SHOTGUN JOHANNA

This is the story of Johanna von Eschenbach, who comes into the world just as her parents’ marriage is ending. Overshadowed by her glamorous French mother and her gorgeous, over-achieving older sister, Johanna grows up in a hothouse Europeanized household, incongruously located in a small university town in the American Midwest.
Her mother works as a professor of Art History while devoting every free moment to pursuing her passion as a gifted pianist. Her father is from Montana and serves in the Marines. Johanna’s cowgirl self-image is formed spending every vacation, summer and winter, on her father’s ranch. That image is more real to her than all her lived experience with her mother in the Midwest.
She sees herself as an outsider who doesn’t fit in anywhere – too nerdy to be a cowgirl, too athletic to be a nerd, not feminine enough to be a real woman. But like all of us, she longs to belong, to be socially accepted. And as is so often the case, the harder she tries, the less she succeeds. There’s a bit of Johanna in all of us.

Excellent audiobook, captivating story, superb character development

Shotgun Johanna is an excellent audiobook by R. M. Burgess and I thoroughly enjoyed both the story and the narration. It is a captivating book that kept me engrossed in Johanna’s story from beginning to end. It was my first audiobook narrated by a computer generated voice and I am very impressed with the quality of the narration.

The author successfully uses two computer generated voices in the audiobook. In the prologue a professional writer meets Johanna, the book’s heroine, in a coffee shop. A distinguished sounding male voice narrates his encounter with Johanna. This is a creative introduction and establishes context for the story that follows.The entire book is Johanna’s narrative about her life and the female voice sounds natural and is an excellent match for Johanna’s personality.

Johanna is a fascinating character and a very relatable one. Her life is defined by recurring difficulties both in her personal and professional life. The author does a fantastic job of taking the listener through her roller coaster journey and the multiple backgrounds and locations (USA, Switzerland, Germany) further enrich the listener’s experience. The book portrays Johanna as a strong woman. More than her external strength and daring spirit, it is her inner strength that gets Johanna through challenging times. Even in her toughest moments she is resilient and motivated to move on toward her next goal. This is superb character development by R. M. Burgess.

I like that Johanna’s story ends on a note of hope. There is positive news regarding her physical health. On an emotional level, Jack is in her life and she finally has hope for true happiness. What happens next in Johanna’s life? I hope that R.M. Burgess will write a sequel.