By Doug Black

“I’ve been through some situations and I’ve decided it’s time to write them down.” This almost comedic understatement serves as Mark Oliver Everett’s rationality for writing Things the Grandchildren Should Know, his recent memoir and first literary offering. Better known as Mr. E, Everett is the creative force and only static member of the alt-rock band Eels.

What he casually describes in his book as “some situations” include a litany of soul-crushing tragedies that seem cosmically designed to destroy even the most stable human. (Without betraying any vital plot elements, the first two pages mention his mother’s death from cancer, his sister’s repeated—and ultimately successful—suicide attempts and how a young Everett failed to resuscitate his father’s rigid body upon discovering him the morning after a fatal heart attack.) The book takes a candid and paradoxically hilarious stroll through E’s life, but despite his penchant for uncanny witticisms and clarity of prose, the real magic lies between the words. Most remarkable is how Everett takes a life scripted to be a Greek tragedy and molds it into a decade of quirky pop songs. Beginning with Beautiful Freak in 1996, Eels have continually found a way to evade any rock-genre pigeonholes by coupling E’s somber lyrics with frequently upbeat melodies. Their first and most successful single, “Novocaine for the Soul,” combined morose words about existential crises with an infectious tune—one that soon knocked 311 off the top of the Modern Rock singles chart.

Five albums and a live DVD later, Mr. E and friends have deemed 2008 a ripe year for their first career-spanning greatest-hits collection. Meet the Eels: Essential Eels 1996-2006, Vol. 1 combines two dozen of their biggest hits with a DVD of videos, behind-the-scenes footage and Everett’s personal commentary to help appease the small, impassioned collection of fans who have necessitated Everett’s security detail.

Customarily, a career retrospective and personal memoir come at the tail end of an artist’s career. And despite Everett’s claims to the contrary, the book serves as a fitting bookend to his tumultuous career. But it may have simply been an attempt at defining his chaotic life on his own terms. Years ago, when the publishers of Kurt Cobain’s posthumous Journals collection were looking for quotes to print on the book’s sleeve, they asked Everett for a contribution. He responded with the sentence, “Please don’t do this to me after I kill myself.” Obviously the quote didn’t make the dust jacket; but whether it was his intention or not, it looks like E beat future publishers to the punch.

Eels play April 1 & 2, Highline Ballroom, 431 W. 16th St. (betw. 9th & 10th Aves.), 212-414-5994; 7, $25/$30.