Everyone's Pretty

by Lydia Millet

A “supremely wacky [and] astute” novel by a PEN Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist ( The Washington Post ).

In Los Angeles, Dean Decetes, a pornographer with messianic delusions, spins out of control, spending his time drinking himself into a stupor, getting beaten up by strangers he’s recklessly insulted, stealing credit cards to pay for sex, being arrested, begging favors, and mounting a PR campaign to make himself famous with the help of a loyal foot soldier—a porn-loving midget he met in jail.

Meanwhile his pious, romantic spinster sister, who reluctantly keeps house for him, busies herself writing quasi-religious love notes to the boss she worships, and two of her coworkers at the statistics company—an obsessive-compulsive Christian Scientist in a twisted marriage and a promiscuous, depressed blond bombshell—become enmeshed in her life as she dreams of ridding herself of her freeloading brother and being carried away on a white horse by her employer.

Then a teenage math genius runs away from home after her mother humiliates her in school, and hooks up at a bar with Decetes’s suicidal editor. Told from five points of view, over three wild days in which these lives intersect, this is a rollickingly funny yet heart-wrenching novel from one of today’s most acclaimed literary voices.

“Taken at surface level, its presentation of over-the-top characters placed in bizarre situations is supremely wacky, but underneath is an astute examination of how contemporary society fosters alienation and loneliness so acute that it takes outsized actions to allow any possibility of driving the demons away.” — The Washington Post

Genres: Fiction, Novels

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Lydia Millet has written twelve works of fiction. She has won awards from PEN Center USA and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and her books have been longlisted for the National Book Award, shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and named as New York Times Notable Books. Her story collection Love in Infant Monkeys was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. She lives outside Tucson, Arizona.

Reviews

[Steev Hise · Rating 4 out of 5]

reminds me of Chuck Palahniuk. snarky, irreverent, hyperbolic... full of lots of weirdos and scumbags..

It's kind of simplistic, even though the plot is very convoluted, with multiple characters running around coincidentally bumping into one another. but all the characters are somewhat stereotypical and black or white - either degenerate ingrates or naive, self-righteous jesus freaks. except for Alice, who turns out to be the main character, but i didn't realize that until at least 30 pages in.

Basically it's a fun book but not really as deep as it seemed like it would be. But it's a fast easy read, took me 2 days.

[Giovanni · Rating 2 out of 5]

An offensive, racist train wreck of a book

[Richard]

Dean Decetes, a pornographer with messianic delusions, spins out of control in Los Angelese, where he spends his time drinking himself into a stupor, getting beaten up by strangers he's reckessly insulted, stealing credit cards to pay for sex, being arrested, begging favors, and mounting a PR campaign to make himself famous, with the help of a "loyal footsolider"--a porn-loving midget he met in jail.
Meanwhile his pious, romantic spinster sister, who reluctantly keeps house for him, busies herself writing quasi-religious love notes to the boss she worships at the statistics company where she works, and her co-workers—an obsessive-compulsive Christian Scientist in a twisted marriage and a promiscuous, depressed blond bomb-shell—become enmeshed in her life as she dreams of ridding herself of her freeloading brother and being carried away on a white horse by her employer. Next door, a teenage math genius runs away from home after her mother humiliates her in school and hooks up at a bar with Decetes's suicidal editor.

The story is told from five points of view—those of Decetes, his sister, the lonely blonde, the Christian scientist & the high school math genius—over three days which the five lives collide as they all mount blundering searches for love and meaning.

[Azizi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everyone's Pretty is one of the most bizarre books that I have ever read. For starters, the characters are so eccentric that they become absurd. There's the religious zealot Bucella, whose brother Dean is a pornographer. Bucella works with Alice, a blond bombshell who is estranged from her mother, and is also close friends with Ernie, a gay coworker who Buccella is in love with. Finally, there's Phillip, a religious zealot who is obsessed with cleanliness and maintaining order. The lives of this ragtag group intersect in ways that are hilariously unpredictable and at times confusing. While the book was entertaining, it wasn't my favorite. I can't really put my finger on what didn't work for me; it could be that I loved Dinosaurs and Children of the Bible so much that my expectations were super high. In any event, I appreciate Lydia Millet's work and will always read her offerings to the literary world.

