Care of Wooden Floors

A Novel

De: Will Wiles

Narrado por: Michael Page

A British copywriter stays for a week at his composer friend Oskar’s elegant, ultramodern apartment in a glum Eastern European city. The instructions are simple: feed the cats, don’t touch the piano, and make sure nothing harms the priceless wooden floors. Content for the first time in ages, he accidentally spills some wine. Over the course of a week, both the apartment and the narrator’s sanity fall apart in this original and “weirdly addictive” (Daily Mail) novel.

As the situation in and out of the sleek apartment spirals out of control, more of Oskar’s notes appear, taking on an insistent — even sinister — tone. Care of Wooden Floors is a must-listen for anyone who’s ever bungled a housesitting gig, or felt inferior to a perfectionist friend — that is to say, all of us.

©2012 Will Wiles (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Could have been funnier

The story is entertaining, and I found myself laughing out loud several times. I haven't read the print version, but I think I would have liked it more. There is a lot of sarcasm in the humor which I believe does not come through in the performance

Dark British Humor

What can go wrong, does go wrong in this black comedy of a housesitting job gone terribly, terribly wrong. The writing is first rate and the narration right on target. I found myself laughing out loud several times throughout the course of this book. I picked this up due to the deservedly high marks given by other listeners and I'm glad I did! I will be recommending it to my friends.

Mildly Entertaining British Comedy

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I not a big fan of British Comedy but I had a few laughs. I actually laughed out loud at some stuff. I enjoyed the book. It took time for me to warm up to the reader but I got used to his voice. He did a decent job. If you rate this directly to some of the other British comedy it would get 4 stars for sure.

Sometimes funny, sometimes slow

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Parts of the story were too slow and not that compelling, but other parts were quite funny and riveting. The story starts out with a rather intelectual high-brow tone (and dull at times), and becomes progressively more and more slapstick (ridiculous) in its humor. There are a number of laugh out loud moments.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

It ended well, but a bit abruptly.

What about Michael Page’s performance did you like?

It was perfectly good, I have no complaints.

Could you see Care of Wooden Floors being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Yes, this would actually be better as a movie I think.

Five out of Five!

I love that this book takes a very quotidian situation - housesitting & petsitting - and turns it into white-knuckle-level high drama. In that way the writing reminds me of the "44 Scotland Street" series by Alexander McCall Smith, though "Wooden Floors" goes into much more detail and is augmented by heavy doses of black humor. In fact, found myself laughing out loud - some of the situations were written so as to be so amusing I had to actually stop running in order to get the most out of the hilarious visuals.

If this was all about daily dysfunction, or Murphy's Law, Laurel & Hardy style, that would be enough, but there is character learning and intellectual growth, with exploration of maladaptive personality quirks thrown in.

The book also brings to mind the Mark Twain quote (or was it Oscar Wilde?): "I've had a lot of problems in my life, most of which have never happened."

Loved reading and listening to this!