Reviewer: Kate
I received a copy of Everybody Has Everything by Katrina Onstad in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis:
After years of unsuccessful attempts at conceiving a child, Ana and James become parents overnight, when a terrible accident makes them guardians to 2-year-old Finn. Suddenly, two people who were struggling to come to terms with childlessness are thrust into the opposite situation-responsible for a small toddler whose mother’s survival is in question.
Finn’s crash-landing in their tidy, urban lives throws into high relief some troubling truths about their deepest selves, both separately and as a couple. Several chaotic, poignant, and life-changing weeks as a most unusual family give rise to an often unasked question: Can everyone be a parent?
Review:
Poetry in motion. That’s what Katrina Onstad gives us in Everybody Has Everything. Sometimes in the surprising depths of haiku, sometimes in longer narrative, at other times a simple one liner, but always provocative and revelatory. Onstad’s style is intensely circumspect, examining the smallest details of life to explore motivations. Within the first page I was spellbound by the artistry of this author, her ability to move the characters through poetic language. The beauty with which Onstad writes at times put the horrors of human existence in stark relief.
Physical destruction, betrayal, deceit—Katrina Onstad touches the ugliness of life, reveling uncomfortable truths through the traumatic orphaning of a child. But this book is not at all about Finn, it’s about Ana and James’ reactions to Finn. It’s about the lies that we tell ourselves and each other in order to make it through the day. It’s about the loneliness and anxiety of aging. It is a question about what love is and why and how we love.
Everybody Has Everything vibrates with palpable fear from the first page to the last, a constant disquiet that everything is not all right and it may never be. There is a fascinating awkwardness in reading this book; the reader is a voyeur of the most intimate moments. Onstad shows us her characters vulnerabilities and delusions, provoking (at least for me) introspection: Do these characters feel familiar? Yes, they do. And that is an uncomfortable thought. But I feel richer for the experience.
While this is not an easy beach book, I recommend this as a summer read. There is depth here that is poignant and beautiful. The story is fascinating and Katrina Onstad’s narration is superb.
