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    Everyone Says That at the End of the World
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    Everyone Says That at the End of the World
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    Everyone Says That at the End of the World
    Ebook473 pages6 hours

    Everyone Says That at the End of the World

    By Owen Egerton

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In this “often riotous, ultimately moving Cat’s Cradle for our time,” a Texas couple prepares for the apocalypse (Kirkus Reviews).

    In Austin, Milton and Rica are expecting their first child. It’s four days and counting. Not for the baby. But for the end of the world. Evidence: Haydon Brock, a godless television star has suddenly traded his Hollywood fame for salvation. A prophetic hermit crab is embarking on an unfathomable cross-country quest. Planes are dropping from the sky. And the president and first lady disappear. No omen is too inexplicable to Milton. He’s learned for a fact that our planet is one vast asylum for the incurably insane. And its cosmic guardians are about to close down the whole damn thing.

    Then Milton receives one more premonition: to seek out Haydon now holed up somewhere in Marfa. To what end Milton hasn’t a clue. To find out, Milton, Rica, and their best friend head west across an increasingly cataclysmic landscape of inter-dimensional time travelers, Jesus clones, sleep-deprived monks, ghosts, and angels in an epic and manic quest to outrun the last days on Earth.

    Combining humor, philosophical inquiry and an unforgettable cast of characters, “this sharp-witted satire” (Booklist) “is a future classic, and people will be reading [it] decades from now. I know I will” (Charles Yu, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSoft Skull
    Release dateApr 1, 2013
    ISBN9781593765552
    Unavailable
    Everyone Says That at the End of the World

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    Reviews for Everyone Says That at the End of the World

    3.5/5

    9 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This eccentric novel posits that an interpersonally maladroit science club geek and Austin scenester begins receiving messages from a homunculus and his deceased father that the world is going to end on Sunday (or is it Monday...) which his somewhat mismatched lover interprets as yet another sign that he wants to run out on his impending fatherhood. She, in turn, is romantically obsessed with a big-ego television star she once vomited on at a Hollywood teen party who, in turn, is hitting the road to try and become a holy man. Factor in a supporting cast which includes multiple Jesuses, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and a hermit crab on the run from a sewer inspector, and you can see that there's a lot going on.

      The book is beautifully written; almost every page contains a striking metaphor, screamingly funny incident, or glowing description of supernatural phenomena--even the chapter titles are moving prose poems. The author clearly wants to do for religion what Douglas Adams did for science--produce a hilarious romp which simultaneously takes on some really big questions. Yet this rose also contained quite a few thorns. Too much of it read a lot like the sort of Tribulation porn which fundamentalists have been churning out for decades, and the horror genre cliches he drags out are truly cringeworthy at times. His juxtaposition of dysphemistic language, flippancy toward religion, and rather positive treatments of the novel's religious, often fundamentalist, characters is quite perplexing, which, of course, may be something of a compliment, but I didn't particularly enjoy spending so much time questioning whether I was being proselytized. And ultimately the book took a little too long to get where it was going. It's a peculiar literary experience.
    • 3/5
      Milton, former Christian rocker and Drafthouse horror MC, receives intelligence that the end of the world is nigh, and he has to get out of Dodge (Austin) with his pregnant girlfriend, and head to Marfa.

      Austinites will love the local stuff: The Soup Peddler, VHS collectors, the Drafthouse. Whatever Mundi House is — I think I ate lunch there once. I added this book to my list after reading that the premise was about the earth being a holding cell for the criminally insane of the universe, which is pretty awesome. However, that premise doesn't figure prominently in the plot, and the book is really more of a meditation on religion and purpose in life, which isn't quite as awesome. I very nearly gave up after the first chapters of Rica, who is so earth-mothery, it kind of makes you want to stab her. But Milton is a great character, as is Roy, so I persevered.
    • 3/5
      So this is one weird book that while I laughed and loved the characters I couldn't help but feel that I didn't quite get the jokes. Owen Egerton's cast of characters reads like a Carl Hiaasen novel but the difference is that this story is so far out there that it was difficult for me to understand where the plot was going. I felt a bit like one of the main characters, Milton, whose father is ranting and raving about the time traveling spacemen outside and how there are parallel universes where he won't get hit with the bullet. Even though the storyline will leave you wondering what the heck is going on, the goofy characters won't disappoint. My favorite is the hermit crab. The author is an Austinite like myself so I can enjoy his humor even if I don't understand the philosophy. If this is the end of the world it would be a funny way to go.