Woke Up Lonely

by Fiona Maazel Narrated by Bernadette Dunne

Overview

Thurlow Dan is the founder of the Helix, a cult that promises to cure loneliness. With its communes and speed-dating, mixers and confession sessions, the Helix has become a national phenomenon - and attracted the attention of governments worldwide. But Thurlow, camped out in his Cincinnati headquarters, is lonely - for his ex-wife, Esme, and their daughter, whom he hasn't seen in ten years. Esme, for her part, is a covert agent who has spent her life spying Thurlow, mostly to protect him from the law. Now, with her superiors demanding results, she recruits four misfits to botch a reconnaissance mission in Cincinnati. But when Thurlow takes them hostage, he ignites a siege of the Helix House that will change all their lives forever.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"At turns satiric and heartfelt, Maazel's novel brims with energy and life." - Publishers Weekly
"Maazel manages to strike a number of tones here - from poignant...to paranoid - and she's successful at every level." - Kirkus Reviews
"Ambitious...prove[s] Maazel to be a very interesting and promising writer with incredible energy and an amazing sense of humor..." - The Boston Globe
"Woke Up Lonely is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking, filled with swerves and contradictions." - NPR
"Woke Up Lonely is the novel equivalent of a sonic boom - it builds, it explodes, it leaves your ears, mind, and soul ringing for days. Who else writes sentences like this, who else writes sound art prose that transports a heart-killing story of human frailty, susceptibility, loyalty, and isolation? No one." - Heidi Julavits, author of The Vanishers
"Maazel is a great novelist and this is a great novel. Great, major, important - say it however you like. This is a book you need." - Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life
"Fiona Maazel's new novel won't take no for an answer - it grabbed me from page one and didn't let me come up for air until the last page; I really think I may have bruised my ribs from laughing." - Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!
"No one does loneliness, self-abasement, and dread like Fiona Mazel. And maybe no one other than George Saunders illuminates with as much sadness and comic brio the grotesqueness of the extent to which we fall short - as citizens, as family members, and as individuals - of who we imagine ourselves to be." - Jim Shepard, author of You Think That's Bad
"Fiona Maazel's imagination is so wild - wild being an under-observed variety of honesty - that you feel like you've woken up into one of those rare novels as real as life. Hooray for such a talent!" - Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances
"Ignore Fiona Maazel at your peril. Woke Up Lonely is just as pithy, whimsical, and brilliant as her first novel, Last Last Chance. She writes about loneliness in a way that makes you feel less lonely: a wild, hilarious ride that highlight's Maazel's uncanny knack for avoiding the obvious." - Wesley Stace, author of Charles Jessup, Considered as a Murderer

Library Journal - Audio

Late in the novel, a main character states, “I could not fathom where to go.” This statement neatly describes a messy novel. It is not clear whether the author intended for this work to be a humorous approach to politics and self-awareness, a view of cult leadership and life, an approach to transmogrifying relationships, or a travelog on North Korea. The characters’ backstories are numbingly long and overly detailed, the plot veers like a driverless car, and the overall effect is a hot mess. The excellent narration by Bernadette Dunne is wasted on this confused literary effort.

Verdict Not recommended. [“Maazel’s wildly imaginative style isn’t for everyone, and her humor may be lost on many readers. But this ambitious, wide-ranging novel should appeal to those who enjoy complex, edgy, and ironic literary fiction,” read the review of the Graywolf hc, LJ 5/1/13.—Ed.]—J. Sara Paulk, Wythe-Grayson Regional Lib., Independence, VA
(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

JUNE 2013 - AudioFile

Narrator Bernadette Dunne's talents are well matched to this offbeat novel about a man who, although being the founder of a worldwide cult to combat loneliness, cannot reconnect with his estranged, elusive wife and their young daughter. Dunne fluidly alters her voice to project the characters' ages and personalities—gravelly and tired, soft and easygoing, sardonically optimistic—varying her tempo and inflections as required to color thoughts and speech with the wide range of required emotions. Despite Dunne's near-flawless performance, this audiobook can be a challenge because the point of view, timeline, and setting change abruptly, and people appear sporadically and unpredictably. If one’s attention drifts for even a moment, one can lose track of the novel's frenetic, spiraling plot. C.B.L. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175546942
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	04/02/2013
Edition description:	Unabridged

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