The View From Mount Joy

What begins as a high school boy's endearing reflections on Midwestern life in the 1970s meanders into a survey of his life. Robertson Dean's deep, resonant voice is ideally suited to this first-person account by Joe, a typical teenager interested in hockey, music, and girls. Dean does a fine job with character voices of all types. The weakness in this novel is what it becomes after Joe reaches adulthood--a collection of minor moments examined minutely while larger issues are left unexplored. The fun-loving Joe of youth becomes an unrecognizably sentimental middle-aged man who agonizes over every decision. In spite of the uneven narrative, Dean holds the listener's attention with his good humor and mild delivery. L.B.F. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

May 7, 2007
L
andvik's latest light drama opens as Joe Andreson transfers into a Minneapolis high school as a class of '72 senior. Like everyone else, Joe has a major thing for head cheerleader Kristi Casey—a version of Reese Witherspoon's character in Election
. Joe gets some action, but is estranged from Kristi by graduation. As the years pass, and they stay in touch sporadically, Joe, who narrates, can't quite let go of his infatuation. He becomes an innovative grocer, still unmarried at mid-book, and Kristi transforms into a Bible-thumping radio/televangelist. Joe builds solid relationships with his mother and her new husband, and reconnects with high school friend Darva Pratt (who returns to town with her daughter, Flora), while Kristi sets her sights on the White House. Landvik (Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons
) deftly mixes humor and pathos in Kristi's ditzy On the Air with God
radio show, starkly contrasted by her quietly powerful portrait of Joe, a man with real family values.

December 24, 2007
Narrator Robertson Dean strikes the perfect note in the first-person role of Joe, a high school hockey star whose life throws him several unexpected curveballs that land him in a very different place from where he'd always imagined. While his life didn't turn out as planned, he gradually realizes that maybe he's exactly where he's supposed to be. As the adult Joe looking back over his life, Dean tells the story in a pitch-perfect ironic, self-deprecating tone that conveys simultaneously Joe's complex mix of vulnerability, cynicism and hope. Dean doesn't create actual character voices, but he conveys the personalities and emotions so well that the listener is completely drawn into the story. He's particularly good at popular, manipulative Kristi, a high school cheerleader turned radio evangelist and Joe's on-again, off-again lover. The abridgment of this engaging and believable story is seamless. Simultaneous release with the Ballantine hardcover (Reviews, May 7).