Eggshells

De: Caitriona Lally

Narrado por: Alana Kerr Collins

A whimsical, touching debut about loneliness, friendship, and hope.

Vivian doesn't feel like she fits in - and never has. As a child, she was so whimsical that her parents told her she was "left by fairies". Now, she is living alone in Dublin, where the neighbors treat her like she's crazy, her older sister condescends to her, social workers seem to have registered her as troubled, and she hasn't a friend in the world.

So, she decides it's time to change her life. She begins by advertising for a friend. Not just any friend. She wants one named Penelope.

Meanwhile, she roams the city, mapping out a new neighborhood every day, seeking her escape route to a better world, the other world her parents told her she came from.

And then one day someone named Penelope answers her ad for a friend. And from that moment on, Vivian's life begins to change.

Debut author Caitriona Lally offers listeners an exhilaratingly fresh take on the Irish love for lyricism, humor, and inventive wordplay in a book that is, in itself, deeply charming, and deeply moving.

©2017 Caitriona Lally (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

I couldn't finish it.

I couldn't finish it. Kudos to the narrator, though; she did a beautiful job. The story couldn't hold me. I wanted it to get better, to draw me in, but after an hour of a woman doing obsessive compulsive things... Enough!

Great Perspective, A Little Meandering

If you are a person who enjoys stepping into a character’s life and journeying with them through the mundane to hear their thoughts and insecurities about it all, then this is the book for you.

Painful to get through

I imagine some people do live this way sadly. But all the detailed lists were just too much.

Meh

The reader was perfect. There really wasn't a story. Would not recommend unless you need something to listen to in order to fall asleep and don't care about retaining what you're hearing.

No plot. Weak ending. Weird woman.

More of a character study than a story.

*Possible spoilers - for a non-story*

Vivian is a bizarre woman. Her fascination with language is interesting but her endless listing of things grows tiresome. There’s never a real explanation if why she and her sister have the same name or how she ended up living with their great aunt. While we get a tiny glimpse of her childhood trauma near the end, there’s not enough to make the story feel like even that was the point. She’s collecting unemployment and supposedly had a job the previous year, but we never find out what she did for work then. Her friend ‘Penelope’ is somewhat of a good enigmatic match for her since she too is quite odd and learns to play along with Vivian’s changeling fantasies, right up until the unsatisfying end, which tidies up nothing.

This book was terrible!!! Nothing happened and really didn’t have much of a plot either

This book was terrible!!! Nothing happened and really didn’t have much of a plot either

Lyrical nonsense!

Lyrical nonsense! I laughed out loud... so many times. “I’m uncomfortable with verbs; they expect too much.” Brilliant and silly.

Literally nothing happens

This “story” is just the ramblings of a mentally disturbed woman. That’s it. No plot. Very little action of any kind. Maybe I don’t get the point but it was awful.

Not worth the time!!!!!

I would like to know how many lists the author included in this book they started making me crazy. I couldn’t finish this book What was the point of it!!!!really bad bad bad

Memorable character Vivian Lawler

With a delicate and balanced performance by Alana Kerr Collins, the character of Vivian Lawler comes alive. Here is another memorable character like Ginny Moon and Eleanor Oliphant that will steal your heart. Caitriona Lally has done an extraordinary job of inhabiting a character, listening to her voice, reading her mind, living in her skin, and walking in her shoes in the streets of Dublin. It takes a lot of mental discipline and energy to be a character for so long, although so rewarding. This is an accomplishment of imagination as much of writing--writing that is sensitive, wise, energetic, funny, and raw. Vivian is a delightful character, not a mean bone in her body.