Ohio

By: Stephen Markley

Narrated by: Caitlin Davies, Jayme Mattler, Joy Osmanski, Jonathan Todd Ross, Corey Brill, Gibson Frazier

Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

The debut of a major talent, a lyrical and emotional novel set in an archetypal small town in northeastern Ohio - a region ravaged by the Great Recession, an opioid crisis, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - depicting one feverish, fateful summer night in 2013 when four former classmates converge on their hometown, each with a mission, all haunted by the ghosts of their shared histories.

Since the turn of the century, a generation has come of age knowing only war, recession, political gridlock, racial hostility, and a simmering fear of environmental calamity. In the country’s forgotten pockets, where industry long ago fled, where foreclosures, Walmarts, and opiates riddle the land, death rates for rural whites have skyrocketed, fueled by suicide, addiction, and a rampant sense of marginalization and disillusionment. This is the world the characters in Stephen Markley’s brilliant debut novel, Ohio, inherit. This is New Canaan.

On one fateful summer night in 2013, four former classmates converge on the rust belt town where they grew up, each of them with a mission, all of them haunted by regrets, secrets, lost loves. There’s Bill Ashcraft, an alcoholic, drug-abusing activist whose fruitless ambitions have taken him from Cambodia to Zuccotti Park to New Orleans, and now back to “The Cane” with a mysterious package strapped to the underside of his truck; Stacey Moore, a doctoral candidate reluctantly confronting the mother of her former lover; Dan Eaton, a shy veteran of three tours in Iraq, home for a dinner date with the high school sweetheart he’s tried to forget; and the beautiful, fragile Tina Ross, whose rendezvous with the captain of the football team triggers the novel’s shocking climax.

At once a murder mystery and a social critique, Ohio ingeniously captures the fractured zeitgeist of a nation through the viewfinder of an embattled Midwestern town and offers a prescient vision for America at the dawn of a turbulent new age.

©2018 Stephen Markley (P)2018 Simon & Schuster Audio

good story

The author deftly integrates the lives of several small town characters. Tragic and believable. The plot is at times difficult to follow but it all comes together at climax and worth the wait.

Wow. A novel of the times.

Gritty but just shy of gratuitous, this was a very engrossing book that kept me listening close to straight through. There was something sincere, intelligent, and real about it. Definitely worth the time.

Great read!

Both crying sad and laugh out loud funny-
Author just nails all the tones of voices. It’s cool to see how the early 2000s played out for high school kids and how they grow into adults. Full of pathos.
Richly rewarding. I’ll read again a couple of 3 audiobooks from now, as there are lots of details I’m sure I missed the first time.

Conflicted and bored

I think I just wasn’t interested enough in adults not maturing from their adolescence . They kept revisiting it ; longing for it ; incapable of learning from their pasts . I don’t have much patience for people like that , so maybe I’m flawed , not the work . There were boys and men behaving very badly , a la the Gillette commercial , “ boys will be boys “. For me , as a man , there is no excuse for that type of behavior , much less it being portrayed as a right of passage and having the female victims seemingly fall prey to the b s excuses themselves instead of making clear the crimes and their deleterious effects the story opts for the commission of another crime as vengeance. I simply could not identify with any of the rather banal, pathetic characters .

Like a car crash you can’t look away from

This book is so well written, and so human, and everything good and evil that implies. Of the many characters, you can’t help but love a few, LOATH a few, and feel some mix of both for many.

So many heart warming moments punctuated with heart pounding horrors, that you just can’t let it go long after you’ve finished the last paragraph.

This is one of those books where you just get an immediate sense that you’ve come upon something important.

2nd time around is just as good!

I have now listened to this story 2 times over the span of a couple of years. I don’t even remember why I purchased it to begin with but remember it being an incredible story. Wow, it really is.

Compelling characters who have ties to one another while having their own unique story lines throughout, masterful.

A riveting tale

Stephen Markley has delivered a dark commentary on the state of our youth that builds to an unseeable crescendo. Although none of the characters were particularly like-able, I wanted to see how their futures unfurled in the light of their teenage indiscretions.

My only criticism - it’s jarring when a performer drops the ‘t’s in the middle of a word. When did this become acceptable? When did written become ri-en? A small thing I know, but it’s as egregious as news casters beginning sentences with the word, “So”.

Good until

Good narration but seemes to drag onon to an ending that I had to playback as I thought several pages were skipped or removed. Almost felt like the author gave up. Like beating a dead horse.

Brilliant.

From a slow start that had me a bit bored, I never expected to be taken on such a wild, fascinating ride. The ending was an unexpected blaze of clarity that wowed. I would describe this as a character-driven story less about small town life or Ohio and more about the dark parts every soul shares. After listening, I'll be ordering a print copy to read it again--it was just that good.

Good Debut

With some tightening and polishing, the author shows promise. The story was a bit uneven, with some excellent parts, others like filler. I kept rooting for 5 stars but could only rate it a solid four.