The Silver Linings Playbook

A Novel

By: Matthew Quick

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

A New York Times bestseller, The Silver Linings Playbook was adapted into the Oscar-winning movie starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.

The Silver Linings Playbook is the riotous and poignant story of how one man regains his memory and comes to terms with the magnitude of his wife’s betrayal, an enchanting first novel about love, madness, and Kenny G.

During the years he spends in a neural health facility, Pat Peoples formulates a theory about silver linings: he believes his life is a movie produced by God, his mission is to become physically fit and emotionally supportive, and his happy ending will be the return of his estranged wife, Nikki. The problem is that Pat is now home, living with his parents, and everything seems off; no one will talk to him about Nikki; his old friends are saddled with families; the Philadelphia Eagles keep losing, making his father moody; and his new therapist seems to be recommending adultery as a form of therapy.

When Pat meets the tragically widowed, physically fit, and clinically depressed Tiffany, she offers to act as a liaison between him and his wife, but only if he will give up watching football, agree to perform in this year’s Dance Away Depression competition, and promise not to tell anyone about their “contract.” All the while, Pat keeps searching for his silver lining.

In this brilliantly written debut novel, Matthew Quick takes us inside Pat’s mind, deftly showing us the world from his distorted yet endearing perspective. The result is a touching and funny story that helps us look at both depression and love in a wonderfully refreshing way.

©2008 Matthew Quick (P)2008 Blackstone Audio

Critic reviews

"This offbeat story has all the markings of a crowd-pleaser." ( Publishers Weekly)

great book

loved this book and looked forward to each day so i could find time to listen ti the next group of chapters

Compellingly Story Narrated Well

I too, like the narrator in this first person POV work, prefer a happy ending. It isn't a great novel, but it is a compelling story of a great story.

It's an exciting and dramatic read!

I absolutely loved listening to this. The story is repetitive in a cute way. The book is full of captivating moments that will make you laugh, cry, become enraged even. And the narration was fantastic. I almost listened to it in one sitting.

Liked the movie version better

The movie version of this book, which has definite story elements different from the book, is a better story. The book focuses more on Pat and his relationship with his family than his relationship with Tiffany. In fact, Tiffany isn't even a major character in the book. Veronica, her sister, has more page time than Tiffany in the book. But it was enjoyable to compare and contrast the book version with the movie. In the end, though, the movie version his higher emotional notes than does the book. I enjoyed it but won't go back to the book again...while I go back to the movie each year around Christmas time.

Better Than The Movie

Loved the story line of a man battling to become a better person and manage his mental illness. Great story line and I loved the Cliff character in the book. Well written and narrated.

Not meant to leave the reader satisfied.

For those of you who watched the movie first like I did, you might expect a much more stereotypically movie-like ending with a fair amount of closure for many different relationships. In contrast, the book is a much more drawn out story about Pat as he looks for his happy ending. He doesn't find it, and neither does the listener all that much. Many of the things I could complain about in the book, such as the lack of growth in the characters around Pat, or the lack of a tangible closure regarding Pat's marriage, is already complained about by the main character in regards to how he views his own life. So at least the reader is in good company. I get the distinct impression that satisfaction isn't the goal of the story. So don't read if you want a story with a sad, but cathartic ending.

enjoyed

second time listening. the dialogue was great. some scenes I almost felt liked I was there.

The movie was better!

I watched the movie for this book a while ago and remembered liking it so I thought I'd check this out. I enjoyed the mental monologues in the beginning, but quickly found them annoying. The narritive had a halting rhythm to it that was probably appropriate for the protagonist, but it seemed exaggerated. the Narrator did a great job bringing emotion to the story that would jave been lacking otherwise. I think the word choice for different places was shockingly juvenile for the subject matter and I couldn't find myself believing that the protagonist would call something "apart time" or the "bad place". Overall, I thought the book was just okay and it'll probably give more perspective on the movie.

I needed this uplift at this dark time

I’m amazed how hard it is too find good stories with an uplifting message. I’m binging on audible while being locked up because of the beer flu. I’d seen the movie a long time ago, enjoyed this, what a great therapist he had too.

After the movie, worth a read?

“Life is hard, and children have to be told how hard life can be…So they will be sympathetic to others. So they will understand that some people have it harder than they do and that a trip through this world can be a wildly different experience, depending on what chemicals are raging through one’s mind.” - Matthew Quick, The Silver Linings Playbook

After listening to the novel last year's popular movie was based on, I understand why other readers at Audible.com sing its praises from the mountaintops. The story’s protagonist and narrator, Pat, gains a lot of his charm through dry descriptions of his erratic behavior. The ease with which Pat explains his odd, compulsive actions and his simplistic outlook on life result in a very amusing read. I am not a laugh out loud person, which makes watching comedies slightly uncomfortable for me, but I did spontaneously laugh out loud a few times while listening to The Silver Linings Playbook.

The novel is Pat’s tale – he stands out from a crowd of slightly flat supporting characters. In the movie, the character of Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) has been fleshed out and amped up to meet Pat (Bradley Cooper) at his level of charm. Jennifer Lawrence’s Tiffany steals the show in the film, and in the book Tiffany doesn’t have a few of her most memorable scenes.

Another standout feature of the book was its portrayal of the joy of rituals surrounding Pat’s beloved football team, the Philadelphia Eagles. I am not a sports fan and I did just do a quick Google search to confirm that the Eagles are, in fact, a football team; however, this book made me understand and appreciate the sheer pleasure of rooting for a team with all your closest friends, yelling chants and getting hyped.

Maybe predictable for the Hollywood version of any story, the movie feels a lot lighter than the book. Extra plot arcs are created to make the movie goer care a bit more. Although laden with humor, the subject matter here is at its core bleak – mental illness, family dysfunction, loss. The jokes based on Pat’s narration, clever and fresh at the beginning of the novel, felt stale by its end.

Movies that are better than the book they are based on are rare birds – it takes a vivid, complicated movie to master a novel’s plot. Like Fight Club before it, I believe The Silver Linings Playbook has pulled off this feat. The book is charming and witty, but the movie reaches a higher level of creativity.

Matthew Quick has written several books since The Silver Linings Playbook and they all sound worthy of a read.