Why Did I Ever
Language: English
Published by Counterpoint, Washington, D.C., 2001
- First Edition
- Hardcover
- Used
Seller: Owl Creek Books, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.Owl Creek Books
AbeBooks seller since September 19, 2025
Condition: Used - Very good
£ 27.05
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 2001. First Edition. Dust jacket unclipped. Fine jacket, very good book with some tanning. Meet Money Breton, a Hollywood script doctor and a woman whose life is one hilariously chaotic note after another. Juggling three ex-husbands, unruly adult children, and the bizarre demands of the film industry, she chronicles her world in a unique, manic, and unforgettable voice.
Seller Inventory # OCB13580
- Title
- Why Did I Ever
- Author
- Robison, Mary
- Publisher
- Counterpoint, Washington, D.C.
- Publication year
- 2001
- Condition
- Very Good
- Dust jacket
- Fine
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1582430608
- ISBN 13
- 9781582430607
- Edition
- First Edition
- Printing
- 1st Printing
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review
Winner of the LA Times Book Prize for fiction in 2001 "Mary Robison, almost as an afterthought, has created a novel that speaks volumes about life in Los Angeles: its stopping and starting, its rushing and emoting, its whimsy and its suspicious, subversive humor..." --Los Angeles Times Book Review "Tense, moving, and hilarious...[a] dark jewel of a novel." --Francine Prose, O: The Oprah Magazine. "An epic portrayed in miniature, a cry of cosmic pain in a voice of absurdist humor, an earnest insistence on maternal love in the language of skepticism and family dysfunction. It's an amazing little book: all of Robison's minimalist genius is at work here." --Cathleen Schine, New York Times Book Review "I wish to hell I could write prose like this...The joy in this novel is for the reader, not the characters. Read it." --David Gates, Newsweek "The author, who is known as a minimalist, here creates a narrative out of fragmented paragraphs, and the book works best when she strips Money's most explicit fears away. A simple sentence fragment--'Canoe, moon, ukelele'--seems a close to perfect expression of lost beauty." --The New Yorker "Robison's characters are vivid, colorful, and likable, and their story is absorbing. Her humorous presentation does not cheapen the tragic content of her novel but realistically portrays one method of survival. Highly recommended for all public and academic fiction collections." --Library Journal "Robison's incandescent soliloquy on the absurdity of existence hones fiction to a new and exhilarating measure of sharpness." --Donna Seaman, Booklist "[A] tour de force of minimalist yet mind-expanding prose... [Robison] makes you think--hard--about life's unavoidable travails, while making it impossible for you to suppress a smile." --Lisa Shea, Elle "What makes Money memorable, and Mary Robison essential, is that her fundamental bearings are the right ones. Love and compassion are her nature, and they suffuse the page whenever she is talking about her children, even the exasperating daughter." --Richard Dyer, Boston Globe "Why Did I Ever is a rarity: an experimental novel that's both engaging and wholly successful." --Time Out New York "Robison... possesses a precocious alertness to the incongruities of life.... [A]t the center is a disciplined and clear-headed novel full of humor and an occasional glimmer of optimism." --Rob Stout, The Charlotte Observer "I wish to live in [Money's] mind for a while because its perilously funny pratfalls make me want to laugh so badly that I cannot laugh at all." --Molly McQuade, Newsday "At once heartwrenching and bitterly comical... a stunning work of unbridled honesty." --The Village Voice "It is a rare novel that can manage to convey the coexistence of tragedy and pleasure so immediately without lessening the reader's enjoyment of either." --The New Leader "While Money is the definition of sad insanity, Robison's voice is witty and cutting, albeit undeniably weird.... It's more than worth the ride." --Entertainment Weekly "Among so much modern writing these days trying to find a way to explain our situation as plush but dire, free but under surveillance, exhausted but ADD, Robison's fiercely offhand banter cuts through any possible cavity of bullshit, kills its own bloat before it even has time to turn into a scene.... Each passage assumes the feel of veracity of idea over unnecessary execution, as if we are being shown the tools that build a universe rather than the universe itself. There are people, places, time periods; these things each have their personalities, moods; each of the resonances stick out like the sharp part of a long passage that you waited to be paid off by for your effort. Everything is treasure. And by the sheer mass of its weight in such small space, the reader is forced to slow down, to hear the lines again inside her head instead of only on the page, and to parse what those lines might be trying to communicate, if anything." --Blake Butler, Vice "Mary Robison is, and always has been, a wonderful writer. Why Did I Ever is startling, deft, extremely attractive, and smart--very smart--in its midnight vision of the lived life." --Richard Ford "Mary Robison has done for the Hollywood culture of our time what Joan Didion did thirty years ago. Spare and ruthless, precisely chiseled, Why Did I Ever is the Play It As It Lays of the twenty-first century." --Madison Smart Bell, author of All Souls' Rising "Mary Robison's stunned and plunging characters are the truth. This is pure, grim poetry." --Barry Hannah, author of High Lonesome "Deeply strange, hilarious, heartbreaking, and just stupidly great.... Robison is something approaching brilliant, and Why Did I Ever is hard-bound proof." --Darcy Cosper, author of Wedding Season
