
The Lightest Object in the Universe
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Gabra Zackman
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By:
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Kimi Eisele
About this listen
What if the end times allowed people to see and build the world anew? This is the landscape that Kimi Eisele creates in her surprising and original debut novel. Evoking the spirit of such monumental love stories as Cold Mountain and the creative vision of novels like Station Eleven, The Lightest Object in the Universe tells the story of what happens after the global economy collapses and the electrical grid goes down.
In this new world, Carson, on the East Coast, is desperate to find Beatrix, a woman on the West Coast who holds his heart. Working his way along a cross-country railroad line, he encounters lost souls, clever opportunists, and those who believe they'll be saved by an evangelical preacher in the middle of the country. Meanwhile, Beatrix and her neighbors begin to construct a cooperative community that suggests the end could be, in fact, a bright beginning.
Without modern means of communication, will Beatrix and Carson reach each other, and what will be left of the old world if they do? The answers may lie with a fifteen-year-old girl who could ultimately decide the fate of the cross-country lovers.
©2019 Kimi Eisele (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Performance
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Beautiful
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Terrific Storytelling!
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Reminds me of Octavia Butler
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Possibility is possible when we imagine it
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This year’s Station 11
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Almost turned it off, but persevered. It sounds like a YA novel (not sure if it is??). It draws comparison to Station Eleven, which I enjoyed more.
Okay story if you can tolerate the performance
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A kinder, gentler slow apocalypse
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gorgeous evolution
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This literally seemed crazy to me. The electrical grid goes down, many have died. The survivors must find a way to survive. What will be the primary focus for survival? Of course, the answer is so obvious, NPR...National Public Radio...is what the world needs. Nevermind there is no power thus limited radios, we must start broadcasting helpful homemaking tips and inspiring fiction stories.
There is also a bad religious guy promising salvation over the radio, but that arc is too boring to mention. As is the love story. The book starts with the two lovers separated by thousands of miles of the dystopian United States. Will they reach each other? More importantly, why would anyone care. The relationship predates the start of the book, and it not well developed, so I was not clear why I should care about them getting together. There are also marauding bands of evil-doers, but not to worry as they are really only misunderstood young boys on BMX bikes and only need NPR to convert them back to caring productive youths.
I really don’t think this was a dystopian parody.
The narration was not too bad, but could not help the inane plot.
Bad Dystopian
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The main character is your classic hippie protester, who looks down her nose at people who do the hard jobs in this post apocalyptic story, like the armed protectors, scavengers, ham radio operators, and others of their perfect co-op commune, I'm surprised the author even bothered to include police types in her story given her obvious disdain for them. The author also mentions the need for firearms in this world for her story many places, yet still the idea doesn't gel well with her world view, so she goes out of her way to minimize their use in the utopian commune she struggles to create in this book.
Her dystopian picture while beautifully written is not believable in the slightest bit, and that brings the rest of the novel down, as the story really drags on most of the book. The only two characters given any real depth in this book are the romantically involved main characters traveling across the nation to reach each other again, and even these 2 aren't very relatable. All other characters in this story are intentionally marginalized and not fleshed out at all.
I almost stopped reading about a quarter of the way, and then again halfway through the book, but slogged through to the end. 2 out of 5 star read.
Don't waste your time.......
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Only read for class
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