The Loop, Joe Coomer
The Loop, Joe Coomer
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The Loop

Author: Joe Coomer

Narrator: Richard Powers

Unabridged: 7 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/07/2009

Categories: Fiction, Media Tie-in

Synopsis

Lyman, a thirty-year-old loner, is sipping coffee on the front steps of the trailer he calls home one morning, when a parrot suddenly alights on his screen door. The parrot arrives with a mysterious past and beak full of cryptic sayings, such as “That which hath wings shall tell the matter.” Convinced that heeding the bird’s wisdom will lead him to answers about himself that he so desperately seeks, Lyman combines his night job as a courtesy patrolman, circling the highway that loops around Fort Worth, with days in the library. Together with Fiona, the loquacious and sexy librarian, he traces his adopted pet’s origins, and while what Lyman ultimately discovers may not help him piece together his own past, it paves the way for a future he never imagined.

About Joe Coomer

Joe Coomer is the author of Apologizing to Dogs, Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God, Sailing in a Spoonful of Water, and an award-winning book of nonfiction, Dream House. He lives in Azle, Texas, and Eliot, Maine.

About Richard Powers

Richard Powers has published thirteen novels. He is a MacArthur Fellow and received the National Book Award. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory, and Bewilderment was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Deb (Readerbuzz)

Lyman works nights, driving around and around the Loop that circles Ft. Worth, assisting drivers with stalled cars, removing suitcases and furniture and other things fallen from a moving car, burying dead animals that wandered into the path of cars. As a hobby, he takes college classes, classes of a......more

Goodreads review by Lori

I added this to my TBR list back in Dec 07. I couldnt find it in any store I shopped at. When I finally found it sitting on the shelf at a library sale back in January, and almost squealed for joy. Then, for whatever reason, once I brought it home, it wasn't calling out to me to be read just then. I......more

Goodreads review by Gary

Time and chance gives us meaning in the now and to see meaning beyond that only obfuscates us from our authentic selves. Fiona will tell Lyman that twice. The book of Ecclesiastes has that as a theme and this book has Ecclesiastes and that as a theme. The parrot that Lyman has is not the meaning bes......more

Goodreads review by Rick

This book does so much with so little-only two main characters plus one parrot. It digs deep rather than wide. Lyman is an orphan whose parents died, anonymously, on the highway where he was found as baby, and now he drives around it each night as a road attendant, helping stranded motorists and bur......more

Quotes

“Read this book—and feel better while you wait for the world to make sense.” New York Times

“Impossible to resist.” New Yorker

“Coomer writes so well, with such freshness and authenticity that we hate to put the book down.” Boston Globe

“Joe Coomer is a marvelously creative comic writer: Lyman’s lonely, lively mind, his generous and timid spirit, Fiona’s quirky originality, and, of course, the aged parrot who proudly announces, ‘I’m an eagle,’ take the reader on an adventurous, and all too brief, ride around the Fort Worth loop.” Washington Times

“Funny, briskly paced…heartwarming…A wonderful book.” Dallas Morning News

“Coomer’s deliciously quirky and perceptive fourth novel...both heartens and satisfies.” Publishers Weekly

“Every night, devoted Texas Highway Department employee Lyman drives around the seemingly endless loop that surrounds the city of Fort Worth, helping stranded drivers, removing dead animals, and otherwise seeing that the road is clear. His is a life of monotony that serves to keep order and balance in his lonely existence—that is, until a chance encounter with a very intelligent parrot opens his eyes to the world around him. As Lyman, narrator Paul Michael Garcia speaks with the contented tone of a man who fails to recognize the isolation of his existence. But when Garcia assumes the role of Fiona the librarian, he slyly adapts Lyman’s tone to that of a man who is being rapidly awakened to new possibilities.” AudioFile

“[In] this beautifully written novel…Coomer’s gentle insight, quirky characters, and philosophy will remind listeners of Anne Tyler’s early classics like Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant or The Accidental Tourist. Actor and director Paul Michael Garcia’s outstanding, gentle reading exactly captures each poignant character, smoothes out the uneven plot, and even humanizes the cranky parrot and Fiona’s beloved dog. For adults and mature teens.” SoundCommentary.com

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