Audiobook10 hours
And West is West
Written by Ron Childress
Narrated by Graham Halstead
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Winner of the prestigious PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, And West Is West is an inspired novel about the devastating power of new technology to corrupt innocent lives. When Jessica, a young Air Force drone pilot in Nevada, is tasked with launching a missile against a suspected terrorist halfway across the world, she realizes that though women and children are in the crosshairs of her screen, she has no choice but to follow orders. Ethan, a young Wall Street quant, is involved in more bloodless connection to war when he develops an algorithm that enables his company's clients to profit by exploiting the international instability caused by exactly this kind of antiterrorist strike. Though only minor players, the actions of these two people have global ramifications that tear lives apart-including their own. When Jessica finds herself discharged from the service, and Ethan makes an error that costs him his job, both are set adrift, cast out by a corrupt system and forced to take the blame for decisions that they did not make.
In And West Is West, Childress has crafted a terrifyingly real scenario that takes readers into the lives of these characters living in different worlds yet bound together by forces beyond their control.
In And West Is West, Childress has crafted a terrifyingly real scenario that takes readers into the lives of these characters living in different worlds yet bound together by forces beyond their control.
Related to And West is West
Related audiobooks
Afternoon of a Faun: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spanish Fly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twice Lived Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrossers: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inheritance: A Family on the Front Lines of the Battle Against Alzheimer's Disease Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Care of Wooden Floors: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5After the Monsoon: An Ernst Grip Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sirius: A Novel About the Little Dog Who Almost Changed History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Your Robot Dog Will Die Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Lies of the Land: Seeing Rural America for What It Is?and Isn't Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reaching Mithymna: Among the Volunteers and Refugees on Lesvos Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5You Are My Pride: A Love Letter from Your Motherland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHiding in Plain Sight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Safe From the Sea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Javier Zamora's Solito Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSudden Rain Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Enough Rope Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWanted - 7 Fearless Engineers! Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Trump Sky Alpha: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Drone Child: A Novel of War, Family, and Survival Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Like Falling Through a Cloud: A Lyrical Memoir of Coping with Forgetfulness, Confusion, and a Dreaded Diagnosis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Spy Who Tried to Stop a War: Inspiration for the Major Motion Picture Official Secrets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond the City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Playing the Pools Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Land of Flickering Lights: Restoring America in an Age of Broken Politics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Five Lectures on Blindness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUp From Thunder Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Crash Palace Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dig: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Literary Fiction For You
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A Hunger Games Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hunger Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Covenant of Water Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for And West is West
Rating: 3.8823530588235293 out of 5 stars
4/5
17 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two parallel narratives don't come together until the very end, but both follow interesting characters facing the biggest challenges of their lives. Ethan is a financial whiz kid on Wall Street who has no qualms about the computer code he wrote that allows his employer to pile up more and more money at the expense of the less fortunate, until he loses his job and his girl and becomes one of the less fortunate himself. Across the country in Nevada, Jessica is a military drone pilot who takes the fall for a commanding officer's mistake. Being forcibly separated from the service she loves sends her into her own emotional tailspin.What the two have in a common, besides the somewhat contrived aspect revealed toward the end of the book, is that both gave their all to an entity that did not appreciate or nurture their humanity, and each has to find their own way back to being at peace with themselves.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5And West is West is an interesting, serious, well-written, thought-provoking novel. 2 main characters facing separate troubling situations in their lives are followed in their respective searches for meaning and redemption.
Jessica, the more sympathetic character of the 2, was a 'drone pilot' who was involved in a strike that didn't turn out perfectly, ends up getting separated from the service, and walks out of a medical facility where she's being evaluated to lose herself and the rest of the world. Ethan is a financial 'quant' whiz who loses his job due to what he thinks was sabotage by his boss, at the same time his complicated romantic life becomes much sadder and more complicated.
Although it sometimes feels like you're reading 2 individual novels, intertwined, the characters do intersect (you get some hints along the way). I thought the writing was excellent, the stories were well crafted, the characters were developed nicely (although 2/3 of them I didn't really care for....), the dialogue was fine and the conclusion was satisfactory.
All told, it's a fine novel about how people respond to big changes in their lives. Nicely done, not upbeat by any means but definitely worthwhile reading.