A Bad Man

By: Stanley Elkin

Narrated by: Anthony Haden Salerno

Breaking the law in a foolhardy attempt to accommodate his customers, unscrupulous department store owner Leo Feldman finds himself in jail and at the mercy of the warden, who tries to break Leo of his determination to stay bad.

©2010 Stanley Elkin (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

A Bad Book...

First I want to say that the narrator does a terrific job of capturing all of the nuance of the material. The author is definitely expounding on his feelings about consumerism, the penal system and maybe being a Jew in America, but the method is very bizarre and Kafka-esque in the picture it paints. There are some comical moments and some thoughtful commentary, but overall this book is disjointed and as ill-fitting as one of Leonard Feldman's prison suits. From Chapter 12 to Chapter 13 it feels like there is some missing material. One minute Leo is sleeping in an electric chair in the warden's basement, and the next, he is sitting in an auditorium listening to the warden give an evangelical speech on joys of conformation. If this was done on purpose, I'm afraid the meaning was lost on me.