All About Lulu

All About Lulu (published 2008) is a coming-of-age novel by American author Jonathan Evison. The novel revolves around a family of bodybuilders in Santa Monica from the Summer of Love to the Dot-com bubble.

Plot summary
In the wake of his mother's death, as his bodybuilding brethren pump themselves to Hulkish proportions, weak-eyed vegetarian Will Miller stops growing altogether—until the day his father remarries a relentlessly kind grief counselor, delivering Will a troubled stepsister who soon becomes his confessor, companion, and heart's only desire. But when Lulu returns from cheerleading camp the summer of her fourteenth year, she inexplicably begins to push Will away, forcing him to look elsewhere for meaning.

Themes
Major themes in All About Lulu include self-improvement, family, unrequited love, obsession, the American dream, talk radio, and meat.

Reception
All About Lulu received a starred review in Publishers Weekly (5/12/08), who called the book “a stunner—viciously funny and deeply felt.” In subsequent reviews, including the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Seattle P.I., the novel was compared both favorably and unfavorably to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. In addition to being selected for the Los Angeles Times and Seattle PI summer reading lists, All About Lulu was selected for numerous year-end "Top 10" and "Best of" lists, including Hudson, and Time Out Chicago, and won the 2009 Washington State Book Award.

Film Adaptation
 All About Lulu was optioned for film in 2008 by Crossroads Films. The film rights to two earlier novels, Welcome Avenue and The Ray of Hope Foundation, were also optioned in 2008, to actor/producer Joseph Cross, and Streetgang Films, respectively. Projects are in various stages of development.

References

External links
 Jonathan Evison's website

Category:2008 American novels
Category:American bildungsromans

Category:Novels set in Santa Monica, California