Mrs. Fletcher

De: Tom Perrotta

Narrado por: Finn Wittrock, Carrie Coon, Alex Allwine, JD Jackson, Nicky Maindiratta, Jen Richards, Sarah Steele, Aaron Tveit

Duración: 8 h y 30 m

Resumen del Editor

From one of the most popular and best-selling authors of our time, a penetrating and hilarious new novel about sex, love, and identity on the front lines of America's culture wars.

Eve Fletcher is trying to figure out what comes next. A 46-year-old divorcée whose beloved only child has just left for college, Eve is struggling to adjust to her empty nest when one night her phone lights up with a text message. Sent from an anonymous number, the mysterious sender tells Eve, "U R my MILF!" Over the months that follow, that message comes to obsess Eve. While leading her all-too-placid life - serving as executive director of the local senior center by day and taking a community college course on gender and society at night - Eve can't curtail her own interest in a porn website called MILFateria.com, which features the erotic exploits of ordinary middle-aged women like herself. Before long, Eve's online fixations begin to spill over into real life, revealing new romantic possibilities that threaten to upend her quiet suburban existence.

Meanwhile, miles away at the state college, Eve's son, Brendan - a jock and aspiring frat boy - discovers that his new campus isn't nearly as welcoming to his hard-partying lifestyle as he had imagined. Only a few weeks into his freshman year, Brendan is floundering in a college environment that challenges his white-dude privilege and shames him for his outmoded, chauvinistic ideas of sex. As the New England autumn turns cold, both mother and son find themselves enmeshed in morally fraught situations that come to a head on one fateful November night.

Sharp, witty, and provocative, Mrs. Fletcher is a timeless examination of sexuality, identity, parenthood, and the big clarifying mistakes people can make when they're no longer sure of who they are or where they belong.

©2017 Tom Perrotta (P)2017 Simon & Schuster Audio

As usual for Tom Perrotta, very entertaining!

This novel is a bit cringe worthy since I’m a middle aged woman, but touches on many timely topics. Beautifully written, great narrators. Loved it.

Simple and nice

This is an excellent and a engaging story of middle class suburban life. The narrators do an excellent job. I never even zoned out while listening.

Disappointed...nothing happened

There was so much potential here for rich characters and themes to go in unexpected directions, but it was all so repetitive and boring. Not surprising. Not moving. Not funny. Not sexy. Just middling and tedious. And why is Brendan read with non-stop contempt in his voice? That drove me crazy and seemed so one-dimensional. I finished the book, but was glad for it to be over.

Poorly chosen vocal performance

The voice reading Brendan's part was distractingly inarticulate, monotone and hypo nasal... Did not complement the books' other voices.

Ending not satisfying

The middle aged woman getting into MILF porn seemed a stretch for me. Not great.

A very good book if you let it open up to you

This author has often skirted greatness, not always making it but coming very close. This was a heartwarming during a story that spoke to me on many levels although it's in the times the author was trying to be a little tongue-in-cheek I don't think he's really ready for that yet. Give the book time let her talk to you and at the end it's worth the reward you will receiveo

Awesome voice choice, but mediocre story

What did you like best about Mrs. Fletcher? What did you like least?

She's very relatable. Kind and caring

Has Mrs. Fletcher turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

Which character – as performed by Finn Wittrock and Carrie Coon – was your favorite?

Finn is unbelievable. Both of them are, actually. It was so cool to listen to them performing as Eve and Julian.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Maybe. Like a beer and snack evening with a bunch of friends. Not very dramatic, sometimes funny. as a background to a party

Any additional comments?

I don't like those kind of books. Mediocre-melodrama that you watch, when there's nothing on TV. It was entertaining sometimes, but I wouldn't recommend spending time on it.

Worth a listen but left me wanting more story-wise

This novel unfolds over a year of time for Eve, the titular Mrs. Fletcher, and the many people that orbit her life. In no particular order of importance, there is: Brendan her douchebag, college-aged son, Amanda her adventurous yet lonely coworker, Margo her transgender professor, and so on. The relationships and friendships span out farther to Brendan's girlfriends and friends, Eve's friends in her 'Gender and Society' class (which Margo teaches), and the complex orbital dance is revealed the farther along the novel is narrated by these various characters, all told in close third-person except for Brendan, who narrates weirdly enough in first-person.

Where the novel excels is the voyeuristic way the various narratives reveal that, even when they all get to know each other or reveal what they already know about their friends and families, they really don't know them as well as they think they do. For instance, Eve doesn't know just how misogynistic her son really is or the depths of his narcissism. Her idea of him is as outdated as his love for Teenage Ninja Turtles. But in the same way that people-watching fascinates some people, the unfiltered view into these characters lives--sometimes sexy, sometimes intimately confessional--is enthralling at times.

But the novel's strength is also its weakness, being too concerned about their internal lives and less concerned about serving the overall story or plot, or lack thereof. A unified plot is nonexistent and none of the characters experience any transgressions or difficulties to overcome worth cheering for. If you're hoping for high-risk stakes or difficult dilemmas to transcend, then you will be sorely disappointed. Ultimately, it's their first-world problems that you will be ruminating. In fact, the 'big reveal' Eve explains in the final chapter that is supposed to illuminate the relevance of a sext message at the beginning of the novel--the one where an unknown sender calls her a MILF--is so groan-inducing that it's not worth even revealing here in this review. It's like a rom-com movie joke worthy of being left on the editing room floor.

Perrotta excels when the characters examine their hopes and dreams and debate the methods in which they want to escape the ways their lives have been compartmentalized, to the detriment of their hearts and souls. The dialogue and conversations are very realistic and utterly fascinating. If you enjoy living within the lives of others (and I admit, I do when reading fiction), then you will enjoy this novel. I did enjoy listening to these characters tell me about their lives. If you are hoping for a fascinating story with an intricate plot, then look somewhere else. I wished for more--story-wise--and was left wanting more from this novel.

Overall, I would give this novel 3 1/2 stars, if possible. The narrators are great!

A good story, well narrated.

Good story. Believable characters with excellent story development. Very well narrated.
I recommended this one.

A fantastic listen

Any additional comments?

I love Tom Perrotta and this book doesn't disappoint. It's funny and heartfelt and scandalous. I can't stop thinking about about the final few lines. Great in audio because of the multiple narrators.