Red Hook Road

De: Ayelet Waldman

Narrado por: Kimberly Farr

As lyrical as a sonata, Ayelet Waldman’s follow-up novel to Love and Other Impossible Pursuits explores the aftermath of a family tragedy.

Set on the coast of Maine over the course of four summers, Red Hook Road tells the story of two families, the Tetherlys and the Copakens, and of the ways in which their lives are unraveled and stitched together by misfortune, by good intentions and failure, and by love and calamity.

A marriage collapses under the strain of a daughter’s death; two bereaved siblings find comfort in one another; and an adopted young girl breathes new life into her family with her prodigious talent for the violin. As she writes with obvious affection for these unforgettable characters, Ayelet Waldman skillfully interweaves life’s finer pleasures—music and literature—with the more mundane joys of living. Within these resonant pages, a vase filled with wildflowers or a cold beer on a hot summer day serve as constant reminders that it’s often the little things that make life so precious.

Reseñas de la Crítica

PRAISE FOR RED HOOK ROAD

"A thoroughly gripping and elegantly written story about love, grief, friendship, and the unexpected ways in which disaster brings families together. The novel is chockfull of revelations and insights on how people both unravel and manage to find grace under strain."
—Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner


"This beautiful novel shows us how families cope with the most painful kinds of loss and reminds us that even as grief fractures, it can pave the way for unexpected grace."
—Ann Packer, author of The Dive from Clausen’s Pier


"Every day, families are shoved into new realities. Red Hook Road is a masterful imagining of the way a single tragic event impacts the psyches and behaviors and dynamics of two families. Waldman's writing is elegant and riveting."
—Kelly Corrigan, author of The Middle Place

"You won't be able to tear yourself away from Waldman's powerful evocation of grief."
—Real Simple


"This engagingly complex examination of two close families is a leap ahead for the essayist and author."
—O, The Oprah Magazine

"[A] lyrical tale of love and loss... Waldman's startling premise--a newly married couple dies in an automobile accident en route to their reception--sets the scene for this searing, soul-searching examination of human emotions and reactions."
—Booklist


"Readers who enjoy family sagas will find this book a pleasure."
—Library Journal


"A literary puzzle with rich intellectual and emotional rewards... Red Hook Road proves life and art are worth it."
—Bookslut

Narrator suggestions

I really enjoyed this book. However, being a native of central Maine, I think the narrator could have done a little more research and correctly pronounced some of the words and expressions that she obviously tried very hard to master. For instance, "Machias" is not pronounced "MaKYis", it's MaCHYis". Bangor is not "BANG ER", it's "BANG GOR". She did a pretty good job with the "downeast" Maine accents for the most part, I know it couldn't have been easy. All in all, I would recommend this book to others.

Brilliant

So many reviews of this book I have read so far focus on the topic of grief being the main thread. True, the book begins with a tragedy and the story unfolds within an envelope of grief and loss, but it is more about the interactions of two cultures in a small town in Maine - the advantaged, elitist summer people and the local "townies". Waldman, herself a daughter of a culturally mixed family, as set forth in her memoir "Bad Mother", handles the combinations, relationships, and odd juxtapositions and unlikely pairings with such depth, accuracy, beauty and polish that the novel amazes the reader at every twist and turn. Metaphors and connections abound, delighting and astounding the reader with their precision and subtlety; Waldman is no heavy-handed purveyor of symbolism.

This reader alternates between loving and hating one of the main characters - at times shrewish, superior-minded and unrelenting in her pedantic insistence on getting her way, and at times knowing that "her way" is really maybe one of the best ways. And, in the end, she becomes more accepting with more of a "laissez-faire" perspective.

As a leitmotif there is the theme of professional musicianship, musical allusions - instead of an "epilogue" there is a "coda" - and the development of a child prodigy. The rocky Maine coast and its mercurial weather patterns become a veritable character in the story.

The narrator's contribution is brilliant as well, using a hard, no BS Maine dialect to further entrench the Mainers in their attitudinal stances, and rendering with no accent the well-educated, culturally advantaged summer people.

Brava!

monotonous downer

Having enjoyed the writer's previous books I was looking forward to listening to this one, but am disappointed. The characters are flat and the story is depressing, dull, and unoriginal. The narration seems forced and serves to highlight the novel's flaws.

An enjoyable read/listen

Though I don't usually read family stories, I found Red Hook Road overall very enjoyable. It's about the aftermath of a tragic incident that brings together two very unlike mothers who are forced to deal with situations together as life goes on. It's touching and for the most part very well written. I've read some criticisms that the two main characters, the mothers, are unlikeable, and while I get that, I found them rich enough characters that even though there were definitely unlikeable things about them, I still felt empathy for them and understood how life had shaped them in those particular ways. Iris, in particular, while extremely irritating in her desire to control anything and everything in her path, was still vulnerable enough and showed enough kindness and love that her negative qualities didn't really bother me. On the downside, the plot is a little contrived, and there's a bit of deus ex machina at the end. But it's well worth a read, if this is the kind of novel you enjoy. I also thought the ending dragged out a bit -- as I was listening to it in the car, I kept thinking, "Okay, that's got to be the last sentence . . . " but it wasn't. As far as the audiobook is concerned, the reading is very good with one minor complaint -- the female reader speaks the male voices in a register that's so low it really sounds forced and unnatural. I get that they have to differentiate the voices somehow, but I found it distracting, especially the voice of the father. But overall, the audiobook was great, and the book itself worth the read, if you like that type of story. It's not my usual choice, but I enjoyed it.

Don't read this after Every Last One!

Oh my, another sad and long book about grief. Whatever you do, don't listen to this and Every Last One one after the other, as I have done. You're in for one long long period of grief and sorrow. Otherwise, an okay book but not great. I loved the references to classical music and listened to every piece mentioned here especially Bach's Chaconne. For that, thank you Ms Waldman

Whiny Blather

Very rarely, an audiobook comes along that I just cannot finish. This was one of those. Each chapter is way too long and it just became monotonous. Obviously, other listeners enjoyed it, but after listening to half of it, I had to stop.