Praise for Why Did I Ever Winner of the LA Times Book Prize for Fiction "Mary Robison, almost as an afterthought, has created a novel that speaks volumes about life in Los Angeles: its stopping and starting, its rushing and emoting, its whimsy and its suspicious, subversive humor..." --Los Angeles Times Book Review "Tense, moving, and hilarious...[a] dark jewel of a novel." --Francine Prose, O: The Oprah Magazine. "An epic portrayed in miniature, a cry of cosmic pain in a voice of absurdist humor, an earnest insistence on maternal love in the language of skepticism and family dysfunction. It's an amazing little book: all of Robison's minimalist genius is at work here." --Cathleen Schine, New York Times Book Review "I wish to hell I could write prose like this...The joy in this novel is for the reader, not the characters. Read it." --David Gates, Newsweek "The author, who is known as a minimalist, here creates a narrative out of fragmented paragraphs, and the book works best when she strips Money's most explicit fears away. A simple sentence fragment--'Canoe, moon, ukelele'--seems a close to perfect expression of lost beauty." --The New Yorker "Among writers this is a well-known 'underappreciated' novel. I will not attempt to summarize or articulate what is so brilliant and enlivening about this book. I will only say I would hand it to you, to keep, if I could. The novel's narrator, Money Breton, is living a life that is symptomatic of Hollywood, of L.A., even if she doesn't live there. She is fatigued and full of a particular artistic contempt that no other part of the world could provide her." --Publishers Weekly, 1 of 10 Essential Books of the American West "Robison's characters are vivid, colorful, and likable, and their story is absorbing. Her humorous presentation does not cheapen the tragic content of her novel but realistically portrays one method of survival. Highly recommended for all public and academic fiction collections." --Library Journal "Robison's incandescent soliloquy on the absurdity of existence hones fiction to a new and exhilarating measure of sharpness." --Donna Seaman, Booklist "[A] tour de force of minimalist yet mind-expanding prose... [Robison] makes you think--hard--about life's unavoidable travails, while making it impossible for you to suppress a smile." --Lisa Shea, Elle "What makes Money memorable, and Mary Robison essential, is that her fundamental bearings are the right ones. Love and compassion are her nature, and they suffuse the page whenever she is talking about her children, even the exasperating daughter." --Richard Dyer, Boston Globe "Robison's novel . . . is an American classic." --4Columns "Why Did I Ever is a rarity: an experimental novel that's both engaging and wholly successful." --Time Out New York "Mary Robison's 2001 novel, Why Did I Ever, is the great lost American fragment novel . . . Why Did I Ever is a book of small moments and little jokes. It's both witty ('"Something tells me I need a nap," I say. "That would be your brain," says Hollis.') and intentionally banal . . . What makes Robison's novel stand out from other fragmented novels, beyond its sardonic voice, is its commitment to the mundane. These fragments and scenes are not all crystallized aphorisms, meaningful moments, or piercing insights (although many are one or more of those). For the most part these are fleeting thoughts and random banalities . . . which is to say, the stuff of life." --BOMB Magazine "Robison... possesses a precocious alertness to the incongruities of life.... [A]t the center is a disciplined and clear-headed novel full of humor and an occasional glimmer of optimism." --Rob Stout, The Charlotte Observer "I wish to live in [Money's] mind for a while because its perilously funny pratfalls make me want to laugh so badly that I cannot laugh at all." --Molly McQuade, Newsday "At once heartwrenching and bitterly comical... a stunning work of unbridled honesty." --The Village Voice "It is a rare novel that can manage to convey the coexistence of tragedy and pleasure so immediately without lessening the reader's enjoyment of either." --The New Leader "While Money is the definition of sad insanity, Robison's voice is witty and cutting, albeit undeniably weird.... It's more than worth the ride." --Entertainment Weekly "Among so much modern writing these days trying to find a way to explain our situation as plush but dire, free but under surveillance, exhausted but ADD, Robison's