Set amid the country club gossip and rampant affluenza of Silicon Valley's
nouveau riche, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything is a smart, acerbic comedy
chronicling one eventful summer when the lives of the Miller family are turned
upside-down.
After his pharmaceutical company's explosive IPO, Paul Miller leaves his wife
Janice for her tennis partner, attempting to cut her out of nearly a half-billion
dollars. Eldest daughter Margaret is on the run from her creditors after her
fledgling post-feminist magazine Snatch implodes; and neglected Lizzie, a naïve
teen enjoying a newfound popularity with boys at school, discovers that she’s
actually become the school slut. The three Miller women retreat behind the walls
of their Georgian colonial to wage battle with divorce lawyers, debt collectors,
drug-dealing pool boys, mean girls, country club ladies, evangelical neighbors,
their own demons, and each other.
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Praise for All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
"Executed with nerve and wit... Brown's comic scenes and devastating details make her postmillenial
consumer universe surprisingly entertaining." - New York Times Book Review
"A withering Silicon Valley satire . . . From the ashes of their California dreams, the three [women] must learn to
talk to each other instead of past each other, and build a new, slightly more realistic existence—but not without
doses of revenge and hilarity. Brown's hip narrative reads like a sharp, contemporary twist on The Corrections."
- Publishers Weekly
"A winning debut – 3.5 of 4 stars" - People Magazine
"Brown is going after the intellectual (and not simply the power) trade-offs of marriage, the double standards of
teen sex, the failure -- both literal and psychological -- of post-feminist feminism, the cutting ways in which
women often treat each other and the stomach-turning ways in which they treat themselves in service to the
men in their lives. She's also tackling the poisonous influence of all your major opiates: sex, drugs, money,
fame, religion.... "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything" is as addictive as the meth on which Janice gets
quickly hooked." - Salon.com
"Brown's first novel rates as one the most difficult-to-put-down books of the year. It is the quintessential
summer read, except that description downplays Brown’s quirky, sharp-as-tacks characters, unbelievably real
dialog, and helluva plot." - Library Journal - STARRED REVIEW
read more praise
"A killer summer read."—Daily Candy
"Brown — a respected journalist whose work has appeared in Salon,
Vogue, and The New York Times — possesses a witty style that makes the
book a quick but substantive read. Sex and the City may be this summer’s
guilty pleasure, but All We Ever Wanted is all the fun without the saccharine
hangover. " - SF Weekly
"Brown’s novel reminded us of a soapier, more summery version of
Jonathan Franzen’s biting social commentary. All We Ever Wanted critiques
a certain Silicon Valley lifestyle in which 5,200-square-foot Colonials
are average and blowout IPOs catapult regular tech guys to zillionaire
status overnight. Against this backdrop, her tale of one family’s implosion
is a deliciously fun satire that manages to raise interesting questions
about the American Dream." - Boston Magazine
"Swift-paced and very readable" - San Francisco Chronicle
"A sinful treat.... ruthless and razor sharp." - Santa Cruz
Sentinel
"The author grew up in Atherton, Calif., covered the tech boom as
a writer for Wired magazine and Salon.com, and even edited a neo-feminist
magazine, called Maxi. She knows this landscape well. It could be a minefield
of cliches and tropes. But mostly - through humor, some deft plot twists,
her eye for absurd detail and her ability to reveal the inner lives of
her characters - she manages to steer clear of them, as well as temper
sharp irony with a dose of mercy for the Millers." - Newsday
"Brown's beauty of a book believably puts it out there that you
can go home again, but only if you're willing to genuinely care for and
about each other." - New York Daily News
"A smart, darkly comic book... a really great read" - Today
Show, "Ten Books Not to Miss This Summer"
"One more terrific novel to throw in the beach bag-maybe I like
this one so much because the unlikely heroine is a magazine editor...although
one who lives in L.A. and who has completely maxed out her credit card.
Having been recently dumped by her famous actor boyfriend and struggling
to keep up with her more successful movie-industry friends, Margaret has
to make a change that will bring her-and her family-back from the brink.
This is one for the book club." - Glamour
"AWEWWE depicts a shining Silicon Valley suburb replete with country
club appearances and pool boys. In the grand tradition of the suburban
novel, beneath the surface of all that material excess lurks despair,
accidental pregnancy and general malaise. It's sort of like a modern day,
West Coast version of the Ice Storm, but instead of key parties there's…meth."
- Jezebel.com
"If you're nostalgic for boom times, pick up Janelle Brown's satirical
first novel "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything.'' It'll set you straight
on the absurd expectations of our very own gilded age." - San Jose
Mercury News
"The women spiral downward over the course of their epically terrible
summer. Janice deals with her betrayal by picking up a crystal meth habit
that has her running her house like a cranked-up Martha Stewart, which
makes for some funny moments. Margaret hides her desperate straits from
all who can help her either financially or emotionally, retreating into
sulky, self-centered solitude. Promiscuous Lizzie goes searching for Jesus,
but ends up somewhere else entirely." - LA Times
“A razor-sharp critique of the absurd expectations that, these days,
have come to stand for ambition, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
is wrenching, riveting, and still manages to be great fun. This is a wise,
intimate chronicle of one family’s struggle to take off their masks and
live in the place they most feared: the real, imperfect world.”
—Meghan Daum, author of The Quality of Life Report
“Rarely does a first novelist write with such confidence and grace. All We Ever Wanted Was Everything is a marvelous book.”
—Ayelet Waldman, author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits
“Janelle Brown's beautiful debut explores the tiny fissures in our lives and what happens when those fissures erupt into chasms. Excruciatingly funny, unrelentingly painful—this extraordinary book gives us something only the best novels can: a glimpse of what it means to be human.”
—Katherine Taylor, author of Rules for Saying Goodbye
Reading Group Guide (pdf)
Enjoyed All We Ever Wanted Was Everything? Don't hesitate to talk about it with your friends, co-workers, book clubs. (Really! Please!) It’s my hope that this guide will help spark a lively conversation that will continue long after you’ve turned the last page.
Trailer
Click to watch a trailer for All We Ever Wanted
Was Everything produced by my British
publishers.
