It should be easy for anybody who’s had to do any sort of growing up in life to relate to the stories in Justin Taylor’s book Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever. Taylor, who is fairly new to the literary scene, is 28-years-old, lives in Brooklyn, New York, and has written an impressive amount for his age. He’s contributed to The Nation, The Believer, The New York Tyrant. and NPR, as well as guest editing an issue of the popular literary magazine McSweeney’s.
When I say that it should be easy for anybody who’s ever had to grow up to relate to Taylor’s stories, I really mean anybody who had a horrible time in high school. Taylor’s book starts off with several stories about the confusion of growing up and addresses such issues as being a self-hating Jew, somewhat reminiscent of Woody Allen, smoking pot every day after school while you’re in love with your friend’s sister and her brother, having sex and abortions — the list goes on.
Taylor handles the topic of being a teenager in a way that’s very effective and analytical. When reading these stories I found it easy to relate to each character on an emotional level through Taylor’s use of beautiful description. It didn’t matter what situation the characters were in—I could still connect with the story’s common themes. The reader hardly notices when the book suddenly makes the switch from topics that are somewhat juvenile, to those that really grasp for the bigger picture.
One thing Taylor’s book really drives home is the strange and almost chaotic ways that we as human beings have to discover our own sexuality. There are a lot of questions we sometimes have about sex and Taylor seems to do his best to address them all, whether it be homosexuality or bi-curiousness, rough, drunk sex or hitting and punching. One story even evoked the scene in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet where Isabella Rossellini asks Kyle MacLachlan to hit her as they’re making love, which he does reluctantly at first. Taylor is also very good at writing from different points of view, and in this book the reader gets to experience sex as an older woman, a straight man, a gay man and a bi-curious girl — which is not something you get to do every day.
The underpinning theme of this collection is almost apocalyptic, with all the talk of anti-authority and anarchism early on, as well as some stories later in the book that seemingly end in despair. However, the apocalyptic theme is one that’s almost comfortable and it leaves the reader feeling that everything will be alright.
Twice in the book Taylor mentions the collection’s title, Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever, both times appearing as graffiti. This is a perfect name for the book because it encompasses that feeling of, “Yeah, I guess the world’s screwed up but we’re here and we might as well live for a while.” In one story a guy sits happily playing “Tetris” with his girlfriend sleeping next to him as the world slowly ends outside. In another, an alcoholic is hired to kill his uncle’s cat. There’s even a tale where a woman picks up a hitchhiker who turns out to be psychic and a ghost. Taylor’s imagination has limitless possibilities and as the reader progresses through the book, it’s easy to get lost in his words.
Sometimes though, the mentioning of common themes like anarchism, punk rock, drugs and dudes who dress like “skaters” can take away from the poignancy of his stories. The music that he talks about in the book is also very specific and for those who didn’t grow up in high school listening to The Pixies or The Misfits, this might be a cause for some sort of alienation for the reader. The music that is in the book expresses certain ideals and readers who can’t relate might find themselves struggling to understand why it’s important that an anarchist punk would have a patch of the band Crass on the back of his jacket.
Aside from that though, Taylor’s stories are effective in expressing the idea that life is crazy, miserable, beautiful, confusing and painful — all at the same time. But in the end it’s all worth it, right? That’s how the reader feels when they finish Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever, and who wouldn’t want that from a book that costs less than 15 bucks?
