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Title: Nothing Happens Until it Happens to You

Subtitle: A Novel Without Pay, Perks, or Privileges

Author: T. M. Shine

Narrator: Paul Michael Garcia

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-07-10

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Jeffrey Reiner is stalling. After being laid off from a mundane job he held for eighteen years, he is in no hurry to get back to work, so he quickly dispenses with the nonsense of job counseling and resume building. Still, he knows that in order to make it through these economic times, he has no choice but to throw himself at any opportunities that come his way, no matter how humbling or embarrassing. In Nothing Happens Until It Happens to You, the listener is witness to a man doing just that - leaving behind the security and predictability of his past to face the realities of his dysfunctional family and a world disinclined to do him any favors. With wry humor and perfect comic timing, this is a story of picking up the pieces and using them to create an entirely new self.

Critic Reviews:

"There's nothing amusing about getting laid off---except when it's a story told by the brilliant Terry Shine, one of the funniest writers I know." (Dave Barry, author of I'll Mature When I'm Dead)

Members Reviews:

Thoughtful & Sardonic Comedic Take On Living Within Your Means

This is a fun read that helps put perspective on how normal our bloated lifestyles have become in everyday American suburbia. It asks a lot of questions, through first person prose, about what someone who kept his head down and played by the rules can do now, unemployed, since he's become so used to security and 'working' on automatic pilot, etc, etc. It, again, comically makes observations on how a wife and teenage children could react to suddenly having to cut back and what to say when your friends, family and neighbors start talking to you like a pitiful victim.

Louie CK's humor seeps through the pages at such a level that it's hard to not picture him as Jeffery, the main character. They're even about the same age. Should a movie ever 'happen' then it'd be a shame if Louie didn't take a shot. But then Louie would just be playing himself essentially. That's OK lots of big actors have been doing that for years!

Honest, Touching, Hysterical

"We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars." I don't know who said this, but I think of it whenever I read TM Shine (his narrative non-fiction work is worth googling). Shine puts a human face on the unraveling economy in the story of one man who slowly loses his job and family but has done nothing wrong beyond having not made a fortune.

The novel avoids the standard tropes of a Horatio Alger story-- throughout Shine is blunt and honest in exploring the question of how our identities are locked into our work, and how the former can unravel when the latter is suddenly taken.

All of that said, Nothing Happens... is a very funny book. Shine has a keen eye for the absurdities of American life and seems to revel in the role of court jester.

Cult Classic Written All Over It

This is one of those novels that, as soon as you finish, you want to start reading all over again. And then you want to read your favorite parts to whoever is in the room with you, only it turns out that ALL of it is your favorite part. Shine is one of those rare writers whose voice is both startlingly original and uncannily familiar. The familiar part is inside the reader. It's the shock of recognition, and what we recognize is our own innermost experience.