Ivyland

A Novel

By: Miles Klee

Narrated by: Christa Lewis

It's spring in Ivyland... Debut novelist Miles Klee takes a landscape of drugs, decay, loss and, perhaps, hope, and manages to make the ensemble wryly funny: something only a few notable contemporaries such as Jeff Vandermeer and Michael Chabon have been able to do. Post-urban New Jersey is instantly recognizable in this interlinked series of short vignettes... and Lev's living room is puddles of water and sun, and a bunch of those furry caterpillars are hauling themselves from surface to surface.

Populated by a bumbling, murderous citizenry of corrupt cops, innocents, ravenous addicts, lovesick geniuses, and cynical adventurers, Ivyland operates in the shadow of a giant pharmaceutical corporation that thrives on people's weaknesses... and may have an even more sinister agenda. It's our world, only a bit more extreme, and lovingly, precisely depicted with the adept skills native to a master of dark humor.

©2011 Miles Klee (P)2013 Audible Inc.

Rife with intriguing characters and rich storytelling

Miles Klee’s Ivyland is an engrossing novel about residents of New Jersey living under a pharmaceutical regime and the drug they’ve produced along with its deleterious societal effects. The storyline jumps around quite a lot and I think I may need a Cliff’s notes version to understand all of the characters relationships with each other, but the main heart of the novel are the two characters of Henry and Aiden, and I think the author does a wonderful job of narrative storytelling with their cross-crossing storylines. There are other characters and their journeys within this depiction of dystopia to explore, but their impact on the reader may vary.

Overall, I would recommend this audible narration as the narrator does a pretty good job of distinguishing between characters, especially as they characters grow and develop later into the story.

Definitely a story that you need to stick with to the end to get a full picture of what Klee was envisioning when he wrote this rich story.

Confusing

I'm not sure why the narrator is a woman when the main characters are men. I found it confusing that the narrator was the same when the main character changed in each chapter.
It was hard to follow.
The writer likes to be vague and do a slow reveal of details which makes it difficult to get into the story.