Staff Pick
Robert Hill's first novel, When All is Said and Done, is an illuminating meditation on marriage: first the brilliant shock of love, soon followed by the minutiae of domestic life, the chaos of child rearing, the interference of career, the fighting, the bristling, the settling, the sense of family despite all, the eventual crisis, and the recovery — or not — from that crisis. Told in alternating chapters, first the wife and then the husband, a portrait of marriage begins to appear: both happy and unhappy.
Hill has the rare talent of articulating both the hilarity and the pathos that inevitably mark such a relationship. With Hill's amazing prose and his skill for wringing something completely new from the English language, When All Is Said and Done is a stellar debut. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A distinctive portrait of a 1960s marriage by debut novelist Robert HillEight years and four jobs and five pregnancies and meetings and train schedules and formula and diapers and deadlines and clients and mortgage and croup and a revolving door of baby nurses and Dan stagnating in that civilian job I convinced him to take when the Air Force wanted him back for Korea of all things, they got Elvis, they didnt need Dan, a man of his age, for crying out loud, and after what they did to him in that hospital upstate . . . It is the early 1960s, and Myrmy stubs her toe in the predawn hours on her way to soothe her infant son, cursing the latest nurse for not waking up, again. Dressed to the nines, it is Myrmy who is off to an executive position writing advertising copy for shampoo. Her husband, Dan, who fought in two wars, sells ties and cooks dinner. A Jewish couple living in an exclusive suburb of New York, Myrmy powers through her life in high heels and Dan silently suffers the mysterious aftereffects of a radiation experiment conducted by the military. Together they raise a family.
Robert Hill offers a distinctive and breathless portrayal of an ordinary, and extraordinary, marriage told through the alternating voices of husband and wife. When All Is Said and Done is steeped in an era, but the anatomy of a marriage—comprised of humor, fear, love, and vulnerability—resonates through the ages.
Review
"[A] breakneck, wisecracking, tenderhearted, socially revealing portrait of an unusual early 1960s American marriage....Hill writes with velocity, rhythm, and wit...creating a bravura and resounding performance." Booklist
Review
"When All Is Said and Done captures the sad, brilliant truth of how short life is, how ordinary and rich, and most of all how so much of it is beyond our control." The Oregonian (Portland, OR)
Review
"[I]n flitting seamlessly from the mundane details of daily life to broader questions of love, family, priorities and death, the author has created a startlingly realistic depiction of the way the mind functions. Not for everyone, but undeniably impressive and well executed." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"I read it in a single sitting the writing is wonderful, rich, evocative and truly unique. Hill's novel is strong for all that it does say, and all that it leaves to the reader's imagination. There's something poetic in the best of ways about the way that the lines and language unfold. This book reminds me of Cheever and Yates and a young Rick Moody." A. M. Homes, author of This Book Will Save Your Life
Review
"From the first glorious sentence to its last astounding word, Robert Hill's When All Is Said and Done is a treasure. The sophisticated wit and luxurious language of this brilliant novel weave a story of one family's complex heart and history and their journey through 1950s/60s suburban Connecticut and all its prejudices. Read this American saga and weep." Tom Spanbauer, author of Now Is the Hour
Review
"What's extraordinary about Robert Hill's lyrical and lovely debut novel, When All Is Said and Done, is that he finds the poetry in ordinary, everyday life marriage, family, work, pain, beauty, awe." Helen Schulman, author of P.S.
Review
"Striking and spirited in its presentation, this short, rapid-fire novel reads like a hymn to the travails of love and work, marriage and babies, illness and sex, sexism and the '60s, Revlon and Bergdorf's....Exquisitely perceptive and a little bit catty, Hill's novel goes down in one smooth, satisfying gulp." Wade Edwards, The Virginia Quarterly Review (read the entire VQR review)
Synopsis
A distinctive portrait of a 1960s marriage by debut novelist Robert Hill.
Eight years and four jobs and five pregnancies and meetings and train schedules and formula and diapers and deadlines and clients and mortgage and croup and a revolving door of baby nurses and Dan stagnating in that civilian job I convinced him to take when the Air Force wanted him back for Korea of all things, they got Elvis, they didn't need Dan, a man of his age, for crying out loud, and after what they did to him in that hospital upstate...
It is the early 1960s, and Myrmy stubs her toe in the predawn hours on her way to soothe her infant son, cursing the latest nurse for not waking up, again. Dressed to the nines, it is Myrmy who is off to an executive position writing advertising copy for shampoo. Her husband, Dan, who fought in two wars, sells ties and cooks dinner. A Jewish couple living in an exclusive suburb of New York, Myrmy powers through her life in high heels and Dan silently suffers the mysterious aftereffects of a radiation experiment conducted by the military. Together they raise a family.
Robert Hill offers a distinctive and breathless portrayal of an ordinary, and extraordinary, marriage told through the alternating voices of husband and wife. When All Is Said and Done is steeped in an era, but the anatomy of a marriage comprised of humor, fear, love, and vulnerability resonates through the ages.
Synopsis
When All Is Said and Done is steeped in an era, but the anatomy of a marriage comprised of humor, fear, love, and vulnerability resonates through the ages.
About the Author
Robert Hill has been writing advertising copy for movies for more than twenty years. He has also written grants for not-for-profit organizations. He lives in Portland, Oregon.