Lowboy: A Novel (Library Binding) [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

John Wray (Author), Paul Michael Garcia (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2009

Early one morning, Will Heller, a sixteen-year-old paranoid schizophrenic, takes off on a fantastic quest to save the world. His frantic mother joins up with a missing persons specialist to find her son before psychosis claims him completely.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best of the Month, March 2009: I'm not the first and certainly won't be the last reader to herald Lowboy for the subtle homage it pays to one of the best-known heroes in 20th century fiction, or to envy and delight in its masterful vision of New York City as seen from its darkest, most primal places. What's most seductive for me about John Wray's third novel--and arguably the one that puts him squarely on the map alongside contemporary luminaries like Joseph O'Neill, Jonathan Lethem, and Junot Diaz--is how skillfully it explores the mind's mysterious terrain. This isn't exactly uncharted land: John Wray's Will Heller--a.k.a. Lowboy--is a paranoid schizophrenic off his meds and on the lam, certain of both his own dysfunction and of the world's imminent collapse by way of global warming, but Wray handles that subtext delicately and is careful to make Will's mission to "cool down" and save the world feel single-minded without being moralistic. Wray invokes all the classic elements of a mystery in the telling, and that's what makes this novel such a searing read. As Will rides the subway in pursuit of a final solution to the crisis at hand, we meet (among others) Will's mother Violet, an Austrian by birth with an inscrutable intensity that gives the story a decidedly noir feel; Ali Lateef, the unflappable detective investigating Will's disappearance whose touch of brilliance always seems in danger of being snuffed out; and Emily Wallace, the young woman at the heart of Will's tragic odyssey. The novel moves seamlessly between Will's fits and starts below ground and Violet and Ali's equally staccato investigation of each other above. This kind of pacing is the stuff we crave (and we think you will, too)--the kind that draws you in so unawares that before you know it, it's past midnight and you're down to the last page. –-Anne Bartholomew

John Wray on Lowboy

Three years ago, not long after I'd begun Lowboy, I made a decision that--in retrospect--even I find slightly odd: to write as much of the novel as possible on the New York City subway. The reasons for this admittedly drastic step ranged from the practical (subway cars have no internet access, no cell phone reception, and next to no procrastination options) to the wildly romantic, if not outright ridiculous. Like some over-eager method actor, a part of me was convinced that I'd write about the subway more vividly and honestly if I immersed myself in it absolutely. Fully half of Lowboy's narrative takes place underground, much of it in the subway tunnels, so getting the look, smell, and feel of subterranean New York right was crucial to the book's success. It also happened to be cheaper than renting an office.

The challenges of my new workplace weren't the ones that I'd expected. I was amazed at how effectively I was able to tune out the commotion around me, simply by putting on headphones: a good playlist on my laptop was essential, but beyond that, as long as I avoided rush hour, staying focused presented no great problem. The seats in the older cars made my back hurt after a few hours, certain stretches of track in the outer boroughs were so rough that it was hard to type properly, and restrooms were few and far between, but I adjusted to those things in time. The more comfortable I got, however, the more my frustration grew, for the simple reason that the subway was starting to feel like my living room. I was becoming resistant to its strangeness: I was seeing it with the eyes of a commuter. Nothing could have been farther from the point of view of my protagonist, a sixteen-year-old schizophrenic boy, newly escaped from the hospital, to whom even the most familiar things feel alien. The harder I looked, the less I seemed to see.

I'm not sure what triggered the change that came a few weeks later, but I know that it came suddenly. I was riding the Coney Island-bound F in the early morning, staring blankly out the window at the tunnel racing past; I remember feeling bored and vaguely hungry. When I turned around, though, I seemed to be in a different car completely. For the first time, every feature of the interior had a clear purpose to me: the seats stopped short of the floor for ease of cleaning, the orange and brown tones were meant to encourage well-being, and the polka-dot pattern on the walls, which I'd never looked at closely, was in fact made up of the official seal of the state of New York, repeated countless times in brown and grey. The discovery made me a little paranoid--on the lookout, suddenly, for more signs of Big Brother's presence--which was just the state of mind I'd been pursuing. From then on, the novel all but wrote itself. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Wray's captivating third novel drifts between psychological realities while exploring the narrative poetics of schizophrenia. The story centers on Will Heller, a 16-year-old New Yorker who has stopped taking his antipsychotic medication and wandered away from the mental hospital into the subway tunnels believing that the world will end within a few hours and that only he can save it. It's a novel that defies easy categorization, although in one sense it's a mystery, as a detective, Lateef, is on the case, assisted by Will's troubled mother, Violet. As Lateef tracks Will and gains some startling insight into Violet, Wray deploys brilliant hallucinatory visuals, including chilling descriptions of the subway system and an imaginary river flowing beneath Manhattan. In his previous works, Wray has shown that he's not a stranger to dark themes, and with this tightly wound novel, he reaches new heights. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.; Unabridged library edition (April 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1433287994
• ISBN-13: 978-1433287992
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 6.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,960,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sad but true, March 5, 2009

By 

Jacob Shade "avid reader and bibliophile" (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lowboy: A Novel (Hardcover)

After reading the Sunday Times I was eager to get my hands on this book. The notion of detailing the psychology of a teenage schitzophrenic appealed to me because of the sheer challenge such a project would entail - an attempt to express the ineffable, if you will. It is difficult to argue that Wrey succeeds in his effort, since I have no personal experiance with schitzophrenia, but the psychology that he does map out in this underground world (so to speak) is nothing short of impressive.

One has to applaud Wrey not only for the control of his prose and the range of his strokes, but also for all the subtleties that bring out the character of the protagonist and of the city he exists in. For instance, the setting is the New York City subway, which, like public transportation systems in most major cities, is filled with that strange sense of "otherness." The subway itself has that schitzophrenic, "wasteland" (in the TS Eliot sense of the word) surreality. It's like looking well under the cracks of society, and, in effect, finding the unstable essence underneath. There are other subtle aspects of the narrative that work to same effect (like ciphers embedded in the text, or the ebb and flow of the structure), but I probably shouldn't spoil these things for others.

There were a couple of instances where I felt a little enclosed in the simple, declarative style of minimalism that Wrey wrote in. On the other hand, the decision to do seems fitting and appropriate; that is, symptomatic of the protagonist's incapacitating schitzophrenia. Other times the way that Wrey describes the surreality of this almost hallucinogenic world has a poetic edge that is on point.

I wouldn't say that this is my favorite novel, or the best written novel, and certainly not a novel for everyone, but it is a fantastic display of literary sense.



I called this review "sad but true" because this novel, in its entirety, really is sad when you conisder it, but it's also true, especially given the social stigma that sorrounds mental illness. To try and write a novel that handles such subject matter fairly is a kind and sympathetic gesture.

48 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Suspense!, March 9, 2009

By 

Amber Pierce "APierce" (New Orleans) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lowboy: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is just by far the novel of the year for me--profound and beautiful and edge-of-your-seat thrilling at the same time. Where did this John Wray come from? I hadn't heard about either of his other two novels, although the critics seem to have gone ga-ga over them, too. I can't gush over this book enough. I was so entertained and entranced reading it that at one point I didn't even realize I was crying. I just flipped over this thing. Did I mention that it's also really funny?

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars John Wray's masterpiece, March 15, 2009

By 

Ronald Stainbrook "Ron Stainbrook" (Harrisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lowboy: A Novel (Hardcover)

Having stumbled upon this novel quite by accident, I was mesmerized by the story of a psychotic adolescent who has escaped from a mental institution and his mother's frantic efforts to save him or to save anyone whom he might harm in a story that covers just a little over 24 hours.

Many parts of the book are told through the paranoid schizophrenic eyes of the beautiful 16-year old boy, adding a great deal of realism to the tragic yet hopeful story. Wray has apparently accomplished a great deal of insight into the mind of paranoid schizophrenia as well as the mind of innocent youth throughout the world.

Woven into this thrilling story is the beautiful and enigmatic mother and the thoughtful and provocative detective she hires to catch the boy before he harms himself or someone in his way to accomplish what he must accomplish to save the world.

Reserve some time for this novel because once you start reading it, you won't be able to put it down.