Ohio

By: Stephen Markley

Narrated by: Caitlin Davies, Jayme Mattler, Joy Osmanski, Jonathan Todd Ross, Corey Brill, Gibson Frazier

The debut of a major talent, a lyrical and emotional novel set in an archetypal small town in northeastern Ohio - a region ravaged by the Great Recession, an opioid crisis, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - depicting one feverish, fateful summer night in 2013 when four former classmates converge on their hometown, each with a mission, all haunted by the ghosts of their shared histories.

Since the turn of the century, a generation has come of age knowing only war, recession, political gridlock, racial hostility, and a simmering fear of environmental calamity. In the country’s forgotten pockets, where industry long ago fled, where foreclosures, Walmarts, and opiates riddle the land, death rates for rural whites have skyrocketed, fueled by suicide, addiction, and a rampant sense of marginalization and disillusionment. This is the world the characters in Stephen Markley’s brilliant debut novel, Ohio, inherit. This is New Canaan.

On one fateful summer night in 2013, four former classmates converge on the rust belt town where they grew up, each of them with a mission, all of them haunted by regrets, secrets, lost loves. There’s Bill Ashcraft, an alcoholic, drug-abusing activist whose fruitless ambitions have taken him from Cambodia to Zuccotti Park to New Orleans, and now back to “The Cane” with a mysterious package strapped to the underside of his truck; Stacey Moore, a doctoral candidate reluctantly confronting the mother of her former lover; Dan Eaton, a shy veteran of three tours in Iraq, home for a dinner date with the high school sweetheart he’s tried to forget; and the beautiful, fragile Tina Ross, whose rendezvous with the captain of the football team triggers the novel’s shocking climax.

At once a murder mystery and a social critique, Ohio ingeniously captures the fractured zeitgeist of a nation through the viewfinder of an embattled Midwestern town and offers a prescient vision for America at the dawn of a turbulent new age.

©2018 Stephen Markley (P)2018 Simon & Schuster Audio

Without Words

I do not even know where to began to do the justice of a proper review for this novel. Being a born and breed Ohioan myself I reminisce throughout the chapters of those long summer nights with friends who's names now long forgotten. Reminded by the month of September that those fresh faces in the classroom will fade out too when silver covers my head like the lines around my eyes. Markley doesn't force the memories of high school years rather he brings the sounds, smells and voices that filled those days back like a rippling wave of the lake one so often jump into on those hot summer nights in Ohio. I suggest not to read any more reviews and starting listening to the fantastic narrators of the impeccable novel that is Ohio!

Spot-on!

Having lived in Ohio my whole life, graduated high school in 1999, and joined the military...this novel hit me like a brick! From the friendships in high school, the enemies, the bad memories, watching the towers collapse Sept 11th at my barracks in Fort Hood, to subsequent deployment and then return.... this novel was ALL TOO REAL! As authentic GenX Ohio as it can get!

Read This Book

Okay this book is not perfect but it is compelling mysterious inviting and a little shocking. Let us get the negative out of the way the readers do a great job, however, one of the parts sounded tinny a little like a robo voice, that is not the fault of the reader it is the production.

The story is a little messy but it is writing about messy people. Sometimes it is like a walk though one of those dark inked grainy graphic novels but it is never dull, I guarantee you will never want to toss the book aside. The denouement is not unbelievable because the writer has skilfully waltzed you to that part of the show. It is unexpected but believable and with hindsite, inevitable.

I do not want to say more because this book is an immersive experience.
Its genius lies in taking you into its world and keeping you riveted as you experience the characters. The characters are the writers strength they are all magnificent creations in their own right.

You will like this book even if you do not feel asbsolutely elated after reading it.

Ever Wonder How It Got This Way?

This was a terrific story that was unfortunately marred by possibly the worst vocal performance and voice editing I've experienced from an audiobook. Whoever (or whatever) is reading chapters 12-14, crucial chapters to the story, sounds like the offspring of Siri and that annoying childhood toy, the Speak & Spell. I nearly stopped listening, but I was so engrossed by the story after 12 hours of listening that I kept with it. I was glad I did, too! Buy this, and you'll see how tough it is to stop listening (until chapter 12, that is). Great book. Can't wait for more from this author.

on the line

the story runs along a line between the profound and banal. However, the brilliance of the author is in allowing the reader to choose the side - profound? banal? A dark encapsulation of high school - the pain, hurt, joy, silliness and sheer stupidity that must be experienced if adulthood - more accurately - personhood is to be achieved. The journey of a group of kids - inexplicably linked together and forming a personal hell for each one of them that is inescapable. It is the elegant emotional layering of the characters both between and within that is the heart of this book and the subtle but clear big talent of the author revealed IF the reader chooses to walk the right side of the almost invisible line. Read it - it's worth pondering.

good story

The author deftly integrates the lives of several small town characters. Tragic and believable. The plot is at times difficult to follow but it all comes together at climax and worth the wait.

Conflicted and bored

I think I just wasn’t interested enough in adults not maturing from their adolescence . They kept revisiting it ; longing for it ; incapable of learning from their pasts . I don’t have much patience for people like that , so maybe I’m flawed , not the work . There were boys and men behaving very badly , a la the Gillette commercial , “ boys will be boys “. For me , as a man , there is no excuse for that type of behavior , much less it being portrayed as a right of passage and having the female victims seemingly fall prey to the b s excuses themselves instead of making clear the crimes and their deleterious effects the story opts for the commission of another crime as vengeance. I simply could not identify with any of the rather banal, pathetic characters .

Wow. A novel of the times.

Gritty but just shy of gratuitous, this was a very engrossing book that kept me listening close to straight through. There was something sincere, intelligent, and real about it. Definitely worth the time.

Great read!

Both crying sad and laugh out loud funny-
Author just nails all the tones of voices. It’s cool to see how the early 2000s played out for high school kids and how they grow into adults. Full of pathos.
Richly rewarding. I’ll read again a couple of 3 audiobooks from now, as there are lots of details I’m sure I missed the first time.

Like a car crash you can’t look away from

This book is so well written, and so human, and everything good and evil that implies. Of the many characters, you can’t help but love a few, LOATH a few, and feel some mix of both for many.

So many heart warming moments punctuated with heart pounding horrors, that you just can’t let it go long after you’ve finished the last paragraph.

This is one of those books where you just get an immediate sense that you’ve come upon something important.