One Man Guy

By: Michael Barakiva

Narrated by: Michael Chernus

Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

Alek Khederian should have guessed something was wrong when his parents took him to a restaurant. Everyone knows that Armenians never eat out. Why bother, when their home cooking is far superior to anything "these Americans" could come up with? Between bouts of interrogating the waitress and criticizing the menu, Alek's parents announce that he'll be attending summer school in order to bring up his grades. Alek is sure this experience will be the perfect hellish end to his hellish freshmen year of high school. He never could've predicted that he'd meet someone like Ethan.

Ethan is everything Alek wishes he were: Confident, free-spirited, and irreverent. When Ethan gets Alek to cut school and go to a Rufus Wainwright concert in New York City's Central Park, Alek embarks on his first adventure outside the confines of his suburban New Jersey existence. He can't believe a guy this cool wants to be his friend. And before long, it seems like Ethan wants to be more than friends. Alek has never thought about having a boyfriend - he's barely ever had a girlfriend - but maybe it's time to think again.

Michael Barakiva's One Man Guy is a romantic, moving, laugh-out-loud-funny story about what happens when one person cracks open your world and helps you see everything - and, most of all, yourself - like you never have before.

©2014 Michael Barakiva (P)2014 Macmillan Audio

Charming and honest

It is a sweet, honest story that can bring anyone back to the trials and tribulations of the teenage years. I enjoyed Michael Barakiva’s performance.

Awesome!

I loved this story very much!
I definitely recommend it.
Very interesting and entertaining.
I will definitely buy a copy of the book.

High Energy Summer School Excitement and Romance

Michael Barakiva spins an exciting story filled with the entertainment and energy of Manhattan through the eyes of awkwardly cool and geeky skateboarders and honor students drawn together in the post marriage-equality world of a summer school romance.
Michael Chernus brings the same rapid high energy narration to the story, making the dialogue and descriptions of Manhattan magic a first crush can so sparklingly see in the early summer energy of June. The voices and accents Michael Chernus brings to the narration weave so perfectly with the excitement and wonder Michael Barakiva wrote in an incredibly entertaining, hip, sweet, love story.
I have listened to it now at least 10 times, still discovering new scenes and images each time.
I hope both of these men choose to use their talent in new works yet to be created.

Short but sweet

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Would depend on the friend, I guess, but mostly yes. It's a nice story of a first love, combined with the complexities of living in an immigrant family (and specifically an Armenian one). Both are nicely handled.

What other book might you compare One Man Guy to and why?

The way the folks josh around reminded me a bit of Will Grayson Will Grayson, but that differs in a lot of other ways.

Which scene was your favorite?

Several good moments -- best friend refusing to be sidelined by new romance, kissing goodbye to a hated bookbag...

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Parents proving better than a kid's paranoid expectations.

Any additional comments?

Narrator's voice was a good fit for the main character, but I assume he's a bit inexperienced, both by the unnaturalness of his use of upward-inflected sentences and by the unsubtlety of edits in places. But none of that came between me and the story.

Very entertaining!

Pretty cheesy and trope-y at times with the typical "nerd meet bad boy scenario," but the story was cute and light-hearted which makes for good entertainment. I liked the diversity and that you learn so much about Armenian culture and history. Some moments bordering on steamy, but nothing too serious (plus they're minors).
The narrator was pretty good. Sometimes his inflections would sound a little off, but it wasn't really bothersome.
All in all I would recommend if you're looking for something casual and fun. Don't expect to laugh out loud or cry though.

Just pure fun.

It goes down pretty easy. I have just finished reading a couple of other coming out stories involving some real heart break situations. This story comes up to the cliff and it looks as the characters are going to have to jump off but the author surprises you with the humanitarian response. It truly a nice ride and the two boys are just too cute.

So if you enjoy coming out highschool stories but want to laugh a little and maybe learn to believe they all don't end up with someone cutting their wrist then this is the story for you.

Cute Story!

Didn't know what to expect when I bought this book but turned out to be a great coming-of-age story. Really funny and nice performance!

Good story, left me wanting for more

This book gave me a lot of feelings that I wish I could have felt when I was in high school. The emotions in this story are very real, and you can feel the conflict between the characters, both internal and external. I would definitely recommend this book. Well worth a listen.

Through The Eyes Of Self Discovery

I purchased this not realizing it was, more or less, a 1st love, coming of age tale. Even though the characters are young (still in high school), they are written very well and their personalities and intricacies are more nuanced than one might expect, given their limited life experience. I found Alek & Ethan to be believable characters whom I saw part of (my younger) self in. I felt their highs and lows and could relate to them. They were 'real' 'guy next door' types who were quite engaging.

I especially liked the Armenian experience and history lesson. Being born and raised in a very WASPy environment, I was shielded from the outside world until I went to college and began to experience life for myself and learn about people with different histories and life experiences. I enjoy learning about other ethnicities and cultures and ... an insight into this family's dynamic is a basic tenet of the story, as well as the primary force that sets the story in motion, and adds significant interest throughout.

This plot was well constructed by Michael Barakiva, and executed by Michael Chernus. I look forward to reading and hearing more from both in the future.

Not bad

At first I didn't like the performance, but I quickly got used to it. The story resolved all problems with believability which made me thoroughly enjoy it. 4.5 stats!