Book Review: Everything Is Going To Be Great

Everything Is Going to Be Great: An Underfunded and Overexposed European Grand Tour
By Rachel Shukert
Harper Perennial
Publication date: July 27, 2010
ISBN: 9780061782350

Rachel Shukert is that friend you wish you had. The one that comes back from an amazing adventure and fills you in on everything, leaving you with a gaping mouth and a desire to travel. That’s exactly what Everything is Going to be Great is – one delicious adventure that’s, thankfully, re-told.

I was introduced to Shukert's work a few years back, when Samir heard about her first book, Have You No Shame, through author Julie Klausner. Convinced I’d like it because I’m Jewish and she’s Jewish (in the words of him “aren’t you required to like one another's writings?”), he bought it for me. I’m glad he did. She’s outrageous, witty, and an extremely talented writer.

So I was especially excited when I heard she had a new book coming out. This book chronicles her European “vacation” (I use that word loosely, as it’s far from a vacation), and all of the strange characters she encounters. Starting in New York, when she’s given the chance to travel to Vienna with the play she’s in (which doesn’t play), she decides the take the plunge and go, hoping to – like every other 20-something - find herself. And try to find herself she does, as she travels from Vienna to Zurich to Amsterdam, and meets an amazing cast of characters, including an old man who believes one can’t be beautiful and Jewish, a number of skinheads, Italians who throw dinner parties and fix teeth, a duo who think they’re vampires, and many, many more – including her now husband. She’s robbed, taken advantage of, yelled at – and yet, she lives through everything. It's insane, it's ghastly, it's amazing. Shukert is incredibly honest about everything, and I truly respect her for that.

Rather than long essays, like her previous book, Everything Is Going To Be Great is one giant story. In the midst of the book are pieces of travel advice (that are not necessarily helpful, but really fantastic), including "When Someone Mistakes You For a Prostitute," "Are You About to Be Sex-Trafficked? A Checklist," and "Another Century in Paradise: Phil Collins and the Dutch: A Survey."See? Fantastic. It's one of the most fun memoirs out there.

The book is often shocking, always hilarious, and incredibly introspective. She’s the kind of writer who makes you feel like a friends; it’s as if you’re not reading her book, but she’s telling it to you over drinks. And, let me say, despite her insane circumstances, everyone should want her as a friend.


*Monday I'm posting an interview I had the pleasure of doing with her, so check back!


Shukert's website
An interview she did with SMITH Magazine