The Natural Order of Things (Audible Audio Edition) Kevin P Keating Kirby Heyborne Audible Studios Books
Download As PDF : The Natural Order of Things (Audible Audio Edition) Kevin P Keating Kirby Heyborne Audible Studios Books
From a startling new voice in American fiction comes a dark, powerful novel about a tragic city and its inhabitants over the course of one Halloween weekend. Set in a decaying Midwestern urban landscape, with its goings-on and entire atmosphere dominated and charged by one Jesuit prep school and its students, parents, faculty, and alumni, The Natural Order of Things is a window into the human condition. From the opening chapter and its story of the doomed quarterback, Frank McSweeney, aka The Minotaur, for whom prayers prove not enough, to the end, wherein the school's former headmaster is betrayed by his peers in the worst way possible, we see people and their oddness and ambitions laid out bare before us.
The Natural Order of Things (Audible Audio Edition) Kevin P Keating Kirby Heyborne Audible Studios Books
There is not much joy in this novel, but that makes it no less compelling. Everyone has their secrets and desires, no matter their social, economic or religious strata. Disappointment and disenfranchisement lurk around every corner.I can see this book becoming a modern gothic staple, not just because it takes place in the shadows of an aging and structurally imposing Jesuit prep school. There is horror, but not of the supernatural sort, strictly based on human experience and motivation. There is romance, but exploding the constructs of that genre. The storyline is non-traditional, focusing on the many characters over a primarily short time frame.
I actually cringed in revulsion at least once, but once I began, the book was quickly finished as the pages demanded to be turned.
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The Natural Order of Things (Audible Audio Edition) Kevin P Keating Kirby Heyborne Audible Studios Books Reviews
I have a high tolerance for dark stories. For example, I love the stories of Donald Ray Pollack or the novels of David Vann. But (as one friend who also reviewed the book put it), this felt like I was being smothered under a quilt. Overwritten and filled with purple prose, the human condition as portrayed here is dismal -- with cardboard-like students, parents and priests. Here is a sample line "Last to emerge from the building is a tall figure in the blood-red robes of a grand inquisitor, a sagacious and unreasonably cruel arbiter of God and man. With a subtle flick of his wrist, he silences the discordant howls and jeers of his grotesque entourage."
If prose like this resonates with you, by all means, give it a try. Certainly Mr. Keating knows how to write and this debut book is a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist. But I found I simply couldn't go on after reading the first couple of interlocking stories. It is rare that I quit reading midstream, but in this case, life's just too short for books that don't absorb me.
Kevin P. Keating’s The Natural Order of Things is a wonderful illustration of a sex-saturated society. Adultery, fornication, masturbation, and prostitution abound in a cast of disconnected characters who all seem to live for immediate gratification of genital activity—not “sex”, since that is reserved for husbands and wives, but mere genital activity. It is as though these characters never grew up beyond Freud’s oral stage or never knew anything after Kohlberg’s first stage of moral development.
Maybe this sex-saturation can be attributed to the narrator’s bias against religious entities. Why the narrator of all “people” should especially attack Jesuit priests is never explained. Oh, well, maybe Keating just wants to show readers how ridiculous an unreliable narrator can get. After all, if the narrator him- or herself has a bias against religious beliefs, institutions, or, more importantly, persons, then his or her characters will display that same bias.
Perhaps this is why the narration is disconnected. If fictional characters rely only on their genitals for expressing the deepest of human urges, then it is no wonder that their lives are disconnected. After all, real people have sex with their spouses, go to work, pay taxes, and, if they are real Catholics (unlike the pseudo-Catholics depicted in this novel) participate in Mass every Sunday, thanking God for their lives and the wonder of His creation.
Despite the problem of these disconnected characters, the novel has its merits. The language is ornate, some sections reading like poems more than prose. Perhaps the most important thing about this novel is that it can show twenty-first century folk just how ridiculous lives focused on mere genital activity can be. The primary benefit, therefore, of reading this novel—beyond the sheer revelry in good description and hearty laughs at stupid sex scenes—is that the reader can say, “Thank God I’m not like THAT idiot!”
A brisk, demented and totally engrossing novel. Read it in a dark room with a glass of wine and savor the characters in this dark vision of willingly lost souls.
Couldn't put it down. Written in a unique intertwined perspective that is very exciting. This guy will be around for a long time.
The tales in this book leave the reader pondering "The Natural Order of Things"; the aftermath of the daily visits by fortunate students and 'tourists' who visit a decaying inner city and its struggling inhabitants. The stories are conveyed with varying degrees of concern interspersed with touches of humor. Eloquently written, even the worst is tempered by thoughtfully-chosen locution. I highly recommend this book to everyone who appreciates well-told, thought-provoking tales.
Can you post a review after reading only 10%? That's all I could take - thought it was vulgar and disgusting. This was a book club choice and out of 12 members who came for the discussion, only 4 finished it and out of those 12 present, not one person liked it - just sayin.
There is not much joy in this novel, but that makes it no less compelling. Everyone has their secrets and desires, no matter their social, economic or religious strata. Disappointment and disenfranchisement lurk around every corner.
I can see this book becoming a modern gothic staple, not just because it takes place in the shadows of an aging and structurally imposing Jesuit prep school. There is horror, but not of the supernatural sort, strictly based on human experience and motivation. There is romance, but exploding the constructs of that genre. The storyline is non-traditional, focusing on the many characters over a primarily short time frame.
I actually cringed in revulsion at least once, but once I began, the book was quickly finished as the pages demanded to be turned.
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