Elizabeth Flock Everything Must Go

Everything Must Go

Elizabeth Flock

Mira, Nov 2006, $21.95

ISBN 0778323234

In the late 1970s, Henry Powell's future looked bright. He had a great high school senior year playing football earning him a college scholarship that will enable him to leave the dying New England town Baxter. However, dreams die as Henry knows first hand. He went off to college only to have to come home due to a family emergency, while his older brother Brad skipped town without a look back.

Fourteen years later, Henry works at the same men's clothing store he worked in when he was in high school. He has no future feeling humiliated whenever someone from his glory days enters the shop. His only escape from nothings is fantasy where he pretends he is a rock star or being interviewed by a renowned biographical author for a book starring him. Now Henry's only means of income the store will shut down on September 10, 2001. How will Henry react is anyone's guess as EVERYTHING MUST GO especially the employees.

Elizabeth Flock is gaining a reputation for deep psychological character studies (see ME & EMMA) that shake up a reader's comfort zone. Her latest tale EVERYTHING MUST GO is not an easy read as the audience, through perhaps too many flashbacks, learns how much Henry has lost by being responsible towards his family. This book is not for everyone as this for the most part is a depressing yet realistic personal saga even with a future that looks brighter than the immediate past (at least since he dropped out of college); still readers who appreciate a deep dark look at a man just surviving not living will want to peruse Henry's disheartening bio.

Harriet Klausner