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15 opere 1,072 membri 34 recensioni 5 preferito

Opere di Joe Coomer

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Nome canonico
Coomer, Joe
Data di nascita
1959
Sesso
male
Nazionalità
USA
Luogo di residenza
Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Stonington, Maine, USA
Attività lavorative
writer
author
novelist
Agente
Elaine Markson (Elaine Markson Agency)

Utenti

Recensioni

I read this for a bookclub. Not really my cup of tea. I read the first third and the last third. The writing and imagery were good.
 
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Luziadovalongo | 7 altre recensioni | Jul 14, 2022 |
There are echoes of both ‘The Rosie Project’ and ‘A Man Called Ove’ in Joe Coomer’s clever and poignant ‘The Loop’. The main character, Lyman, has an orderly but closed-off life which is gradually forced open by events beyond his control. He drives a “courtesy patrol van” on the graveyard shift, endlessly circling Fort Worth on its bypass freeway loop, assisting stranded motorists, picking up debris, and all too often removing and burying animals who have wandered onto the highway with fatal results. He fills his non-working hours with an endless succession of classes at the local community college, but has neither plan nor desire to achieve a diploma.

Then one day, as he sits looking out his screen door with his midafternoon “breakfast” coffee, a parrot appears out of nowhere, perches itself on the door handle, and invites itself into his life.

And not just any parrot. This one has a vocabulary ranging from philosophical biblical quotes to scatological insults with stops along the way for such nuggets as “I’m an eagle” and “give some to the parrot”. Lyman quickly becomes obsessed with the bird, searching for its original owner in an attempt to understand the meaning behind some of its more obscure utterances.

This is because Lyman, up to this point, has lived a life in which absolutely nothing seemed to have any real meaning. Orphaned as an infant and reared in a succession of orphanages and foster homes, he observed that effects did not seem to follow causes. Good behavior and bad were randomly rewarded or punished by some faceless fate, and a life devoted to endlessly circling the same loop of asphalt seemed as meaningful or meaningless as any other occupation. Therefore, the notion that the parrot is somehow providing information that will reveal some deeper meaning and pattern to life is irresistible to him.

The search for the parrot’s previous owner (or owners, as it turns out) begins with a quirky female librarian bearing a 1910 telephone book, and ends in a way that is both satisfying and surprising. Along the way, Lyman begins to see that the patterns he’s been searching for don’t have to carry hidden meanings in order to be real, and that the most important way to live well may be to get off the loop and open his life to the new and unexpected.

Coomer has written an engaging tale, and if he sets up an immense coincidence to begin to bring things to closure, he can be forgiven. For one thing, the arc of the book has been moving in this direction all along, and for another, the reader is rooting for a happy ending for everyone involved (human and otherwise).
… (altro)
 
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LyndaInOregon | Dec 19, 2020 |
This book was slow to get started but it picked up midway through. I'm glad I stuck with it. A nice message and lots of good book club potential. Not a book I would have chosen off the shelves but I'm glad I read it. Looking forward to discussing it next week.
 
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LizBurkhart | 7 altre recensioni | Sep 5, 2019 |
This is a lovely, quiet book about relationships between women--in this case, three women at different periods of their lives who come together to support each other while living on a houseboat. It's not sentimental or maudlin but rather a realistic look at how we deal with tragedy and the unexpected, whether that be a surprise pregnancy and abusive boyfriend, the death of a husband, or our own mental decline, by just soldiering on. There is a lot of archaeology in this book (and I think a recent visit to the Jamestown dig helped me understand what was going on in those parts), and also a lovely tribute to [Anne of Green Gables]. For me, it was surprising that this book was written by a man, but that is what can happen when women characters are depicted as just people--it helps us see how much we all have in common and how our friendships can sustain us sometimes even better than our romantic or family relationships.… (altro)
 
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sturlington | 6 altre recensioni | Aug 25, 2019 |

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Statistiche

Opere
15
Utenti
1,072
Popolarità
#23,987
Voto
3.9
Recensioni
34
ISBN
45
Lingue
1
Preferito da
5

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