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Holy Water: A Novel Audiobook
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(3.03) - 79 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
Henry Tuhoe is the quintessential twenty-first-century man. He has a vague, well-compensated job working for a multinational conglomerate—but everyone around him is getting laid off as the company outsources everything it can to third-world countries.
Henry has a beautiful wife—his college sweetheart—and an idyllic new home in the leafy suburbs, complete with pool. But his wife won't let him touch her, even though she demanded he get a vasectomy; he's seriously overleveraged on the mortgage; and no matter what chemicals he tries, the pool remains a corpselike shade of ghastly green.
Then Henry's boss offers him a choice: go to the tiny, magical, about-to-be-globalized Kingdom of Galado to oversee the launch of a new customer-service call center for a boutique bottled water company the conglomerate has just acquired, or lose the job with no severance. Henry takes the transfer, more out of fecklessness than a sense of adventure.
In Galado, a land both spiritual and corrupt, Henry wrestles with first-world moral conundrums, the life he left behind, the attention of a steroid-abusing, megalomaniacal monarch, and a woman intent on redeeming both his soul and her country. The result is a riveting piece of fiction of and for our times, blackly satirical, moving, and profound.
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"Othmer's darkly comic, oddly insightful story of a corporate lackey's accidental redemption is well worth the time. If only it came with a CD containing the allusional soundtrack laced through the text!"
— Mary (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“Othmer wrings humor from nearly every facet of contemporary culture…It’s well-done satire—dark, but not too.”
— Publishers Weekly -
Othmer wrings humor from nearly every facet of contemporary culture.... It's well-done satire—dark, but not too.
— Publishers Weekly
Holy Water Listener Reviews
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" A man suffering from a personal crisis accepts an assignment to bring a call center to a fictional Nepal-like mountain kingdom. This would make a good screenplay and, unfortunately, often reads like one. "
— Steve, 12/4/2013 -
" This story seems geared toward a screen-play & lost me a little bit, but some good writing. "
— Lori, 1/23/2012 -
" Wonderfully insightful AND entertaining. (I rarely get to pair those two...) smart and funny, but with a human tug of outrage at how we conduct our business overseas. "
— Hugh, 8/4/2011 -
" Can't hold a candle to The Futurist, which was an excellent book. Still an interesting read, but just a less well done version of his first book in my opinion. It is quick, interesting and entertaining though, so I can't pan it, just not exceptional, but a decent in between books read. "
— Kirk, 3/23/2011 -
" This book was a little deceiving. I expected a comical romp, and although it was quite humorous, it also had a philosophical and spiritual element that made it impossible to put down. Very enjoyable. "
— Andrew, 1/14/2011
About James P. Othmer
James P. Othmer is the author of Adland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet and the novel The Futurist, which was expanded from a short story published in the Virginia Quarterly that was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Fiction. He lives in upstate New York with his wife and children.
About William Dufris
William Dufris attended the University of Southern Maine in Portland-Gorham before pursuing a career in voice work in London and then the United States. He has won more than twenty AudioFile Earphones Awards, was voted one of the Best Voices at the End of the Century by AudioFile magazine, and won the prestigious Audie Award in 2012 for best nonfiction narration. He lives with his family in Maine.