The Loop

By: Joe Coomer

Narrated by: Richard Powers

Lyman, a 30 year-old orphan, is sipping coffee on the front steps of the trailer he calls home one morning, when a 90-year-old parrot arrives with a mysterious past and beakful of cryptic sayings - such as "That which hath wings shall tell the matter."

Convinced that heeding the bird's wisdom will lead him to answers about himself he so desperately seeks, Lyman combines his night job as a courtesy patrolman, circling the highway that loops around Fort Worth, with days in the library.

Together with Fiona, the loquacious and sexy librarian, he traces his adopted pet's origins, and while what Lyman ultimately discovers may not help him piece together his own past, it paves the way for a future he never imagined.

©1992 Joe Coomer (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Read this book - and feel better while you wait for the world to make sense." (New York Times)

"Coomer writes so well, with such freshness and authenticity, that we hate to put the book down." (Boston Globe)

"Impossible to resist." (The New Yorker)

Such a Good Story

I’ve watched the movie a dozen times, which usually is a set up for disappointment, as the book is almost always better than the film. The book is enjoyable, but I can’t say it is better the movie. It’s different in mostly good ways, but somehow is less satisfying than movie. Perhaps Rachel Nichols has something to do with that, but it’s a good book.

Offbeat and Fun

This book is a little quirky, a little eccentric, and fun. Characters are a little loopy.. but not unbelievable. There is a slice of life between man and parrot that is exceptionally well betrayed, as well as a love story. The ending is a wild ride! Glad I read it.

Recommended for the narration

I wasn't all that grabbed by the story itself at first, but it grew on me, for which I credit the narrator - I doubt it would have held my interest in print.

The loop review

Never thought I’d like a movie better than a book! Was it really necessary to have such graphic sex??? Thank goodness it was left out of the movie…probably because it added absolutely nothing to the story!!