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Joe Henry was the glue that held his family together. Now he is dead, and his wife and sons are coming together for one final journey to scatter his ashes. First, however, his loved ones have some things to work out.
David, the older son, believes that any minute his life is going to fall apart and everyone he loves will leave him. His brother Scott can't shake the belief that at heart, people are inherently rotten. Doris, their mother, just doesn't believe in anything anymore.
Wickedly funny and biting, The Punch is an essential exploration of modern American grief, family violence, and redemption from the bestselling author of Before the Fall and creator of the Emmy award-winning series FARGO.
"Noah Hawley really knows how to keep a reader turning the pages." — New York Times
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 16, 2018 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781549113642
- File size: 234240 KB
- Duration: 08:07:59
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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April 14, 2008
In his third novel, Hawley (Other People’s Weddings
) traces the path of Scott and David Henry as they prepare for their father’s memorial service. Younger brother Scott—stuck in a dead-end job, failing in love and a frequenter of San Francisco strip clubs—is saddled with his alcoholic, self-destructing mother, Doris, on their trip to New York. Scott’s successful sales executive and closeted bigamist brother, David, shares Doris duty while navigating memorial service preparations and secretly juggling marriages on both coasts. Along the way, a family secret is revealed, two hotels are nearly blown up and the trio explores what it means to be a family. Unfortunately, Hawley’s asides on physics, religion and the nature of time distract from the plot without adding to it, and the occasional dud sentence pops up (“Now they circle their wagons and eye each other warily from the high towers of their castles”). However, the characters—especially Doris—and humorously handled uncomfortable situations (as when David’s two wives meet) somewhat mitigate these shortcomings, and the memorial service at the legendary White Horse Tavern provides a rollicking climax. -
This audiobook about the responsibilities of family, the fickleness of fate, and the meaning of time is expertly narrated by Edoardo Ballerini. THE PUNCH will leave some astounded by Hawley's skill as an author and others questioning whether this is just the work of an author showing off his literary gifts. The story concerns two brothers and their polar-opposite takes on family life and responsibilities. Thrown into the mix is the brothers' bitter mother, her late husband (the boys' father), bigamy, and a theme of interconnectedness through time. Regardless of how this audiobook strikes listeners, they will come away appreciating Hawley's abundant literary talent and Ballerini's perfect delivery. J.P.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine -
March 1, 2019
The Henry brothers, David and Scott, are traveling with their bitter mother, Doris, to scatter their father's ashes. But the trip is hardly smooth sailing as Doris has decided the time is ripe to reveal a 60-year-old secret. All three of them are hiding something--bigamy, paranoia, or addiction--that's bound to come out. Hawley (Before the Fall) here provides a clever tale of grief and family conflicts with a dose of dark comedy. Narrator Edoardo Ballerini provides a smooth and solid reading of this quirky tale of brotherly love, redemption, and forgiveness. VERDICT Of interest to fans of the author as well as those of well-written, clever, and offbeat familial stories.--Denise Garofalo, Mount Saint Mary Coll. Lib., Newburgh, NY
Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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