fiercely offhand banter cuts through any possible cavity of bullshit, kills its own bloat before it even has time to turn into a scene.... Each passage assumes the feel of veracity of idea over unnecessary execution, as if we are being shown the tools that build a universe rather than the universe itself. There are people, places, time periods; these things each have their personalities, moods; each of the resonances stick out like the sharp part of a long passage that you waited to be paid off by for your effort. Everything is treasure. And by the sheer mass of its weight in such small space, the reader is forced to slow down, to hear the lines again inside her head instead of only on the page, and to parse what those lines might be trying to communicate, if anything." --Blake Butler, Vice "Mary Robison is, and always has been, a wonderful writer. Why Did I Ever is startling, deft, extremely attractive, and smart--very smart--in its midnight vision of the lived life." --Richard Ford "Mary Robison has done for the Hollywood culture of our time what Joan Didion did thirty years ago. Spare and ruthless, precisely chiseled, Why Did I Ever is the Play It As It Lays of the twenty-first century." --Madison Smart Bell, author of All Souls' Rising "Mary Robison's stunned and plunging characters are the truth. This is pure, grim poetry." --Barry Hannah, author of High Lonesome "Deeply strange, hilarious, heartbreaking, and just stupidly great.... Robison is something approaching brilliant, and Why Did I Ever is hard-bound proof." --Darcy Cosper, author of Wedding Season
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Owl Creek Books
Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
Shipping rates within U.S.A.
| Item | 5 to 14 business days | 3 to 6 business days |
|---|---|---|
| First item | £ 8.25 | £ 16.50 |
Payment methods
Store description
Rare, vintage, and antiquarian bookstore in Mid-city Los Angeles. In the heart of mid-city Los Angeles, our antiquarian bookstore is a haven for book lovers, collectors, and anyone with a passion for the historic written word. We specialize in meticulously selected rare books, first editions, and antiquarian gems that are as unique as the city itself.
Specialty
literature, modern firsts, poetry, playsAssociation member
Seller's business information
Owl Creek Books
CA, U.S.A.
Right of withdrawal
If you are a consumer you can withdraw from the contract in accordance with the following. Consumer means any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside his trade, business, craft or profession.
Information regarding the right of withdrawal
Statutory right to withdraw
You have the right to withdraw from this contract within 14 days without giving any reason.
The withdrawal period will expire after 14 days from the day on which you acquire, or a third party other than the carrier and indicated by you acquires, physical possession of the last good or the last lot or piece.
To exercise the right of withdrawal, electronically fill in and submit a clear statement on our website, under "My Purchases" in "My Account". We will communicate to you an acknowledgement of receipt of such a withdrawal on a durable medium (e.g. by e-mail) without delay.
To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right of withdrawal before the withdrawal period has expired.
Effects of withdrawal
If you withdraw from this contract, we will reimburse to you all payments received from you, including the costs of delivery (except for the supplementary costs arising if you chose a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us).
We may make a deduction from the reimbursement for loss in value of any goods supplied, if the loss is the result of unnecessary handling by you.
We will make the reimbursement without undue delay, and not later than 14 days after the day on which we are informed about your decision to withdraw from this contract.
We will make the reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of such reimbursement.
We may withhold reimbursement until we have received the goods back, or you have supplied evidence of having sent back the goods, whichever is the earliest.
You shall send back the goods or hand them over to Owl Creek Books, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., +1 310-975-7646, without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which you communicate your withdrawal from this contract to us. The deadline is met if you send back the goods before the period of 14 days has expired. You will have to bear the direct cost of returning the goods. You are only liable for any diminished value of the goods resulting from the handling other than what is necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods.
Exceptions to the right of withdrawal
The right of withdrawal does not apply to:
- The delivery of newspapers, journals or magazines with the exception of subscription contracts; and
- The supply of digital content which is not supplied on a tangible medium (e.g. on a CD or DVD) if you accepted when you placed your order that we could start to deliver it, and that you could not withdraw once delivery had started.