The Dart League King Audiobook

" Adrianne recommended this to me and so I ordered it. It is a very well imagined story. I'm always intrigued by the lives of small town losers my own age. Sometimes I flirt with the idea of moving to a small town but then I realize that the things I get away with in NY are not acceptable there. The problems were DUIs, the same ten people sleeping with each other, small time loser drug dealers who work under a kingfish that the locals police are after, and which of the two barts in town to go to play darts. This was a very fun read. "

" I'm tempted to give this book four stars, because its epilogue deserves five (more on this later). However, were it not for the epilogue, the book would rest firmly in the three star category, so there it shall stay. For all of this averageness, however, there is much to recommend in this fast-paced depiction of rural life. The characters are vivid and memorable, despite their conformance to stereotypical country bumpkins. The plot somehow manages to be both predictable (again, confirming our stereotypes regarding these characters) and intriguing at the same time. Finally, Morris truly excels at depicting place. You can see the bar where these characters play darts, the narrow roads that transport them to lake houses, the duplex cottages where so many of their parents waste away. In the book's epilogue, these exemplary renderings of place combine to excellent effect with a cacophony of the novel's voices. It's a remarkable and incredible 30 pages of prose that so far exceeds what comes before that it almost makes you forget what precedes entirely. This book reads incredibly quickly -- I read nearly all of it on a 2.5 hour flight between Chicago and NH. And all of this time was worth it to arrive at its incredible end. In fact, I suspect re-reading this novel knowing what was coming at its end would produce a far more satisfactory experience. "

" Takes a few minutes to pick up the rhythm of the writing, but by then it has caught you in its undertow...can't put it down. "

" Thank you, Keith Lee Morris, for sharing these tightly-wrought characters and their finely-wrought world with readers, and thank you, Tin House, for putting Morris' fast-paced, addictive tale into readers' hands. I could scarcely take a break from this narrative, and could scarcely bear to see it end. Like the early work of Richard Russo, whose "Risk Pool" swept me into its small town world with equal measures of humor and anguish, this novel is masterful. Bravo. "

" I had heard such good things about this book - heck, it made the Tournament of Books shortlist -- but I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed. None of the characters really grabbed me, and even of books I have read in the last year about the life of pathetic people in small western towns I think it places second to Klosterman's Downtown Owl. It wasnt bad, but it sure wasnt great either. "

" A suspenseful fairly well written story starts to go awry half way through when the novel starts to plod and Morris seems obviously trying to create an effect by the layering of detail after banal detail. Even though I didn't buy into the inner lives of a few of the characters I enjoyed the story's structure so I decided to stick with it. Based on the momentum of events there seems to be a big violent pay off coming. But that never happens. Instead we're left with something akin to a One Tree Hill episode. Still- points for the Vince Thompson character. 'Jack the Fuckin Dude' is by itself a good short story. "

" This was dark and very strange; the varying POVs made it hard to read, sometimes, but it was compelling. "

" Just blurbed this ... It'll be out soon. Check it out! "

" This was pretty sweet. It seeemed more like a character study. I mean, there wasn't a whole lot of action, but the characters grew. It's definitely more satisfying than a story that's action-packed with 1-dimensional characters. But sometimes a dumb action story is more fun. "

" The ending drove me a little crazy, but I enjoyed the story...couldn't stop reading. "

" Good read - did not end up at all as I thought it would! "

" Without the f-word and its kin the book would have been forty pages shorter - and that would have been a good thing. "

" I suppose my hopes were set a bit too high with all of the allusions to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The Dart League King was an enjoyable read, just not what it could have been. "

" This book was horrible. The language is so vulgar and unnecessary, the characters are lazy and one dimensional, the story line is boring, overused and predictable and the ending has nothing to tell for the pain and suffering the entire book served the reader. Stay away at all cost. "

" Another absorbing read. The author changes the narrative style from chapter to chapter in a way that reflects the inner life of each character. This makes for an immersive experience. "

" What a phenomenal story written so well. I totally got into the characters and the story-line and never imagined the book ending the way it did. "

" had to turn it back to the library before I finished. don't feel like i missed anything. "

" Loved this book...something that I normally don't read but was really impressed! "

" Great white-trash read. I'm giving it 4 stars only because I was a little let down by the ending, which didn't live up to the storytelling strength of the rest of the book. "

" Boring; the extremely long sentences were painful to read. "