This All Happened — Michael Winter

The commodity a fiction writer sells is his own life, his spirit. This is especially true in fiction that draws from autobiography. In Michael Winter's journal-à-clef, This All Happened, we are exposed to the kernel of truth that exists in each day. Told from the viewpoint of Gabriel English, the work opens windows onto a richly textured, fast-paced filmic compilation of daily vignettes over one calendar year (if Fellini were a Newfoundlander...). Gabriel's promises and actions early in the year have their repercussions by the end. Gabriel's passion for Lydia Murphy leads him into paroxysms of jealousy -- but he never abandons his shrewdly witty perspective on the vagaries of modern love. Concrete and delicately rendered, This All Happened depicts a man's descent from love to fury.