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3.5 

All of Us Together in the End

By Matthew Vollmer
All of Us Together in the End by Matthew Vollmer digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

  • Key topics: ghost lights, Seventh Day Adventism, grief
  • The small trim size makes the book approachable but at only 65k words–even though the subject matter is heavy–the book is a quick and absorbing read.
  • Blurbs received from Jenny Boully, George Singleton, and Carmen Giménez Smith. One blurb forthcoming from Joni Tevis.
  • Matthew Vollmer is an established author in both nonfiction and fiction. He has Vollmer’s work has appeared widely in magazines, including: Paris Review, Glimmer Train, The Sun, Virginia Quarterly Review, Epoch, Tin House, The Oxford American, Colorado Review, Gulf Coast, Ecotone, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Antioch Review, Willow Springs, DIAGRAM, Portland Review, Tampa Review, Passages North, PANK, New England Review, The Normal School, and many others. Vollmer has received an NEA grant and commendations from Best American Essays and Short Stories.
  • This is a book for people who love to read about obsessions. It is a book about grief, about loss, about Covid 19, but also much more. It’s funny and filled with family stories but is also an inquiry into how we grieve and what we believe, against all evidence.

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10 Reviews

3.5
“2.75 Premise of this family memoir seemed intriguing: author’s mom dies from fairly early-onset Alzheimer’s & then Parkinson’s. We hear of the grieving (some through odd reflections) & then get laden with how their background of Seventh-Day Adventist religion impacted his perceptions (Matthew renounced this as a young adult). Shortly after the loss, his father begins seeing elusive & unexplainable light orbs, which Matthew becomes obsessed with. This was what drew me in, but they left after his father essentially moved on. The pandemic also takes over during this period. Just not what I hoped; boring for the most part. A quote from the beginning: “Human beings never achieve perfect knowledge because anything we know at any given moment is invariably revised later.””
“All OF US TOGETHER IN THE END by Matthew Vollmer Found this little gem at my local book store Bookmarks Winston Salem NC. This is based off of true events and the authors point of view. Matthew Vollmer suffered the passing of his mother in the fall of 2019 after a long unwanted journey with Alzheimer and Parkinson. December of 2019 his father is seeing Ghost Lights in the NC mountain where his home is. Having been raised Seven Day Adventist when you pass away that is it. Nothing More. So what are these Ghost Lights? His Mother, Evil, Aliens or just some strange natural phenomenon? Then the pandemic hits. This story takes you through the struggles of finding that new normal when grief enters your life plus navigating the shut down of the world. This book hit home on so many different levels and is one I will not stop thinking about any time soon. Publisher Hub City Press”
“This memoir is about grief, family, faith, the passage of time, nature, and mystery. It's anchored by the appearance of mysterious lights that appear on the property of the author's father soon after his mother passes away after a long battle with dementia. Other people (including the author) also witness the lights, and offer possible explanations, although none of these are confirmed (leaving the reader to decide their origin and nature). Of course, one theory is they are his mother communicating from the other side. I enjoyed reading about the Seventh Day Adventist faith and how their beliefs may or may not tie into the lights. I didn't know much (anything, really) about SDA before reading this book. I did lose my dad to dementia, and can certainly relate to missing him and losing him in that way. And I do see things in nature that remind me of him often. Never lights, though. Apparently this happens, there are documented cases of mysterious lights; I had never heard of this either so I found that interesting as well. The timeline of part of this book overlaps with the start of COVID 19 so we are briefly transported back to those early pandemic days as well as all the upheaval that went along with 2020. I did appreciate how the author was respectful and kind to his relatives, despite political and religious differences; we all know that is not always easy to do. I liked the writing, although he did meander a bit and the pace was on the slower side, but I think navigating the ups and downs of grief requires some wandering. I consider this a peaceful book overall, and part of that is the writing style. I know bits of it will stay with me and that is always appreciated. {library, Kindle}”

About Matthew Vollmer

Matthew Vollmer is the author of two short-story collections as well as three collections of essays. He was the editor of A Book of Uncommon Prayer, which collects invocations from over 60 acclaimed and emerging authors, and served as co-editor of Fakes: An Anthology of Pseudo-Interviews, Faux-Lectures, Quasi-Letters, "Found" Texts, and Other Fraudulent Artifacts. His work has appeared in venues such as Paris Review, Glimmer Train, Ploughshares, Tin House, Oxford American, The Sun, The Pushcart Prize anthology, and Best American Essays. He teaches in the English Department at Virginia Tech and lives in Blacksburg, VA.

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