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    Snapper
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    Snapper
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    Snapper
    Audiobook6 hours

    Snapper

    Written by Brian Kimberling

    Narrated by MacLeod Andrews

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    **NPR's Best Books of the Year 2013**

    A great, hilarious new voice in fiction: the poignant, all-too-human recollections of an affable bird researcher in the Indiana backwater as he goes through a disastrous yet heartening love affair with the place and its people.

    Nathan Lochmueller studies birds, earning just enough money to live on. He drives a glitter-festooned truck, the Gypsy Moth, and he is in love with Lola, a woman so free-spirited and mysterious she can break a man's heart with a sigh or a shrug. Around them swirls a remarkable cast of characters: the proprietor of Fast Eddie's Burgers & Beer, the genius behind "Thong Thursdays"; Uncle Dart, a Texan who brings his swagger to Indiana with profound and nearly devastating results; a snapping turtle with a taste for thumbs; a German shepherd who howls backup vocals; and the very charismatic state of Indiana itself. And at the center of it all is Nathan, creeping through the forest to observe the birds he loves and coming to terms with the accidental turns his life has taken.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 23, 2013
    ISBN9780385393027
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Snapper

    3.5/5

    79 ratings9 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I found this book to be boring and without a purpose. The writing was solid and the descriptions of Indiana were right on, but I just didn't like it.
    • 4/5
      This is not a novel in the traditional sense, so don't go into it thinking that it is. It is more an interconnected series of short stories all focused on Nathan Lochmueller, similar in form to Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge. And like that work, it is surprisingly appealing. Nathan is a graduate student when he falls into a low paying job as a professional bird researcher and ecologist. He is assigned to track birds, their population, and their breeding and nesting habits for one square mile in wooded rural Indiana. In general, he is a bit of a bumbler and he has an ongoing obsession with the enticing and elusive Lola in his immediate post-college years. He drives a incongruous decorated and glitter festooned truck named the Gypsy Moth that Lola painted for him. While Nathan finds beauty in the woods, offering a loving look at the woodlands and animals in his square mile, he is less tolerant of the people in his Indiana college town. But he is shown up as similarly pretentious when he purports to like the unembellished small town life of those outside of academia. He can seem adrift at times but the threads of his life do weave together, creating a different, and ultimately appealing, sort of tapestry. The novel is not told chronologically, with tales about his childhood friends and his family sprinkled into the story, but it spans several years in Nathan's life, specifically those years where he is trying to find himself and settle into the life he wants to lead. The stories are all connected through Nathan but they don't necessarily have a unifying plot thread running through them all. Each chapter is really its own self contained vignette from Nathan's life. Kimberling has written a graceful and unhurried tale, an environmental ode without the edge of extremism that sometimes accompanies a tale like this. He has captured a strong sense of place and created gently funny and unusual characters. The book is very well written, touching, and in the end, even a bit melancholic.
    • 2/5
      Full of interesting yet shady characters, ornithology references, and personal observations, Snapper just wasn't as enjoyable as I had hoped. Nathan narrates intermediate periods in his life, complete with personalities and work related events, as a researcher collecting data on songbirds. What could have been a colorful tale of a young man growing into adulthood, this novel left me simply feeling the dislike that Nathan holds for his home state of Indiana.
    • 5/5
      In an amusing novel, loosely based on personal history, Kimberling has given us a highly entertaining look at life in the heartland, rural Indiana. Taking us in a variety of flash-backs through his relationships with friends in high school, through the early years of college, we find out all about the mysterious Lola, the alligator snapping turtle, from which the title was so aptly pulled, to commiserating with him on his relatives - we all have an uncle or grand-father that tells unbelievable stories - and the job choices we make in life. In this case Nathan, our protagonist, works for the university plotting the movements in birds, all different variety of birds, in various parts of the woods of Southern Indiana.
      Told with humor and wit Kimberling injects himself on the unsuspecting public in a similar vein that Bill Bryson did with his Walk In The Woods. A smartly written debut with lots of expectation for the future.
    • 5/5
      I saw Brian Kimberling read from Snapper, his debut novel, at the Iowa City Book Festival last fall. He was charming, the reading was hilarious, and my mom talked to him about birdwatching while getting this book signed. That wasn't a random topic, by the way. Snapper tells the story of Nathan Lochmueller, who finds a post-college job tracking songbirds in Indiana. The book doesn't really have a continuous narrative arc, but instead Kimberling presents vignettes from Nathan's life. Because of this, the books reads more like an essay collection. At times, Kimberling's writing put me in mind of David Sedaris. But once I figured that out and adjusted my expectations, I loved this book. Kimberling is funny and observant. He captures the uncertainty of post-college years, the culture of rural Indiana, and a range of relationships.
    • 4/5
      Snapper features thirteen chapters that are loosely constructed Midwestern vignette's. They chronicle Nathan Lochmueller's life from high school and college and ending in his thirties. Nathan has a philosophy degree and works as a songbird field researcher. There is sly humor and word play use throughout this book...written in the first person. You get to learn a little bit about Indiana. There are the things that irritate. But, there are also things that bring a smile. Like in Santa Claus Indiana. Where they do really answer letter's from Santa. (Santa’s Elves Inc. and the Santa Claus Museum, organize volunteers to answer all the children’s letters that flood the post office during the holidays.)The characters you meet through Nathan are all memorable, and a little unconventional. And, if you ask any midwesterner about the mean streak of a snapping turtle, they'll tell why they are called a..SNAPPER.
    • 4/5
      Rather than a linear story, Snapper by Brian Kimberling is a delightful assortment of the main character’s thoughts, opinions and reminiscences. These entertaining tidbits range from the Ku Klux Klan to smoking banana peels, his one night in jail to the girlfriend that strays all too often. Nathan Lochmueller earns his money by doing field studies of birds in Southern Indiana. He is marking time until he decides what he is going to do with his life, but he is approached his late 20’s and needs to make some decisions.Clever, insightful and funny, I really enjoyed Snapper with it’s assortment of unusual characters, the humorous situations and, above all, the author’s wonderful writing. Whether he is writing about the lush woodlands and the songbirds that inhabit them, or his odd-ball acquaintances and the strange things that they do, the words paint a vivid picture.Although at times the book appears a little choppy and the main character a little too self-involved, I found the author’s love/hate relationship with the state of Indiana along with his wry sense of humor made this book of observations a fun one.
    • 4/5
      It’s a confusing world. Nathan Lochmueller drifts into professional birdwatching, earning just enough money to make it each day. In his work, Nathan encounters not only quirky and intriguing birds, but a whole planet of quirky and intriguing people.
    • 5/5
      Brian Kimberling's debut novel, Snapper, features thirteen chapters that are really loosely connected stories chronicling Nathan Lochmueller's maturation into adulthood. Nathan grew up in southern Indiana (as did author Kimberling). After graduating with a philosophy degree, he accepts a job as a songbird field researcher. Nathan spends his time hiking through the woods locating songbirds, their nests, and tracking them. During this time period Nathan falls in love with Lola.

