The Enlightenment of Angeline

Enlightenment, Book 1

De: Joshua Berkov

Narrado por: Carol Herman

"I should explain a bit, lest you think that I just despise my children for no good reason.” (Angeline)

Angeline Sims is no shrinking violet. She’s tough, opinionated, bossy, and she’s got a bone to pick with nearly everyone in her life. Set in the fictitious Eastern North Carolina small town of Shelbington, Angeline has been given a terminal diagnosis, with mere months left to live.

Upon learning of this news, her adult children and grandchildren come home for one last visit. There is no love lost between any of the family members, and they all have secrets that they voluntarily or involuntarily reveal throughout the course of the novel, culminating in an explosive family dinner at which the biggest bombshells are dropped.

Told in first-person narratives by the main protagonist and other characters, the story uses humor to touch on a number of hot-button issues, from race relations and racial profiling to LGBTQ issues, to the #MeToo movement, and to the subjugation of religion for profit.

©2020 Joshua Berkov (P)2021 Joshua Berkov

Gave me anxiety and “brought me down”

I should have stopped listening when All the arguing, conniving, and bickering put me in a really bad mood . I may need therapy.

Hilarious

Constantly made me laugh out loud. Enjoyed every second of it. I recommend this book to anyone young or old. It gives lots of inside and humor to the real world

Love love this book!

Angeline is something else lol. This story is fast moving. The stories we tell ourselves. We were all enlightened.

Interesting and funny

I enjoyed this family’s activities. It was very close to reality in ways. The various personalities of each child and the take charge attitude of the Mom kept me engaged. The ending kept me captive until the last word.

Humorous

I enjoyed the humor in this book. It had me laughing in several places and curious of what would be coming next!

sad

This book and narration simply made me sad. I did not finish the book so it might have improved at some point.

Oh Please No

I found the writing Too syrupy and not at all enlightening. I feel obligated to keep it because I listened to the entire audio, I should have DNF

I wasn’t a fan

I couldn’t get past the first chapter. Having grown up with sniping elders & siblings left a bad taste in my mouth.

I can’t finish this

I have really tried to get through this book, but I give up. It’s awful. The story is terrible, half of it doesn’t make any sense. For example, and I’m trying to make this not a spoiler alert, why and how would the holier than thou devout preacher’s wife daughter go out and do something so out of character and reprehensible? It’s simply does not work in the story. This is about a dysfunctional family coming together for their dying mother, who is just about as horrible as a mother can be. There isn’t anything redeeming about her and not much about any of her kids either. I could’ve put up with the story, but the narrator is horrendous. I absolutely could not take it anymore. I would give this a quarter of a star if I could.