Everything Must Go
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
Compared to some, Henry Powell's life has been lucky, if inauspicious. Yet Henry is impossibly stuck, unable to reconcile the dreams and expectations of his promising youth with the reality of the unassuming, vaguely dissatisfied clothing store clerk he has become.
As weeks turn into months and months into years, the shop becomes Henry's only window to the world, where he marks time by the milestones of his former classmates' lives. But his day–to–day measured existence inadvertently conceals a fracture that has caused the disintegration of his family, one that will ultimately reveal the Henry that might have been.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
For Henry Powell, every day is the same: he wakes just before 7 a.m. to prepare for work at the men's clothing store he's worked at since he was 17. Now 31, he's ready to die of boredom. Henry briefly escaped from his small New England town via college, but family problems his alcoholic mother and his emotionally icy father needed help and his brother had moved away brought him back from college in the early '80s. Every now and then, an acquaintance from Henry's prestigious prep school stops by the store, but much of Henry's time is spent in fantasyland, where he is a famous rock musician or the subject of a biography. A romance with Cathy Nicholas, who works at a neighboring coffee shop, is promising, but that, too, peters out. As Henry's temporary leave from college becomes permanent and the years tick by, it seems nothing except the style of pants he sells will change. Until the store goes out of business on wait for it September 10, 2001, and change for Henry promptly ensues. Flock (But I'm Screaming Inside; Me & Emma) fills the flashback-heavy book with cultural touchstones from the era of big hair and unfortunate fashion and manages an optimistic conclusion to Henry's drab story.
