Edgar and Lucy

By: Victor Lodato

Narrated by: Victor Lodato

Length: 19 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's Summary

"I love this book. Profoundly spiritual and hilariously specific...an unusual and intimate epic that manages to capture the wonder and terror of both child and parenthood with an uncanny clarity." (Lena Dunham, best-selling author of Not That Kind of Girl)

Edgar and Lucy is a compelling literary masterpiece - a stunning examination of family love and betrayal.

Eight-year-old Edgar Fini remembers nothing of the accident people still whisper about. He only knows that his father is gone, his mother has a limp, and his grandmother believes in ghosts. When Edgar meets a man with his own tragic story, the boy begins a journey into a secret wilderness where nothing is clear - not even the line between the living and the dead. In order to save her son, Lucy has no choice but to confront the demons of her past.

Profound, shocking, and beautiful, Edgar and Lucy is a thrilling adventure and the unlikeliest of love stories.

This program is read by the author.

"Edgar and Lucy started with the character’s voices, and the rhythms of their particular ways of speaking... because I have this very distinct sense of the sound and rhythms... I was thrilled to have the opportunity to record the audiobook. Also, having grown up in New Jersey, I felt I could do justice to the world of the novel, and to the north Jersey accent." (Author Victor Lodato on why he chose to narrate his own novel)

©2017 Victor Lodato (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

Wonderful story almost ruined by narrator

This book is written very well with vivid characters that I loved. The story had exciting twists that I would not have guessed and kept me interested to the end. But, please please please Victor do not narrate your own book! I almost could not stand it. The halting speech with pauses mid sentence where pauses were not required were awful!

39 of 39 people found this review helpful

Caught me in a stranglehold

I was captured by this story from the first paragraph. The author's narration was spot on. There are moments, scenes, passages in this book that are profoundly beautiful. Others are deeply disturbing.
I found myself wondering if I could handle it; I was pulled into the story so deeply. My husband was happy when it was over and I came back to reality.

So, obviously, this is not a light read. It is a masterfully told story of family and human relationships and disfunction. Be forewarned- there are several graphic sex scenes.
If you are up for it I highly recommend that you dive in.

34 of 35 people found this review helpful

Choppy narration

Any time a narrator puts random pauses mid sentence - when they do not belong there- (almost as if for dramatic effect) I know I'm going to have a hard time finishing the book. This narrator, however, had pauses in almost every sentence. Way too choppy and further hurt an already bad book. I cannot believe I wasted my time finishing it. I should have given up the minutesI heard the poor narration.

16 of 16 people found this review helpful

Ruined by the Author

The rave review from the New York Times is typical: “On every page, Lodato’s prose sings with a robust, openhearted wit, making “Edgar and Lucy” a delight to read.”

But Victor Lodato as narrator is something quite different. His halting, affected delivery was for me totally distracting. He inserts odd little pauses between words in awkward places, sometimes several in one sentence. He is quoted as saying, “I have this very distinct sense of the sound and rhythms” (of each character’s way of speaking.) No, he doesn’t, except perhaps in his head. The characters all sound pretty much alike.

I have no doubt that “Edgar and Lucy” is a brilliant novel, and brilliantly written. But the author’s choppy, almost bizarre narration obscures it completely, making the audiobook simply irritating. I made it for four hours and could take no more.

If you want to enjoy this book, buy a print edition.

13 of 13 people found this review helpful

Author reads terribly

Lodato reads his own novel. He is a terrible terrible narrator, choppy, erratic, tone deaf. Authors, by and large, are awful readers. Don’t go on the cheap, hire a profession. Lodato drives me headlong over a ledge.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Guess I feel differently than most...

The story is great. I think I would have MUCH preferred reading this in the printed form. Unlike everyone else's reviews this far, I had a really hard time with the narration. I can even begin to guess how many times I almost returned this book because I couldn't take the narration. Hours into listening I still went back and forth with returning this one. I think I ultimately just learned to adjust to his way of reading. The author read very choppy to me, and I found he paused in odd/wrong places... at first, I thought it was how he was depicting the character of Edgar, but he read that way for all of them to me. I had purchased this book as a pre-order, that's how much I really wanted to like it. And I did like the story. Overall, I'm going with a 4 star rating. But man, I really didn't care for how it was narrated.

21 of 24 people found this review helpful

choppy narration

I'm sure this is a great book and story, but I absolutely hated the narration. It was incredibly choppy and it felt like each phrase was said separately. I listened through the first chapter and gave up, it was too unpleasant to continue.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Lodato Lacks the Voice

Lodato's halting and uninflected narration interfered with the story. Please hire a professional! I almost returned the book because of his faulty performance.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Enough

I have had enough of this book. The halting narration style is so annoying I could not finish. The story would have been okay but the voice was so distracting. This is the only book of the many, many I have listened to that I just couldn't finish and regret purchasing. Sorry for the negative review but it was just too difficult to listen to this guy.

19 of 23 people found this review helpful

Quite an amazing story. Excellent narration.

Any additional comments?

An amazing story.Like a hallucination,wavering between the real and imagined.At first,it seems that the content is just the garbling and musing of a young boy's mind.Then,slowly the plot develops and grips you intensely.I thought ,after merely an hour's listening,to return the book-however,it started to fascinate me with each moment that passed..Perfect narration. That's what you get when the actual author reads his own work.It's a book written in a very unique style,but well-crafted and worth your credit.Definitely a yes.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful