Paul Kwiatkowski

Sometimes you want to like a book more than you do. I think the concept of this is great. You don't see photography blended with fiction very often, and in that sense it's innovative. However, I couldn't help but feel like it fell short of what that concept could accomplish.

Maybe stories of dysfunctional, drug-addicted youths aren't my wheel-house, but it genuinely seemed to not really go anywhere but to rather stew around in it's own bleak, tripped out sadness. It's evocative of a particular time and place, but doesn't really stretch to say anything profound about it.

The photographs add to that sense of place a great deal, but I found the artistry of them a bit all over the place. The end result is a bit like reading the diary of a sad kid while also flipping through his associated facebook photographs.… (mehr)

Thanks to GoodReads First Reads and Black Balloon Publishing for a free copy of this book in exchange of my honest review.

And Every Day Was Overcast is a self-indulgent teenage acid trip. It is an "illustrated novel" about a kid growing up to be a teenager in Southern Florida among the slowly deteriorating suburban non-bliss. There is surprisingly little about the main character's family, save for a bit in the beginning. Most of the book chronicles the discombobulated adventures of Paul, the perpetually horny misfit, whose lack of articulation in anxious situations earns him the title of asshole by one female "friend," doubtless something the reader can also agree with throughout the book. Most of Paul's energy is spent on drugs, alcohol, and trying to get laid. Certainly far from my own life when I was young, there is a lot in Paul's drifting life that any reader can relate to: anxiety, curiosity about anything to do with sex, rebellion, and always trying to look cool, knowing you don't. Perhaps the most alien of Paul's experiences is his constant involvement with drugs, which, I suppose, is not uncommon in suburbia.

The look and feel of the photographs that may or may not be related to the stories in the book really give the feeling of Gummo (film by Harmony Korine): bleak wasteland, bored people, lots of nudity, women as objects, men as pigs, drugs, alcohol, more boredom, more wasteland. There is an overwhelming number of photos of two things: dead animals and nudes (of mostly women). Perhaps the photographs are trying to say something...

Kwaitkowski is a good writer, creating a memoir-like voice (whether it is a memoir or not is beside the point) that is convincing and surprisingly poetic at times. Descriptions of Florida and stretched out hours of boredom are remarkable at times, as well.

Recommended for fans of the films Kids and Gummo, swim teams, and bad haircuts.… (mehr)