Jonathan Evison Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Jonathan Evison is a western, historical, and literary fiction author that made his name with the critically acclaimed novel “All About Lulu.”

The author was born in 1968 in San Jose, California as the youngest of five siblings. Eight years later, the family moved to Bainbridge Island, Washington.

As a third-grade kid, he was encouraged to become a writer even though he was crippled by a lot of stuff including his parents’ failing marriage and his sister’s death.

He was also manic at the time and used to run his teachers ragged despite his obvious talent for writing. When he finally decided to focus on writing, he became a more disciplined kid in class.

In his teenage years, Jonathan Evison became a punk band rocker frontman with a group that he founded. After graduating in 1986 from Bainbridge High School, he went to care for his agoraphobic grandmother in California.

He would then attend the College of San Mateo for several years but never graduated.

Four years after the death of his sister in a tragic accident, his family began crumbling. Jonathan Evison’s father got a work transfer to Keyport Washinton leaving Sunnyvale California behind.

The family moved nearly a thousand miles away to Bainbridge only for the father to get a transfer back to Santa Clara. In doing so, he abandoned his family and left his wife and kids destitute.

During their time on Bainbridge Island, he remembers that most of the families were doing much better than his was given that it was a single parent home.

As a thirty-nine-year-old, his mother was forced to find a job for the first time ever. She would work as a milk lady at a local elementary school which paid very little.

Several years later, luck smiled on her and she became a safe deposit attendant at the local bank where she would work for two decades.

As an eleven-year-old kid, Evison started working in downtown Seattle bussing tables for his elder sibling that was a waitress. The following summer he started selling newspapers to commuters walking up and down the ferry line.

Following his graduation from high school, he worked all manner of jobs for about two decades.

Some of the jobs he worked during this low time of his life included telemarketer of sunglasses, gas meter checker, sorter of rotten tomatoes, caregiver and auto detailer.

Of all these low-paying jobs the ones he loved most have to be lawn mower and punk rocker as he even set up a punk rock band named “March for Crimes.”

All this time, Jonathan Evison always had a dream of one day becoming a published fiction author. Before he penned his blockbuster work “All About Lulu” in 2008, he had purportedly penned six manuscripts that had all been rejected.

He has said that he buried three of the manuscripts and burned all of his rejection letters but never gave up until he finally achieved his dream. Evison is now a full-time author with more than half a dozen works to his name.

Jonathan Evison’s novel “The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving” is a beautiful story that introduces the lead. Benjamin is a man who had been through a tragic experience that left him in a state of arrested development.

After depleting much of his savings and maxing out his credit cards, he has to finally get back into the real world. He decides to take a 28-hour course that would qualify him as a caregiver.

He then becomes an assistant to a young man named Trevor, who is the perfect fit for his personality as he suffers from Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Trevor just like Ben, is content to just exist rather than live life to the fullest.
Every Thursday, Trevor gets a matinee at the movieplex, which is accompanied by some morning waffles. The only interesting happening in his life is when he attempts to map weird tourist traps while watching some obscure documentaries on TV.
But things turn interesting when he gets an unlikely opportunity and has to travel to Salt Lake City.

Jonathan Evison’s “This is Your Life, Harriet Chance” introduces the 79-year-old protagonist who never lived the life she had envisioned.

She had lost her husband about two years ago but he had recently been turning up in what were very life-like encounters. Given that she is the only one that sees him, most of her friends and family believe she is going mad.

She soon discovers that just before his demise he had won an Alaskan cruise. She wants to use the opportunity to scatter his ashes at sea so that she can move on with her life. Despite her age, she manages to convince her children to let her go on the cruise all alone.
The date of the cruise finally comes along and she heads out to have some little fun. However, Harriet is unprepared for the divulging of a longheld secret which throws her life into a tailspin.

She finds herself questioning things she held dear for more than six decades. Things get even worse when she meets her estranged daughter on the cruise ship.

It makes for a rollicking ride through the small and big moments that brought the protagonist to this stage of her life.

“Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison is the story of skilled lawn crewman Mike Munoz.

He is known for his perfect mowing and immaculate edges. But what he does not like is when some of his clients expect him to pick up dog poo when it is raining. He often loses his cool and soon enough, he is fired and has to find a new job.
It does not help that his mower is stolen from him and his truck dies. His mother has been working 55-hour weeks to earn a living and provide for Mile and Nate his older brother.

Their father had abandoned them when Mile was just 11. Nate’s brother is somewhat mentally impaired and Mike often finds himself taking care of him while his mother went to work.

Despite working hard, the family is very poor. Evison writes an effervescent piece that beautifully captures Mike’s journey.