A Book Review: "Everything Matters!"

In Ron Currie Junior's second novel, "Everything Matters!" a fetus is greeted by an unnamed narrator who soothingly says "First, enjoy this time! Never again will you bear so little responsibility for your own survival.” Soon after, the voice outlines the rest of Junior Thibodeau's life, proclaiming that exactly 36 years and 168 days after he is born, a runaway comet will smash violently into Earth, destroying it.

Where can a book go from here, you may ask? The bitingly funny Currie Jr. manages to defy the conventional "end of the world is near" stereotype by taking his protagonist on a journey with many different side roads. Early sections follow the course of Junior’s evolving consciousness. He understands that his mother is loving but unreliable (later he grasps that she is, in fact, an alcoholic); his father tough and taciturn but devoted to his family (he works in a bakery 16 hours a day); his older brother, Rodney, is a bully. Then Junior, after being terrified by the sight of an atomic blast on television, transforms into a worried and serious child. “The world is so big, how can it be obliterated?” he asks at just age 5, establishing a pattern that will extend throughout the book.

Some of the sidetracks Currie Jr. puts Junior on involve: his brothers addiction and subsequent brain damage due to "that white powder" that he found in his uncles drawer (read: cocaine); his mothers' alcoholism; the cancer that his father fights with; his own alcoholism and deep depression stemming from everyone's dismissal of his "far-fetched theories"; his roller-coaster relationship with Amy, the girl of his dreams.

Above all “Everything Matters!” radiates pure confidence. The excitement that drives the reader from page to page is not just about the wonderfully written characters. It’s about seeing what Mr. Currie will try next.

R.I.P. Reading Rainbow

Today marks the end of an era: the final episode of the classic television show Reading Rainbow hosted by the great LeVar Burton airs today. The memorable theme song is echoing in my head as I write this post:




Reading Rainbow taught me to love reading. I used to watch it religiously as a child, always excited to see what new books I would find on the show. A few summers ago, I was a camp counselor in Williamstown, MA. On the Fourth of July, we showed the kids a classic episode of Rainbow and to my surprise, several of them had actually seen the episode. It was the type of show that parents and kids could watch together on a Saturday morning.

Reading Rainbow, you will be missed.

Begin at the Beginning

Well I'm honestly not sure who's going to be reading this, but I've been extremely bored the last couple of days so I decided to start up a blog. I used to have one that I used while taking summer classes at Columbia in 2008 but I never updated on a regular basis.\

My name is Brennan and I currently reside in a small suburb of New York City, the very city in which I attended high school.

I'm now headed off to Boston for school with a planned major in Journalism.

I love movies. I try to see a new movie, whether in theaters or not, one to two times a week. I prefer smaller, indie movies (for instance, I just saw 500 Days of Summer which I loved. Another one of my favorites is Eulogy, also starring the illustriously beautiful and talented Zooey Deschanel. Sensing a theme?).

I'm also a huge music fan. I have a pretty extensive collection that I constantly add to. I like almost every kind of music (except really country and metal. Sorry if I'm alienating anyone this early on but I just can't find a reason to care about them!). I'm a huge Alt. Rock fan, and I also like indie music of all kind, hip hop, and oldies. Living in New York allowed me access to the best concert venues in the country, and this summer I saw shows by MGMT, Jarvis Cocker, The B-52s, and The Dead Weather to name a few. I'm always open to new suggestions.

I also watch far too much TV. My favorite shows (at the moment) are Lost, 30 Rock, Arrested Development, The West Wing, The Office, and True Blood. I love discovering old shows and introducing them to people in my generation (as I've done with shows like Freaks and Geeks). I think Mad Men is overhyped.

I'm also a huge book reader. Amazon's Kindle is God's gift to mankind. Who else could've come up with the ingenious idea of a handheld computer that stores hundreds of books yet weighs less than 1/4 of any of the Harry Potter books? Lately I've been on a fiction kick, but I also love reading non-fiction (David Sedaris is an inspiration, loved all of Sarah Vowell's books, and both of Chelsea Handler's cracked me up). The last book I read was the recent release "Everything Matters!" by Ron Currie Jr. Highly reccomend it!

The one thing tearing me up about transplanting my life to Boston is the thought of being ripped away from New York's theater scene. I've seen a lot of shows over the years, my most recent having been the fun, pithy "9 to 5" with the phenomenally talented Alison Janney.

Overall, I hope this blog to be a means for me to share advice about the entertainment world with others (whoever may read this!). I'm hoping to do a daily review (Movie, Music, Books, TV, and Theater). I generally tune in to see new shows (and at least the first episode of returning shows), I see movies frequently, listen to TONS of music, and read a lot, so hopefully I have enough in my arsenal to keep me going for a while. In addition, I'll post info on celebrities, entertainment world gossip, and stuff about myself.

Hope everyone enjoys!
-Brennan