Stephen Florida

By: Gabe Habash

Narrated by: Will Damron

Like Foxcatcher meets The Art of Fielding, Stephen Florida follows a college wrestler in his senior season, when every practice, every match, is a step closer to greatness and a step further from sanity. Profane, manic, and tipping into the uncanny, Stephen Florida a story of loneliness, obsession, and the drive to leave a mark.

©2017 Gabe Habash (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Stephen Florida is 2017's Fight Club

(My review here varies slightly from its original on the audible.com website.)

Stephen Florida reminds me of: Rocky Balboa, Timothy Leary and Donnie Darko. He notices everything. He understands his place in the world, adapts, survives, thrives.
Will Damron, the audiobook's narrator, gives a powerful reading: suspenseful at game time and introspective during injury and exploration.
The audiobook helps bring out the "sympathetic narrative" that may be lost when reading the text alone.
Stephen Florida learned early in life where and how to find an arena for his "madness." (Call it youthful vigor.) He gives me hope because I have known people just like him. Rural people. College kids. Single-minded survivors. He's no "Less than Zero" cynic. He's brave and courageous.

If you liked "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk than "Stephen Florida" is sure to have you laughing, crying and cheering aloud all at once.

This is my favorite book.

Stephen is an amazing character. A true wild boy and the presentation of him is genius.

Art.

Spectacular. I couldn't stop listening.

A compelling and disturbing listen that I can't recommend enough. The titular character is one of the more intriguing (unhinged, dislikable, yet fascinating) I've encountered in literature. The wrestling descriptions were spot on, and the storyline not predictable.

Dwight Schrute/Wrestling/Ayn Rand

I need to think and research more to pinpoint some of the book’s deeper meanings, but having just finished, Gabe Habash seems to have arrived at an interesting confluence of The Office’s Dwight Schrute meets Ayn Rand Fountainhead meets wrestling mentality.
The voice actor even sounds like Schrute.

One of my favorites!

It's an awesome story peppered with incredible one-liners. I find it existentially satisfying and surprisingly philosophical.