Darlene's Book Nook: #Audiobook #Review: 4 out of 5 stars for Deliverance by James Dickey #JamesDickey @audible

Friday, November 16, 2018

#Audiobook #Review: 4 out of 5 stars for Deliverance by James Dickey #JamesDickey @audible_com

TITLE: Deliverance

AUTHOR: James Dickey

NARRATOR: Will Patton

PUBLISHER: Audible, Inc.

PUBLICATION DATE: October 31, 2011 (first published 1970)

FORMAT: Unabridged audiobook

LENGTH: 7 hrs and 33 mins

GENRE: Classics, Thriller, Adventure

ASIN: B0061HS5L2

The setting is the Georgia wilderness, where the state's most remote white-water river awaits. In the thundering froth of that river, in its echoing stone canyons, four men on a canoe trip discover a freedom and exhilaration beyond compare. And then, in a moment of horror, the adventure turns into a struggle for survival as one man becomes a human hunter who is offered his own harrowing deliverance.

This classic tale is vividly read by movie and TV star and Audie Award-winning narrator Will Patton.

MY REVIEW:

Even people who haven't read Deliverance or watched the movie probably know about that one infamous scene...yeah, you know the one that I'm talking about! I've never seen the movie, and I didn't particularly care to read the book because of what I had heard. However, when I saw this audiobook featured as an Audible Daily Deal, I couldn't resist buying it. I'm so glad that I took a chance on it! This classic is far better than I expected.

Ed Gentry and his three buddies go on a hunting/canoeing trip in a remote area of Georgia. Two of the men, Bobby and Drew, are complete novices and have no clue what they are doing so Ed pairs up with Bobby and Drew is paired up with Lewis. On the second day into their adventure, Ed and Bobby meet up with a couple of hillbillies armed with a shotgun. After Ed is secured to a tree, one of the hicks rapes Bobby at gunpoint. Just as the other man is about to force Ed to perform oral sex on him, he is shot in the chest with an arrow. The sodomizer takes off into the woods as Lewis and Drew come to Ed's rescue. Now the men are faced with a dilemma because they've killed someone and now the other man is on the loose. They debate how to handle the situation: If they turn in the body, then they will have to explain what happened in the woods; alternatively, they can bury the body and hope that it isn't found. They decide to the the latter, but they seem to have forgotten one crucial bit of information which is that the other hillbilly is still loose out there and does not intend for any of the men to get away with murder.

I nearly finished the entire audiobook in one stretch while painting. This was a fast-paced thriller, and I enjoyed it so much more than I thought that I would.

Memorable quote:

"I bet you can squeal like a pig!"

Will Patton's narration was very good, and I thought that he was a good fit for the characters.

Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds look so young in the 1972 film adaptation. The movie trailer looks more hillbilly-ish than I thought the book was. Check it out: