About The Everyday

Eyed Kevin Wilson's 'Tunneling to the Center of the Earth' when the girlfriend passed us the books. However, the man got his hands on it first and was reading it through tea, dinner and all. But, the moment he put down the book for the iPad for more than 20 minutes later in the night, I stole it. (Read reviews here, here and here.)

11 stories. Sorta about me against the world, and surviving. His stories are as real as you and your neighbors are. Everyday realities. Plain language. I enjoy Kevin Wilson's writing alot. The stories in this book aren't in print for the first time. It's been published in various literary journals. Now, they've all been collated into a delightful book that can either be upsetting or practically cheerful, depending on which perspective you choose.

The first story titled 'Grand Stand-In' introduces us to the protagonist who works at this company called Grand Stand-In which is a "Nuclear Family Supplemental Provider". The fifty-six-year-old protagonist is effectively a grandmother on loan, who has to memorize backstories and a million details about her five-projects-at-any-one-time, but still has to be the "queen of disconnect". She serves as

a grandmother to five families in the Southeast. Each role is different, though I specialize in the single, still-active grandmother archetype, usually the paternal grandmother, husband now deceased, quite comfortable but not rich, still pretty, fond of crafts.

She finally leaves this job, this role as a 'grandmother', and resumes her own identity, living in a house that is hers alone, and thinking "...it is strangely wonderful to feel the lack of something instead of believing that it was never there in the first place."

The last story in the book is titled 'Worst-Case Scenario'. It starts as depressingly as it ends. Or at least I think the ending is depressing, although it tries for optimism, bringing in an innocent baby Alex and the protagonist tells Alex that "It's going to be fine. Everything is fine." These lines are not exactly reassuring. Anyway. I like it. You gotta read it and decide.

I work for Worst-Case Scenario, Inc. I have a degree in Catastrophe from a small college in the Northeast, where I learned all the ways that things fall apart. I am a field agent in what could happen. I go to amusement parks and punch numbers into my computer and tell them how many people could die on a ride, what we call absolute disaster.