This All Happened

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.