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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
After thinking more about it, I have to give this 5/5. I am stingy with 5 stars, but there it is.
I received the audiobook from NetGalley. The audio was released on Christmas Eve (after the September book release) and I fear this book may have been forgotten in the whirl of Holidays, Best Ofs, recaps, and future projections. Which is a shame, because this book is riveting and unlike anything else I’ve read. The book narration is the best I’ve ever heard (more on that at the end).
This is a quiet book with hidden ambitions and an impact that lingers long after its final word. It is character-driven, and good god does Quatro write authentic voices. The first half is told from the POV of an old man, The Prophet, and its pace matches the old man’s—it is insular, dreamlike, almost languid. The second half of the book switches POVs to the girl, Michael, and the tone becomes desperate and jittery. Emotionally, this part of the book felt like the first 3/4s of Native Son. You have been warned.
But like I said, this book has ambitions, they’re just not yapping at us at the start. The book deals with religion, misogyny and class, of course. But also: isolation, friendship and zealotry. Circumstance and complicity. Authenticity, free will and “the self.” Is everyone really just playing a part, slaves to biology/desires/personalities? (The character who most typifies escape from circumstance and the courage to be his true self is The Prophet’s son, who escapes insular mountain life to create a cushy new life for himself in Nashville. He works as a Johnny Cash impersonator. Tricky, tricky, Quatro.)
The climax of this book, sandwiched between Michael’s chapters, is told in play form. And it was here that I thought the book may have jumped the shark. Why tell the story this way? I can only come back to the book’s focus on free will and complicity. Told this way, the reader sees the characters at a remove, a much different experience than previous chapters. The characters indeed are just playing parts, and the reader can judge them accordingly. But then Two-Step, our impish apparition, addresses the reader directly. The reader is now part of the story, complicit, and their judgements, rationalizations, backgrounds and inclinations will resolve the story especially for them. This is no different from the way reading any other book works, of course. But its impact is greater given the subject matter and made flagrant with this narrative trick, the literary equivalent of the camera in Peeping Tom.
So that’s how my story resolved: a clever narrative trick charmed the shit out of me, who is prone to intellectualizing. I no doubt missed some things because this book is chock full to bursting, and my audio-processing is inferior to my language-processing. At some point I will read the book book. In the meantime, I’ll likely be disappointed with most of the books I read in comparison.
A note about the audio: narrator Christine Delaine is phenomenal. I hate unqualified praise like that (it is a difficult sentence for me to even write, despite being true), because it’s usually bullshit. But she is truly phenomenal. I am not the Appalachian kind of Southern, but I fully expected her to be from the South. I googled her, and while the results are inconclusive, I would hazard a guess that she is not. Just supremely talented and dedicated. Someone give her more novels to read.
I received the audiobook from NetGalley. The audio was released on Christmas Eve (after the September book release) and I fear this book may have been forgotten in the whirl of Holidays, Best Ofs, recaps, and future projections. Which is a shame, because this book is riveting and unlike anything else I’ve read. The book narration is the best I’ve ever heard (more on that at the end).
This is a quiet book with hidden ambitions and an impact that lingers long after its final word. It is character-driven, and good god does Quatro write authentic voices. The first half is told from the POV of an old man, The Prophet, and its pace matches the old man’s—it is insular, dreamlike, almost languid. The second half of the book switches POVs to the girl, Michael, and the tone becomes desperate and jittery. Emotionally, this part of the book felt like the first 3/4s of Native Son. You have been warned.
But like I said, this book has ambitions, they’re just not yapping at us at the start. The book deals with religion, misogyny and class, of course. But also: isolation, friendship and zealotry. Circumstance and complicity. Authenticity, free will and “the self.” Is everyone really just playing a part, slaves to biology/desires/personalities? (The character who most typifies escape from circumstance and the courage to be his true self is The Prophet’s son, who escapes insular mountain life to create a cushy new life for himself in Nashville. He works as a Johnny Cash impersonator. Tricky, tricky, Quatro.)
The climax of this book, sandwiched between Michael’s chapters, is told in play form. And it was here that I thought the book may have jumped the shark. Why tell the story this way? I can only come back to the book’s focus on free will and complicity. Told this way, the reader sees the characters at a remove, a much different experience than previous chapters. The characters indeed are just playing parts, and the reader can judge them accordingly. But then Two-Step, our impish apparition, addresses the reader directly. The reader is now part of the story, complicit, and their judgements, rationalizations, backgrounds and inclinations will resolve the story especially for them. This is no different from the way reading any other book works, of course. But its impact is greater given the subject matter and made flagrant with this narrative trick, the literary equivalent of the camera in Peeping Tom.
So that’s how my story resolved: a clever narrative trick charmed the shit out of me, who is prone to intellectualizing. I no doubt missed some things because this book is chock full to bursting, and my audio-processing is inferior to my language-processing. At some point I will read the book book. In the meantime, I’ll likely be disappointed with most of the books I read in comparison.
A note about the audio: narrator Christine Delaine is phenomenal. I hate unqualified praise like that (it is a difficult sentence for me to even write, despite being true), because it’s usually bullshit. But she is truly phenomenal. I am not the Appalachian kind of Southern, but I fully expected her to be from the South. I googled her, and while the results are inconclusive, I would hazard a guess that she is not. Just supremely talented and dedicated. Someone give her more novels to read.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An absolutely stunning portrait of faith, love, heartache, addiction, religion, loss of innocence, madness, disease, and quite literally, so much more. This book is one I will not stop thinking about for a long time. The structure, perspective, and the empathetic way Quatro wrote both The Prophet and Michael, as well as that INGENIOUS third act featuring Two-Step and the finale with alternative endings and all... I can't even explain which part I loved most. This is American literature at its finest.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I liked this book, but it was one that I will need to sit with for awhile. It's not a "light" read... it makes you work for it. It's clever and well written, but it is probably not for everyone.
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Really introspective. Sometimes a bit esoteric/difficult to understand the purpose of setting the book as a play. But wonderful story and atmosphere.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced