Undone: A Novel

by John Colapinto Narrated by Will Damron

Overview

In modern-day America, Dez is a former lawyer and teacher-an ephebophile with a proclivity for teenage girls, hiding out in a trailer park with his latest conquest, Chloe.



Having been in and out of courtrooms (and therapists' offices) for a number of years, Dez is adrift, at odds with a society that persecutes him over his desires. From his couch one afternoon, Dez watches an interview with Jasper Ulrickson, a doting father and loving husband whose heartrending memoir, Lessons from My Daughter, has become a national bestseller. The memoir chronicles his journey with his wife, Pauline, who suffered a stroke giving birth to their only child and has been in a locked-in state ever since. Espousing their deep connection and chaste marriage, Jasper's selfless devotion to his wife has made him one of the most popular and admired men in America.



So Dez sets out to do what any red-blooded American would do: destroy Ulrickson by using Chloe to pose as the famous author's long-lost daughter, infiltrate his family, seduce him, and, when he's sent to jail, claim his fortune.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

02/29/2016
New Yorker staffer Colapinto’s novel (after About the Author) is an over-the-top, irreverent, and darkly comical thriller. Dez, an ephebophile and convicted sex offender, has been fired from a high-school teaching job for being romantically involved with a 17-year-old student named Chloe. Unemployed, dejected, and hiding from the authorities in a northern Vermont trailer park, he passes time watching an Oprah-esque TV show called Tovah in the Afternoon. While watching the program one day, Dez learns from Chloe that her recently deceased mother had a brief summer flame with mystery-writer-cum-bestselling-memoirist Jasper Ulrickson roughly nine months before she was born. With this information in mind, Dez conjures a ruinous scheme to land the orphan Chloe under the wealthy Ulrickson’s custody, so she can seduce him into incestuous relations, file charges to claim monetary compensation, and in turn destroy his reputation. The wily Dez is able to pull the necessary strings to set the plan in motion, but an unlikely and absurd series of twists follows, leaving no character unscathed. Aggressively offensive and deliberately silly in its treatment of stock characters, scenarios, and tropes, Colapinto’s novel oscillates between highly ironic and deeply earnest treatments of this taboo subject matter. The story tackles sexual and moral dilemmas that are worth contemplating, delivering them at a breakneck and often entertaining pace. (Apr.)

From the Publisher

"Will Damron did an excellent job narrating a story with many different characters. He did well with providing distinct voices and being consistent, as well as evoking the myriad emotions the story required." ---Bookworm Brandee

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

"Will Damron did an excellent job narrating a story with many different characters. He did well with providing distinct voices and being consistent, as well as evoking the myriad emotions the story required." —Bookworm Brandee

Kirkus Reviews

2016-01-21
A bestselling author is caught in a web of psychological manipulation, sexual taboo, and financial ruin. The second novel by veteran magazine writer Colapinto (About the Author, 2001, etc.) is a speedy tale about the personal and professional demolition of Jasper, who's become a celebrity via a memoir about caring for his wife, who suffered a debilitating stroke while giving birth to their daughter. Elsewhere, 17-year-old Chloe catches Jasper on an Oprah-esque show and immediately recognizes him as somebody her late mother had a brief fling with. Her boyfriend, Dez, who's hit the skids thanks to his taste in just-underage girls like Chloe, conceives a plot to improve their fortunes: convince Jasper that Chloe is his daughter (though she knows she's not), have her use her feminine wiles to seduce him, then reap Jasper's fortune after an incest-rape scandal. Colapinto's plotting (DNA sample switcheroos, etc.) at times strains credibility, and there are stretches of purple prose. ("Her body was so precariously perched between foal-like childhood and the full, fecund effulgence of erotically charged womanhood.") But his pacing is expert, and Chloe's seduction scheme isn't played solely for titillation—Colapinto means to explore male sexual obsession, from the morality of pornography to the illegality of Dez's fixation to America's go-away-a-little-closer attitude toward youthful sexuality and erotic confession. These gray areas aren't especially gray: Jasper is plainly a wronged victim, and Dez is plainly sadistic. But in the climactic chapters, Colapinto enjoys pushing both men to their extremes, befitting a plot that has echoes of a Greek tragedy. There are enough loose ends to suggest a sequel—Jasper himself wrote a series of Sherlock-ian mysteries before hitting the memoir jackpot. But the novel stands solidly on its own. A well-machined page-turner that brings some smarts to a touchy subject.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170818990
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	06/28/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos