The Great Unexpected
By: Dan Mooney / Narrated By: Aidan Kelly
Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
An old trope? Yeh, but oh my good golly gosh: The laughter! The tears! The drop-dead GORGEOUS storytelling!!!
I admit it. I’m a sucker for the whole Elderly Person, Shut Down By Life’s Hard Knocks And Loneliness, Finds Purpose, And Is Loved Back To Life trope. There is nothing so precious, so wondrous as that, the true unfoldment of character.
But good gosh, The Great Unexpected was done so well, was crafted so brilliantly by author Dan Mooney, that I was zipping through all 10 1/2-hours, feeling time and a wonderful life fly by. And no, I was NOT listening at m’ usual x1.5 speed; it was just soooo gorgeously wrought, so perfectly narrated, that I stuck to x1.2, savoring every little bit of it. Each character. Every situation. All sentences.
From the get-go, veteran narrator, Uber-glorious performer, Aidan Kelly is just top-notch. There are a plethora of well-fleshed-out characters, and their warmth, their charm, are brought fully to life by him. Whether it was our curmudgeonly Hero, Joel, grumbling and challenging The Powers That Be, or it was Frank, sophisticated fop, full of life, breathing love and joy into people, into situations, Kelly managed it all. There were some rapid-fire exchanges between Joel and Frank, some hiLARious back-and-forth banter, and Kelly never ever dropped his tones, his voices for each. Perfectly distinguishable, Joel and Frank’s conversations are a standout. Bravo to Kelly; simply Well Done!!!
It’s been years since Joel’s wife, Lucy, died. And now, he’s by himself, alone in a nursing home, sharing a room with a comatose man. When this roommate dies suddenly, Joel’s despondency grows even greater. Comatose or not, at least he was someone to talk to, someone who didn’t tell him where to go, what to do, when to shit, when to take his meds. It’s devastating and the last straw, and Joel envisions the Only Way Out: Escape by Suicide.
That’s when aging ex-actor, a man of many foppish scarves, bursts onto the scene, and becomes Joel’s roommate. Tho’ Joel initially detests Frank and his vivacious and theatrical ways, Frank comes to Joel’s rescue during a Joel-initiated standoff, and the two begin what will be one of the most beautiful friendships ever written, ever performed.
The rest of the story is of Frank inspiring Joel to think more creatively about his upcoming suicide. To make a bold statement, to make his death artistic, memorable, and to give both his Life and Death Meaning. There are shenanigans galore, escapes for pub-crawls, and some truly extraordinary character development as Joel and Frank begin finding Love and Meaning, begin finding Healing and Solace respectively. This is a joyful book, despite how devastating life was for the two, IS for the two.
This was a Big Sis choice for listening, for discussion. And, needless to say, it was a true Fave for both of us, making us laugh, making us cry, surprising and delighting us as the pair of men found their way to friendship and peace.
Feel like laughing? Feel like feeling a lump form in your throat, soon to dissolve as tears roll down your cheeks? In other words:
Do you feel like Feeling? Go for it, all the feels, the real deal. This story of Life lived to its fullest leaves a mark…
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