Customer Reviews

66 Laps A Novel

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Once in a great while, a book comes along that touches your every feeling and emotion. Ms. Spirson has managed to make a believable and worth reding book. I felt Audrey's confusion of whether her husband was unfaithful. And when the "younger" man showed her interest, I knew that millions of woman could relate. It all comes down to whether or not we would actually let things escalate from there. A recommended read for everyone who enjoys to escape the normalties of daily living. I would sell this to all.

Ms. Spirson's first novel is a mini-vacation to Southern California. A land of sun and angst, sensuality and sham. Although her story of marraige and fidelity could be told in any part of the country, in L.A. it's film noir. Her prose keeps the reader driven to the conclusion, with a subconscious feeling of watching tornado victims sort through the remnants of their old lives. This is an enjoyable read about believable characters. Better than a trip to the Valley in the hot, fast days of an Los Angeles summer. If you want a taste of living suburban L.A., this is it.

I very much enjoyed this novel. The author was able to draw me into the world of the characters be a part of their thoughts and experiences. The character were well developed and I could understand Audrey's thinking, her motivations, and what drove her to her point of destruction. The writing in this novel was supberb. I kept turning pages until I realized I finished half the novel in a day. I was compelled to keep reading to find out what happens next. I love when a writer is able to make me do this.

I was gripped by this excellent first novel, and moved by its unexpected ending. Read it! 66 Laps was well-paced, with just the right amount of action to keep readers hooked. I liked the short, sharp chapters -- which would have made the book easy to put down if you needed to, but I was too curious to find out what was going to happen next. The author achieves many high points with her vivid prose. Having moved away from my hometown after high school, I related closely to the author's descriptions of going back home to visit. I loved the main character's eclectic family - the jocky, eternally youthful father; the yakky shrink Mom; the newscaster sister. The depiction of modern-day motherhood was on the mark (if a little short on the quiet desperation, boredom and fatigue many mothers experience), especially Audrey's secret yearning for the power job while she tells her friends how much she loves being a stay-at-home mom. I was particularly enchanted by the way Spirson crafted Audrey's daily swimming routine into the theme of the book, used it as her therapy and safe haven, and ultimately turned it into her downfall. Any swimmer or runner will relate to that rhythm that Audrey sometimes found doing exercise, and that all-powerful feeling it occasionally produced, as well as the frustration of not finding it. As for the plot, Spirson convincingly shows how jealousy and insecurity can cause people to ruin those things they love most. I was shocked and disturbed by the ending, and mulled over the book and its characters days after I finished reading it.

A friend of mine recommended this book to me. I'm glad I read it so I now know never to pay attention to any of her recommendations in the future. This book was NOT believable. So many chapters describing how much the main character loves her child and husband and only a few pages for her to turn around and decide to have revenge sex with the ice cream man! The synopsis should read " Shallow character, who is easily swept off her feet by cheesy ice cream dude". This book is a bad soap opera in print.

Things aren't always what they seem to be and this was a great example of that. I loved the way Ms. Spirson put everything together and kept my attention. It was short but sweet and I hope to see more from her in the future. The ending really caught me off guard........

A trip deep inside the head, heart and soul of Audrey, a youth-and-beauty-obsessed wife and mother who loses it all because of her own lack of trust and love. Her fate becomes a contemporary vision of hell. Reads like lightning. A taut, clear and devastating story. Not to be missed.

I was recommended by a friend to read this book, and I am never, ever listening to her advice again! This was a terrible piece of "prose"! Shallow and poorly written, like a screenplay rejected from a bad soap opera pilot. Audrey, the protagonist, is a horribe wife, a horrible mother, and so lifeless and unreal that you want her to be slapped and locked up instantly!

I couldn't finish the book, because with each chapter came more and more badly written storylines that failed to capture my attention. They did garner a lot of laughter from me and the other friends I've shown this piece of trash to.

Save yourself the horror and read something else! The book reads like something a high schooler with no literary backround or skill in creative writing would produce.

Whoever allowed this woman to publish such a shallow, distasteful story, was a fan of badly written roman novels and every soap opera in existence. I could barely force myself to read though this horrible novel without laughing; Audrey, the protagonist, is nothing more than a projection of the author into her own story.

In short, this is a Mary Sue of epic proportions. The protagonist of the story is so shallow, so egocentric, and so disillusioned that it makes every female in the world look like an idiot. An "independent woman" cliche that needs to end. I'm ashamed to have even read it because if this says anything about the author as a person, then I would never want to have anything to do with her (and I am another woman).

Not only is the writing style fragmented and irritating, but the dialogue is unbelievable, and the characters are dense at best. The next time Spirson decides to publish, someone take away her computer, her pens, and any papers that are nearby; another atrocity masking itself as a good read is not what the world needs.

Drown it.

I thoroughly enjoyed Spirson's style and tone of writing. I found it fresh and clean and the format of the novel with it's poem-like chapters was simply great. A very contemporary novel (including its smaller physical size). Hence the three stars.

Unfortunately (and a big unfortunately) I also felt royally manipulated by this story. Why is it that women (especially mothers) have to pay such a high price for their rather minor indescretions? I am SO tired of that morality. It's as if a new mother lay in bed in a rather bad post-partum depression and fantasized about the worst thing that could happen to her family because of her behavior and then wrote a book about it. Extremely self-indulgent. The characters don't grow or change because of their actions and consequences, they just react. I was depressed and irritated by this story. I don't mind a dark story but I do mind a depressing one. If this is marriage in the 90s, no thanks!