Reading Local Review: Everything Was Fine Until Whatever

“There are no ‘right’ answers, just long boring ones and short funny ones.”  This line from Chelsea Martin’s Everything Was Fine Until Whatever (Future Tense) is not only entirely accurate, it also sums up the feeling one gets after finishing this “collection of stories, lists, flash fictions, and revealing factoids.”  Additionally, it increasingly describes the way we consume our information.  In a world where some estimate we receive 3,000 advertising messages a day, and are simultaneously communicating via text message, Twitter, chat, email, and status updates, you better get our attention fast, and then keep it by never letting us know what’s coming down the pike next. This is exactly what Martin accomplishes in Everything Was Fine Until Whatever.

It feels as though this book may be indicative of the type of work we will see coming out of the so-called “text message” generation.  Writers of Martin’s age (saying that makes me feel old) have largely grown up in a world that communicates in the way described above, and so it only makes sense that the work produced by this generation of writers would follow a similar pattern.  That is in no way meant as a slight either.  I don’t mean to imply that Martin is in a “phase” that she will grow out of and then get down to some “serious writing.”  In fact I think that although this book at times (most of the time) was laugh out loud funny, and felt stream of conscious, the underlying message is an entirely serious one.

The first and longest story readers encounter, “Baby’s First Words,” conveys this message quite acutely.  Told through the vantage point of a hapless father, whose baby delivers Stewie Griffin like one liners, Baby’s First Words is the most insightful writing concerning relationships I have read in a long time.  “Cousins” is another story with a serious tone, that takes on the subject of familial comings and goings.

The point though, is not to single out stories where Martin shows a serious side, it’s to say that one can’t just write this off as a quirky attempt at humor and nothing else.  It’s to say that although not everyone could write this book, everyone could be it’s protagonist.  I think that is the largest achievement of Everything Was Fine, that through Martin’s unique style, voice, and the books format, people feel as though they are reading a biography of their id.

Martin also quips that “everyone who lives in Portland is good looking,” which makes it nearly impossible to not come away from this book with a giant crush (it might have got Sampsell to publish it as well…).

You can see Chelsea Martin tonight (4/7) at the books release party at The Maiden.  Show starts at 8pm. You can also learn more about her here.

Lastly, here is the books theme song: