I was looking for a rather spiritual travel book (something in the lines of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love) while I was in Seattle when I chanced upon Rachel Shukert's Everything Is Going to Be Great. More than anything, it was the title that caught my eye because I was (and still am) at a time in my life where self-doubt and uncertainty always reigns. Everything Is Going to Be Great, of course it will. What a great selling point for a book about a girl's misadventures and misfortunes as a broke, New York singleton trekking in the archetypal where-to-go-to-have-fun places in Europe. Everything Is Going to Be Great, indeed. It was not advertised, though (by the wonderful geniuses who coined this "saying"), that it has to go downhill to hell and back before one can reach the end.
I don't know what to feel about this book, I guess it was okay. I was very entertained while reading it but not exactly inspired (this may be attributed to my slighty cruel enjoyment of Schadenfreude). The book is technically a memoir about a girl and her travels in Europe, which is not exactly the whole of Europe (All girls can hope!), but an essential three-country sojourn from Vienna to Zurich to Amsterdam. It was supposed to be a grand tour of European cities but I felt that the book zeroed in on Mary Jane Land (Amsterdam!) and simply flew by Vienna and Zurich. I vaguely remember Zurich in the book, and Vienna was just a blur of wine, sausages and a dalliance with an old Italian man. I would love to learn more about Zurich but whatever it is the author left out of the places she should have said a lot about, she more than made up for in terms of humor and the "God, I wish I had this girl's balls" vibe that went on in my head while reading this book. I guess what I feel about this book may be summed up by what I feel about Shukert's entire "tour": Fleeting, but sharp, smart and incredibly solid.
It is definitely a light read but in between the sex, alcohol and truly complicated (sometimes even pathological) relations, I feel that the author has tried to enter a few lessons here and there. In the end, she was kind enough to insert a few sentiments that a lost cause can truly pick up on. It was irrelevant (because we're clearly after the fun and the misfortune) but necessary, for what good is a travel book without the shiteous experience, the sex and the ultimate learnings in the end? The most important lesson I got from this book (aside from the nagging thought that in order to live my young life to its fullest, I have to experience Europe in its entirety--smoke and crystals, filth and glamour) is this: If you think you need to get away to find the what's missing in your life, go ahead. Later on, when you've come back, you'll realize that if you can't find something in your own backyard, then you probably don't need it. At all.
