Rate this book

A Map Of Tulsa: A Novel (2013)

by Benjamin Lytal(Favorite Author)

3 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0142422592 (ISBN13: 9780142422595)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Penguin Books

review 1: I have a hard time giving any book over 200 pages that I actually finish less than two stars, but I considered it on this one. Truth is that I mostly decided to read this because the author seemed to have a roughly similar story to my own- grew up in Tulsa went off to a big metro for school and had to try to grapple with how he felt about where he was versus back home. I thought maybe this book would give me an "aha moment" to make me appreciate something, anything, about my hometown other than the family and few friends I care about that are still there- some angle of looking at it that I hadn't discovered before. Nope. This guy went so far as to write a novel and get in published and still couldn't find anything remotely interesting or unique about Tulsa or its culture. ... moreYou could have replaced Tulsa in the title with "Anywheresville USA" and it wouldn't have changed the story much at all. Still, I could have gotten past that if he had made the girl that boy falls for at all interesting or likable but ultimately we're given no real reason to care much at all about her. So we're left with 200+ pages of mostly nothing that goes mostly nowhere. I was actually angry when I finished that I spent almost two weeks of book reading time on this when I have so many others to get to.
review 2: A novel of two halves. The first half is very good. It focuses on the fascinating character of Adrienne Booker, a complicated girl around whom much of younger Tulsa orbits. Loved her. I kept wanting to learn more about her. Had the author stuck with her story this book could have been awesome. Instead, Mr. Lytal chooses to focus on the second half of the book on Adrienne's the wimpy, can't get his life together, waste of oxygen "boyfriend" Jim Praley. Too bad. Mr. Lytal can write. Huge missed opportunity. A better editor might have saved Mr. Lytal from himself. less

Download links for: A Map of Tulsa: A Novel

Advertising