FLIMSY LITTLE PLASTIC MIRACLES

Narrator Jake Hart makes an impressive debut with this strange, ambitious audiobook, managing to sound conversational, intimate, and nonplussed by the dark, crazy, and hilarious world he inhabits. Hart's good with voices and stirs in the right mix of emotions for this literary tale about a man who (may have) faked suicide to improve his book sales. Although postmodernist in tone, Currie's book addresses traditional themes--trust, love lost, and a father's death--and the audio result conjures up elements of Mark Twain, Jean Shepherd (particularly in the way the book is narrated), and Fred Exley. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2013]