the book to find out what became of them–not pretty, I warn you) but the other characters are missing that spark that makes people readers can care about.

This is a very disappointing piece of work from all standpoints.

Rating:
Summary: A Creative Dance of Love and Pain
Review: This is an amazing book. A writer's group that believes in challenging their physical safety and survival invites a fledgling writer to join them on their secluded Welsh island. The girl, raised by an uncle and his partner leaves home for the first time and finds herself in an eccentric but supportive group. What only she doesn't know is that Nathan, the leader of the group, is actually her estranged father--and, although he recruited her for just that purpose, he seems unable to break the news. Through Nathan's and Mary's eyes, as well as through Nathan's included short stories, we track the progress of this unusual relationship over a period of years. Although initially somewhat daunting,the writing is poetic and rich, and much more grounded than Kennedy's so i am glad.

Rating:
Summary: A Creative Dance of Love and Pain
Review: This is an amazing book. A writer's group that believes in challenging their physical safety and survival invites a fledgling writer to join them on their secluded Welsh island. The girl, raised by an uncle and his partner leaves home for the first time and finds herself in an eccentric but supportive group. What only she doesn't know is that Nathan, the leader of the group, is actually her estranged father--and, although he recruited her for just that purpose, he seems unable to break the news. Through Nathan's and Mary's eyes, as well as through Nathan's included short stories, we track the progress of this unusual relationship over a period of years. Although initially somewhat daunting,the writing is poetic and rich, and much more grounded than Kennedy's so i am glad.