Untouchable, Scott OConnor
Untouchable, Scott OConnor
1 Rating(s)
List: $22.95 | Sale: $16.07
Club: $11.47

Untouchable

Author: Scott O'Connor

Narrator: Bronson Pinchot

Unabridged: 11 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/03/2011

Categories: Fiction


Synopsis

It is the autumn of 1999. A year has passed since Lucy Darbys unexpected death, leaving her husband David and son Whitley to mend the gaping hole in their lives. David, a traumasite cleanup technician, spends his nights expunging the grisly remains of strangers, helping their families move on, though he is unable to do the same. Whitleyan elevenyearold social pariah known simply as the Kidhasnt spoken since his mothers death. Instead, he communicates through a growing collection of notebooks, living in a safer world of his own silent imagining. As the impending arrival of Y2K casts a shadow of uncertainty around them, their own precarious reality begins to implode. Questions pertaining to the events of Lucys death begin to haunt David while the Kid, who still believes his mother is alive, enlists the help of his small group of misfit friends to bring her back. As David continues to lose his grip on reality and the Kids sense of urgency grows, they begin to uncover truths that will force them to confront their deepest fears about each other and the wounded family they are trying desperately to save.

About Scott O'Connor

SCOTT O'CONNOR is the author of A Perfect Universe: Ten Stories and the novels Half World and Untouchable, which was awarded the 2011 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for Fiction. His stories have been shortlisted for the Sunday Times/EFG Story Prize and cited as Distinguished in Best American Short Stories. Additional work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Zyzzyva, The Rattling Wall, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. He teaches creative writing at Cal State Channel Islands.


Reviews

This is a very disturbing and yet fascinating book. David Darby is a big, tattooed technician for a trauma-site clean-up crew. He spends every night cleaning up the remains of suicide and murders. His son, Whitley, called The Kid, is a sixth-grader who is a talented artist but who is badly bullied a......more

3.75 I struggled to put a rating on this one. It isn't because it's a bad book but it's not a book to fall in love with. Most people aren't going to like this book. It's not a happy book. This isn't a book you take to the beach to read while you're laying out. This is a book that saddens you. "Untouch......more

*cries*......more

Goodreads review by Joan

This book is a tough read. It's about how a father and son deal with extreme grief after the sudden loss of their wife/mother. The book really looks at denial (the Kid) and reaction formation (the dad). The shock of the mother's death sent both father and son nearly over the edge. As a reader, you a......more