The Clasp

A Novel

De: Sloane Crosley

Narrado por: David Pittu

Part comedy of manners, part treasure hunt, the first novel from the writer whom David Sedaris calls "perfectly, relentlessly funny".

Kezia, Nathaniel, and Victor are reunited for the extravagant wedding of a college friend. Now at the tail end of their 20s, they arrive completely absorbed in their own lives - Kezia the second-in-command to a madwoman jewelry designer in Manhattan; Nathaniel the former literary cool kid, selling his wares in Hollywood; and the Eeyore-esque Victor, just fired from a middling search engine. They soon slip back into old roles: Victor loves Kezia. Kezia loves Nathaniel. Nathaniel loves Nathaniel.

In the midst of all this semi-merriment, Victor passes out in the mother of the groom's bedroom. He wakes to her jovially slapping him across the face. Instead of a scolding, she offers Victor a story she's never even told her son, about a valuable necklace that disappeared during the Nazi occupation of France.

And so a madcap adventure is set into motion, one that leads Victor, Kezia, and Nathaniel from Miami to New York and LA to Paris and across France, until they converge at the estate of Guy de Maupassant, author of the classic short story "The Necklace".

Heartfelt, suspenseful, and told with Sloane Crosley's inimitable spark and wit, The Clasp is a story of friends struggling to fit together now that their lives haven't gone as planned, of how to separate the real from the fake. Such a task might be possible when it comes to precious stones, but is far more difficult to pull off with humans.

Includes the short story "The Necklace", read by Barbara Rosenblat.

DAVID PITTU is a two-time Tony Award nominee, as well as the award-winning narrator of countless audiobooks, ranging in genre from young adult (Scholastic’s 39 Clues series) to spy fiction (Olen Steinhauer’s The Last Tourist and Milo Weaver series) to the contemporary fiction of authors such as Jeffrey Eugenides (The Marriage Plot) and Donna Tartt (The Goldfinch) and many more.

Pittu received the Audie Award for Best Male Solo Narration for The Goldfinch, which also received the Audie for Best Literary Fiction.

Not only a veteran theater actor, he works regularly in film and television. He lives in New York City.

©2015 Sloane Crosley (P)2015 Macmillan Audio

Disappointed

Would you try another book from Sloane Crosley and/or David Pittu?

no

What could Sloane Crosley have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

I wanted to like the story but the whole structure was flimsy and not engaging.

What aspect of David Pittu’s performance would you have changed?

He was okay. Not very exciting. A more modern voice might have enlivened the story -- he was a bit mannered.

Any additional comments?

One of the few titles from Audible I didn't enjoy.

Slow starting, abrupt ending

It took me several weeks to get in to the book. It's starts very slowly and there's nothing that grabbed me to want to keep reading/listening.

Midway it finally perks up and the story and characters are developed and interesting.

Unfortunately, as I was wanting to hear more, the book ended!

Could not finish

Any additional comments?

David Pittu always does an excellent job of narrating. The book had some very crude descriptions in it that I didn't care for from the beginning and seemed to continue. I finally gave up listening.

I kept falling asleep listening to this.

The characters are not likable or relatable, I couldn’t make myself listen until the end, because I didn’t care what happened next. Disappointing.

Il est trop agréable!

The plot is a bit bizarre, even "incroyable" — and all your high school French vocabulary will start to resurface near the end as the characters invade Normandy with only a drawing and a short story to guide them. But the MacGuffun of the plot, not unlike a certain necklace in French literature, really exists to show off the character of the characters, how they relate to each other and the world, and particularly to the people they were themselves in college, about ten years earlier. The narrator (David Pittu) is one of the best I've yet to hear, especially for a book with a smattering of a second language and great deal of dialogue.

could not finish this

Any additional comments?

didn't like the narration, nor the story. Very slow and stopped listening after an hour.

amazing!

Would you listen to The Clasp again? Why?

Yes! I wish it had a sequel. I was surprised how much I loved this book. The story is so original, and each character is complex and interesting. The right tinge of humor and mystery to keep it light yet very interesting. Also, David Pittu is the best narrator of all time

Tedious

Overall boring. Grandiose descriptions of non-events. Felt more like a screen play than a book. Kept hoping for a clever ending but alas, that too was ‘flat’.