Wolf at the Table

De: Adam Rapp

Narrado por: Paul Sparks

The Corrections meets We Need to Talk About Kevin in this harrowing multigenerational saga about a family harboring a serial killer in their midst, from the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award finalist playwright Adam Rapp.

As late summer 1951 descends on Elmira, New York, Myra Larkin, thirteen, the oldest child of a large Catholic family, meets a young man she believes to be Mickey Mantle. He chats her up at a local diner and gives her a ride home. The matter consumes her until later that night, when a triple homicide occurs just down the street, opening a specter of violence that will haunt the Larkins for half a century.

As the siblings leave home and fan across the country, each pursues a shard of the American dream. Myra serves as a prison nurse while raising her son, Ronan. Her middle sisters, Lexy and Fiona, find themselves on opposite sides of class and power. Alec, once an altar boy, is banished from the house and drifts into oblivion. As he becomes an increasingly alienated loner, his mother begins to receive postcards full of ominous portent. What they reveal, and what they require, will shatter a family and lead to devastating reckoning.

Through one family’s pursuit of the American dream, Wolf at the Table explores our consistent proximity to violence and its effects over time. Pulitzer Prize finalist Adam Rapp writes with gorgeous acuity, cutting to the heart of each character as he reveals the devastating reality beneath the veneer of good society.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Wolf at the Table is a masterful novel—strange and affecting, and immersive reading. Adam Rapp peers into the dark heart of America with shrewd and eerie grace, the likes of which I have not encountered since Kosiński.”—Richard Ford, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Independence Day and Canada

Praise for Know Your Beholder

"More often than any book I can easily recall, Rapp's novel had me laughing like a fool, embarrassing myself each time I unthinkingly brought it out in public. Perhaps more surprisingly, that humor felt entirely natural—born organically from the idiosyncrasies of the characters themselves rather than foisted on them... Rapp mostly dredges comedy from Francis' peculiar ways of seeing the world and from the mundanely weird people who populate it."—NPR

"Rapp's novel is surprisingly high-spirited, comic without diminishing the emotional depth of his motley crew. That''s largely thanks to Rapp's gift for figurative language."—Washington Post

"Rapp is such a skillful and evocative writer he can make magic out of the ordinary stuff of daily life... Know Your Beholder has a surprisingly satisfying finish on multiple levels... It's nothing less than masterful."—Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Know Your Beholder is funny and sad, smart and moving, dark and hopeful. Adam Rapp writes with a lyrical acumen and wit that are not just impressive, but immensely engaging."—Jonathan Tropper, New York Times bestselling author of This Is Where I Leave You and One Last Thing Before I Go

"Know Your Beholder is a message from the heart and from the beard, a message from the new weird America to every guy who's ever spent too much time in his bathrobe and every women who's ever considered what that guy would look like if he actually got himself together and shaved. Adam Rapp knows about laughing to keep from crying. He's a melancholy Lenny Bruce of the sentence and his imagination is never less than intense."—Hari Kunzru, author of the national bestseller The Impressionist

What is the problem with the audio?

A dark, compelling story that sucks you in, only to have that concentration broken when the audio changes. Usually it sounds like lines that were dropped in to correct an incorrect read. But the drop-ins were clearly recorded at a different time, because the drop-in voice is hoarse and sometimes at a different volume, it almost sounds like a different narrator altogether. This should not be the case, and the author, not to mention listeners, should be annoyed that no one took greater care to make this sound perfect.

A great story

Beautifully written with astounding character development. I found myself listening at any free moment to continue to unwrap the story. This book is likely not for everyone but captured my attention from the beginning and hooked me through the end. Highly recommend.

extraordinary writing.

Deeply disturbing but worth the gut punch to experience this gifted writer and his creative attention to every sentence.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

This book is brilliantly written. While very dark, the story of the Larkin family is riveting. The only problem is the sound editing of this Audible. The narrator is fantastic, but it is poorly edited. There are sudden changes in tone, volume, and cadence. Thankfully, the story and Paul Sparks’ (narrator) voice kept me engaged.

One of the best books I’ve read in awhile. What’s up with the audio?

Gripping story that, while pretty dark, kept me very interested. I couldn’t put it down and finished in a few days around a business trip. The only thing that was disappointing was the audio, specifically the editing. There were tons of cut ins that sounded like the narrator was sick or something when they edited parts, and it was very distracting. Otherwise, great book!

Gripping

From the very first paragraph you can feel the simmering undercurrent of something sinister. This book is dark and grim but utterly compelling. A bit long in certain parts but Rapp writes a full bodied story brimming with complex characters.

Hard to nail down an opinion on this one

I find myself struggling to truly understand my opinion about this book. Rapp is a clearly gifted writer, and The Sound Inside was one of the best plays I’ve ever seen performed live on Broadway. This book was beautifully written, but I am still trying to understand the point.

Yes, this family struggled with a great deal of dysfunction. But, we get no details about the daughter that largely escaped it. She’s in one scene in the beginning and then completely ignored. The most care free daughter that is clearly running away from her childhood is brought in just enough to let us know she still exists, but we get no glimpse into why she makes the decisions she does.

We get a great deal of detail of the rest of the family as try to ignore what has become of their son/brother. Even in the pre-internet days, a modicum of research would have turned up the details of what the postcards entailed. Certainly in the 90’s it wouldn’t have taken much work at all. So, should I feel sympathy for people that are clearly allowing this behavior to continue? While we know what is happening with Alec, we get no explanation of why, or how it came to happen.

It’s a dark and brooding novel, and does a good job of keeping you engaged, but I couldn’t keep from hoping over and over that something more consequential would happen.

No joy in Mudville

Wolf at the Door reminded me yet again of the annoying attributes of literary fiction. All the well crafted similies and and metaphors could not mask the fact that this was a morose, hopeless tale. There are no real, lasting moments of joy in the entire novel, not even one ounce of balance or humor to flesh out these two dimensional characters. I kept reading in hopes of some kind of twist or revelation. Nope. To sum up, it was a depressing piece of “well crafted” literature that i could have just as well missed.

Poor action, quite boring

The story develops far too slowly and I missed some action.. often boring . I struggled to finish it. The reading has several post production issues where clearly the voice changes from one line to another

Very disturbing story, but for some reason I enjoyed this book.

The story itself is quite disturbing. However, I liked the scattering of truth in the book.