So Much Blue

April 10, 2017
Art, friendship, family, and sex all jostle for priority of focus in the prolific Everett’s contemplative new novel. The plot doesn’t so much unfold or tighten but rather follows the idiosyncratic thoughts of its protagonist, a renowned painter named Kevin Pace. Several chapters open with philosophical statements—“I suppose every alcoholic desires to regard himself as simply a harmless drunk.” Taking his time, Kevin unspools a story from 30 years ago, another a decade old, and gauges their impact on the present. These plotlines are woven in chapters variously titled “1979,” “Paris,” and “House.” In “1979,” when he’s 24, Kevin and his close friend Richard take a potentially dangerous trip to El Salvador to find Richard’s missing brother, Tad. It doesn’t take long for them to stumble into a dangerous situation involving soldiers with M16s. The “Paris” plot charts Kevin’s romance with the alluring Victoire, with Richard playing a minor role. And in “House,” Kevin is working on a painting, perhaps a masterwork—“a painting has many surfaces,” he proclaims—but refuses to show it to his family, or anyone else for that matter. The novel’s version of the three ages of man adds yet another level to Everett’s intellectually provocative work.

July 31, 2017
Audiobook veteran Lawlor rises to the challenges presented by the latest novel from Everett. The story gradually weaves together three sprawling threads in the life of painter Kevin Pace: his current life as a husband and father raising two teenagers in a picturesque New England community, an extramarital affair with a young woman in Paris a decade ago, and a violent journey through war-torn El Salvador 30 years previously. Lawlor remains poised as the threads intertwine. He is particularly gifted in his empathetic rendering of the angst-ridden 16-year-old daughter, April, as she seeks parental help after getting pregnant, but the most memorable parts of the audiobook are the flashbacks to El Salvador involving a mysterious American mercenary known as “the Bummer.” The audiobook requires patience and attention to detail given Everett’s contemplative style of writing and slow pacing, but Lawlor demonstrates his talent throughout the journey. A Graywolf hardcover.

Kevin Pace is a 56-year-old artist working on a "private" canvas, 12 feet by 21 feet (and 3 inches), covered only in shades of blue, that may never be shown. It may, or may not, be his masterpiece. Patrick Lawlor narrates three life-defining periods in Kevin's life in an unemotional delivery, making this audiobook a challenging listening experience. The story's parts move from Paris, where Kevin had an affair 10 years earlier, to 1979, when he and a friend went to El Salvador to find a missing brother, to his current home, where he must come to terms with the consequences of his life of secrets. The chapters meander back and forth in time and place with no clear connections, and Lawlor's dispassionate delivery demands full listener attention. N.E.M. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine