Unabridged Audiobook
John Darnielle has always been one of my favorite storytellers with his amazing lyric writing abilities... then came Wolf in White Van and i gained a whole new respect for him. Then came this book,Universal Harvester. This book really. took things to a whole new level. universal harvester is a fantastically beautiful book. the melancholic mood that sweeps you across the plains in this novel is surreal. JD is a great narrator too. his voice is very soothing, and his rhythm is perfect. i cant wait for anotherbook from him,,, in the meantime maybe we could get an audiobook for masters of reality.
I loved listening to the author read his own work. It really gives you a better sense of the writers intention. I've read John's previous book "wolf in white van" and I think I enjoyed this one more, though his work tends to feel unresolved. There's a mystery, and you're waiting for it to unfold and it just sort of moves on; like the mystery itself is not so important as the characters reaction to the existence. He definitely takes the idea of a reluctant protagonist to another level. At any rate, he really nails the voice of the small town mid-western characters.
This is an ambiguous and creepy novel of the quiet farmland of fly-over country. There's no blatant violence and the mystery unfolds in a slow discovery. Different characters know parts of the mystery, but some don't come forward easily or at all. The ending doesn't really give us the answers we seek, but sometimes it's more interesting to not know exactly what happened.
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