      Nathan has a love/hate relationship with Indiana. Even as he shares the foibles of its people, he has a devotion to them, especially Evansville. But this novel is not simply about an amateur ornithologist stumbling through life. It's so much more and tackles Nathan's maturation with a great deal of wry humor and thoughtful insight. While relating the blunders and shortcomings of those around him he calmly accepts the absurdities as a part of life. Most of the stories are college/post college but some go back to high school. They end with Nathan in his thirties.

      The characters Kimberling has assembled in Nathan's stories are unforgettable. There is Lola who Nathan worships even while she's unfaithful; Gerald, his socially awkward boss who owns a sofa and bird guides; his friend, Shane, with whom he has several interesting experiences before Shane becomes a librarian; his Texan uncle Dart who has a clash with the clan; Fast Eddie who in the future will promote "Thong Thursdays" at his business; Ernie and Maude of Santa Claus, Indiana; and Darren, the man who ended his career as a songbird field researcher.

      I really enjoyed the writing in Snapper - the word play and the descriptions were wonderful. Kimberling manages to be funny and subtle while making a poignant observation. For example: "A real ornithologist spends his life in a database: I was the underpaid field hand who collected the information in that database. I was like a voracious reader unwilling to taint or corrupt his passion by submitting to years of studying postcolonialism or feminist theory. "(pg. 140) (Touché Brian - you just described my passion for book blogging.)

      As Kimberling captures the haphazard, accidental path Nathan's life takes it reminds me that many of us have taken a rather accidental road to get where we are years later. And the results are not always a bad thing, despite how it may look from the outside.
      Oh, and the cover of this book is gorgeous. It features reproductions of John James Audubon images.

      Very Highly Recommended

      Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book by Pantheon Books/Random House for review purposes.