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That's Not a Feeling
- Author
- Dan Josefson
- Narrator
- Charles Carroll
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 1 November 2012
- Run Time
- 11 hours 4 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Benjamin arrives with his parents for a tour of Roaring Orchards, a therapeutic boarding school tucked away in upstate New York. Suddenly, his parents are gone and Benjamin learns that he is there to stay. Sixteen-years-old and with two failed suicides to his name, Benjamin must navigate his way through a new world of "popped privileges," "candor meetings," "morning meds," and "cartoon brunches"—all run by adults who have yet to really come of age themselves. The only person who comprehends the school's many rules and rituals is Aubrey, the founder and headmaster. Fragile, brilliant, and prone to rage, he is as likely to use his authority to reward students as to punish them. But when Aubrey falls ill, life at the school begins to unravel.
Benjamin has no one to rely on but the other students, especially Tidbit, an intriguing but untrustworthy girl with a "self-afflicting personality." More and more, Benjamin thinks about running away from Roaring Orchards—but he feels an equal need to know just what it is he would be leaving behind.
Critics Review
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“A bold, funny, mordant, and deeply intelligent debut.”
David Foster Wallace, author of Infinite Jest
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“[A] mordant, cockeyed first novel…Boarding-school novels are invariably allegorical, and That’s Not a Feeling is no different; the absurdity of Roaring Orchards is the absurdity of life, compressed onto several rural acres.”
The New York Times Book Review
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“Funny at times, and more than a little sad, the book’s form perfectly mirrors Benjamin’s profound sense of dislocation and uncertainty. This is a powerful, haunting look at the alternate universe of an unusual therapeutic community.”
Library Journal (starred review)
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“The prose is matter-of-fact, even placid, and studded with perfectly phrased gems, a cool surface to a work that is rich in feeling. A wonderful and noteworthy debut.”
Booklist (starred review)
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“Josefson writes vigorously and is well attuned to the upheavals experienced by adolescents.”
Kirkus Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Dan Josefson
- Narrator
- Charles Carroll
- Duration
- 11 hours 4 minutes
- Release Date
- 1 November 2012
- ISBN
- 9781620644379
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- Narrative theme: Coming of age, Fiction: general and literary
Synopsis
Benjamin arrives with his parents for a tour of Roaring Orchards, a therapeutic boarding school tucked away in upstate New York. Suddenly, his parents are gone and Benjamin learns that he is there to stay. Sixteen-years-old and with two failed suicides to his name, Benjamin must navigate his way through a new world of "popped privileges," "candor meetings," "morning meds," and "cartoon brunches"—all run by adults who have yet to really come of age themselves. The only person who comprehends the school's many rules and rituals is Aubrey, the founder and headmaster. Fragile, brilliant, and prone to rage, he is as likely to use his authority to reward students as to punish them. But when Aubrey falls ill, life at the school begins to unravel. Benjamin has no one to rely on but the other students, especially Tidbit, an intriguing but untrustworthy girl with a "self-afflicting personality." More and more, Benjamin thinks about running away from Roaring Orchards—but he feels an equal need to know just what it is he would be leaving behind.
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