The Free Fall of Webster Cummings: Volume One of "Tom Bodett's American Odyssey" [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Tom Bodett (Author, Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1995

Ed and Emily Embark. After a lifetime in Alaska, the Flannigans head down the long road to the "lower Forty-eight" and an uncertain future in an Oregon college town.

The Free Fall of Webster Cummings. A young research analyst is planted firmly on the road of discovery after a near-death encounter with gravity.

Oliver the Dreamer. We spend a day with Oliver, a homeless amnesiac living in Seattle.

Road Rangers. Lloyd and Evelyn Decker, retired and bored stiff, sell the family home and begin a final voyage across America in their powder blue, thirty-two foot Swinger Deluxe Road Ranger motor home.

The Bedinger-Hooples. The hyphen is the first thing to come between Richard and Katherine Bedinger as they wed and remove themselves to separate coasts to manage their careers and attempt a bicoastal marriage.

Norman's Party. Norman Tuttle falls victim once again to hormones and his girlfriend's will.

Anthony Decker. Anthony Decker pumps gas in Booder, Indiana - a town built on the site of the founder's dead horse. He ponders his life while filling the tank of his parents' ridiculous RV and sending the remnants of his childhood home down the road without him.

Quartz Creek. The Flannigans arrive in Quartz Creek, Oregon - recovering logging town and emerging Mecca to a peculiar mix of New Age enthusiasts.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bodett makes like Garrison Keillor here, writing a novel that reflects the homespun values of a popular NPR series (in Bodett's case, The End of the Road) and several collections spun off from it (The Big Garage on Clear Shot, 1992, etc.). In the New Age mecca of Quartz Creek, Ore., old traditions find new appreciation as Bodett mixes homage and parody, celebrating all the colorfully absurd permutations of the American family. When Ed Flannigan, having lost his arm and his employability, reluctantly moves his family down from Alaska, he has no idea he will soon join a 12-step program for substance abusers, become a peach farmer and open his new home to some improbable family reunions. In Seattle, meanwhile, homeless amnesiac Oliver searches for his past?and perhaps his future?in his avid nightly dreams. From Avalon, Ohio, retirees Lloyd and Evelyn Decker head west in a flashy new RV to visit their inhospitable children and see some of the world. And Bostonian Webster Cummings, after surviving a freak accident that sucks him out of an airliner in mid-flight, sets out to find his biological parents. Bodett develops these stories as separate puzzle pieces to be assembled only at the end of the novel. His narration can be sketchy and superficial, with some characters never rising above type, and ambivalent in its stance toward central issues of family dysfunction, pop psychology and mysticism. He knows how to spin a yarn, however, and raise a chuckle, and will leave readers in good humor, with some insights gained.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Webster Cummings, who improbably survives a plunge from an airplane, is one of more than a dozen colorful characters whose endeavors and adventures are charmingly related in this delightful book. We meet them a few at a time in apparently unrelated vignettes, but eventually their paths intersect and they discover relationships that are both comical and touching. Folksy characters are the stock-in-trade of radio personality/author Bodett (The Big Garage on Clear Shot, Morrow, 1990), and he is in good form with a likable cast that also includes the Flannigans, who move to Oregon and encounter many New Age targets for satire; the Bedinger-Hooples, who are having a baby despite living 3000 miles apart; and Oliver the Dreamer, a homeless amnesiac living under a bridge with other kind souls in Seattle. Recommended for most fiction collections.?Will Hepfer, SUNY at Buffalo Libs.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Nova Audio Books; Unabridged edition (July 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561008559
• ISBN-13: 978-1561008551
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 4.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #692,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Books on Cassette > Humor

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!, May 3, 2000

By 

Mary Dolan (Stroudsburg, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Free Fall of Webster Cummings (Hardcover)

I just finished reading this wonderful book and felt my heart warmed over. Tom Bodett's writing took me into his characters lives with such grace that they became like my own family. Funny,sweet and thought provoking. I am off to read more of Tom Bodett today!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well worth reading - what a story teller ...., September 6, 2001

By 

Mark Stephen Warren (Huntsville, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Free Fall of Webster Cummings (Hardcover)

I picked this up in a bookstore because I recognized Tom's name (probably like most of America) and had no idea what a great story teller he could be. The book takes different stories and weaves them together in a most clever fashion. Makes me wonder if it wasn't composed as separate books - then combined - Ha! Caught Ya! That's the secret! I certainly didn't guess what was coming next and that made the ride even more enjoyable. The characters had depth - no broding overwrought fatalists - and they were living very real lives. The humor that is 'snuck in' is great and adds to the whole experience. Good stuff here.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful human stories!!, February 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Free Fall of Webster Cummings (Hardcover)

I have read all of Tom Bodett's books, and listened to several of them on tape as well. I feel that this book is his best. Further developing characters he had introduced in previous stories (although knowledge of the previous stories isn't required, it made this story more meaningful for me), Bodett weaves together humorous, touching, emotional, and very personal stories. The chapter where the couple traveling across the country sees the Rocky Mountains for the first time brought me right back to my first trip to the Rockies and the way the mountains overwhelmed me in their mass and presence. I went back and read that chapter three more times before going on!! A wonderful book for reminding us that every person around us has their stories.