[Roland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone’s Pretty is a great read. Millet’s prose is fun and engaging, clever and insightful. The characters and storyline are reminiscent of Tom Robbins and Carl Hiaasen, and the protagonist, Dean Ducetes and his midget cohort, Ken, could have found their way from the pages of Bukowski’s works. Sex and religion and the collateral damage that comes from living in LA are prevalent themes in the novel. Ducetes, a hedonist nonpareil, is a self-anointed messiah, while his sister Bucella, pure and naïve as they come, is a follower of Christ, devoted like no other. In rapid succession, through a series of narrative vignettes, they and the story’s wayward cast of other eclectics undergo a variety of haphazard encounters and off-the-wall scenarios that keep the reader entertained and laughing.Good stuff.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I read it. Interesting and very messed up cast of characters. This is probably not a book I would encourage others to read. I will say there is something I like about the writer's style, yet I am not sure what, and I am not sure it is this book. Yes, this is an odd review for an odd book.

[L-J Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm disappointed I didn't like this since I loved Millet's A Children's Bible. It's hard to believe the same author wrote both books; the vibes are so different. A Children's Bible was subtle and challenging and intense, and this was - more or less - a raunchy comedy. That I didn't find funny. Too much forced outrageousness.

[Vivienne Strauss · Rating 2 out of 5]

Try and I might, I only made it to page 86 after several attempts.

[Bahadır Yalçın · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amerikan tipi Hristiyanlık eleştirisi. Sonuna kadar geniş bir gülümsemeyle okudum. Amerikalı dindarları hiç tanımama, İncil referanslarına cahil olmama rağmen gayet anlaşılabilir, çok sürükleyici bir hikaye. Zaman zaman İngiliz sitkomlarına göz kırpan, zaman zaman "modern Amerikan kara komedileri hepsini benden öğrendiler" dercesine müthiş bir olay örgüsü ve üslup. Özellikle baş kişimiz Dean Decetes nefis bir antikahraman. Burada bazı kara mizah romanları için Shameless dizisi benzetmesi yaptım ama eğer o dizinin baş kişisi Frank bu kitaptaki Decetes'ten ilham almadıyla büyük şaşırırım.

[Edward Champion · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think Millet tried a little too hard to be irreverent here. But this is still an entertaining book. I think she needed to write this to get to HOW THE DEAD DREAM, which is a legitimate masterpiece.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incandescent. Stupendous.

[Ellison · Rating 2 out of 5]

a collection of unlikeable characters engage in bad behavior. violence.

[Samantha Feinberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lowkey nonsense, lowkey entertaining, lowkey a piece on human loneliness? A pretty easy read with interweaving stories, but also full of a bunch of random arcs with no apparent purpose.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wanting to add another LA text to my research, I picked up this novel - a farcical tale of a porn producer, his Christian martyr sister, and sundry other characters, somehow inevitably including a horny dwarf. The plot is pretty over the top, but then again, it is LA. The quick jumps between character perspective keep the story moving at a compelling pace.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm generally a fan of Millet's work, but for some reason I just could not get into this one. I tried it three years ago, decided to try again, and my reaction is still the same. Go with My Happy Life and Oh Pure and Radiant Heart instead.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a more slapstick piece of Millet's, and I have to say I'm a fan of her more subtle works. This novel is reminiscent of Tom Robbins, and if you like stomach turning, oh so dark, yeah-she-went-there humour, then this book is for you.

[Nōn · Rating 3 out of 5]

midgets and drugs and porn and insanity.

[Erika]

Oh this was wacky, but addictive! I liked it.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a good '90s indie movie, Altmanesque, but smart and strangely fascinating and all very nicely constructed. The characters were distinct and engaging and believeable.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my kind of book but it was worth a try.

[jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Different versions of religious self-delusion and a hell of a lot of comedy. Still parsing the title...

[Frankie Rollins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reminds me of Confederacy of Dunces. I enjoyed the read.