Lynn N. (thebookcrosser) reviewed What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day (Audio Cassette) (Abridged) on + 16 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I had such mixed feelings while listening to this tape. It's a gritty story, and if you can hang in there through the low-life language, it's worth listening to.
The audio's narrator is the author herself â a huge plus. She knows the characters and knows how to âreadâ them. Now to the main players.
Ava: Her life is portrayed in the flyleaf summary as glamorous and full of âelegant pleasuresââ¦well, it wasn't. She slept around, did drugs, and lead a prosperous but very shallow existence. Her reality check is an HIV positive test result. Dazed and frightened, she heads home, to a small town near Detroit, to spend some time with her sister, Joyce.
Joyce: She is treading water herself, trying to rebuild her life after the untimely death of her husband. Big city bad-attitude has overtaken her small town, and she is desperately trying to turn things around and shake some sense into the young people of her community. She is in way over her head.
Eddie: A battle-scarred, ex-con, Vet who has meditated his way into a peaceful co-existence with the world. However, he is fully capable of drawing on his carefully censored skills of violence if necessary.
The Rev and his wife: hypocritical pieces of work from word one. You love to hate them.
The general cast: foul-mouthed, ignorant young kids whose vocabularies are limited to using F**k and S**t as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Young men who call anything female âbitchâ and stupid young women who let them get away with it. Reckless, irresponsible sexual natures and not much desire to rise above their present circumstances. This is what almost made me stop listening to the tape. Couldn't stand being pulled into their world. Wanted to smack some sense into each and every one of them. I have no tolerance for this kind of self-induced ignorance (being uneducated is often unavoidable; being ignorant is a choice).
Anyway, the story does move in a positive direction and you do come out of it believing things can and will get better, but the road won't be easy. Can't imagine being immersed in their world every day of my life.
The audio's narrator is the author herself â a huge plus. She knows the characters and knows how to âreadâ them. Now to the main players.
Ava: Her life is portrayed in the flyleaf summary as glamorous and full of âelegant pleasuresââ¦well, it wasn't. She slept around, did drugs, and lead a prosperous but very shallow existence. Her reality check is an HIV positive test result. Dazed and frightened, she heads home, to a small town near Detroit, to spend some time with her sister, Joyce.
Joyce: She is treading water herself, trying to rebuild her life after the untimely death of her husband. Big city bad-attitude has overtaken her small town, and she is desperately trying to turn things around and shake some sense into the young people of her community. She is in way over her head.
Eddie: A battle-scarred, ex-con, Vet who has meditated his way into a peaceful co-existence with the world. However, he is fully capable of drawing on his carefully censored skills of violence if necessary.
The Rev and his wife: hypocritical pieces of work from word one. You love to hate them.
The general cast: foul-mouthed, ignorant young kids whose vocabularies are limited to using F**k and S**t as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Young men who call anything female âbitchâ and stupid young women who let them get away with it. Reckless, irresponsible sexual natures and not much desire to rise above their present circumstances. This is what almost made me stop listening to the tape. Couldn't stand being pulled into their world. Wanted to smack some sense into each and every one of them. I have no tolerance for this kind of self-induced ignorance (being uneducated is often unavoidable; being ignorant is a choice).
Anyway, the story does move in a positive direction and you do come out of it believing things can and will get better, but the road won't be easy. Can't imagine being immersed in their world every day of my life.
