American Meteor, Norman Lock
American Meteor, Norman Lock
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American Meteor

Author: Norman Lock

Narrator: Mark Bramhall

Unabridged: 6 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/09/2015

Synopsis

In this panoramic tale of manifest destiny, Stephen Moran comes of age with the young country that he crosses on the Union Pacific, just as the railroad unites the continent. Propelled westward from his Brooklyn neighborhood and the killing fields of the Civil War to the Battle of Little Big Horn, he befriends Walt Whitman, becomes a bugler on President Lincoln’s funeral train, apprentices with frontier photographer William Henry Jackson, and stalks General George Custer. When he comes face-to-face with Crazy Horse, his life will be spared but his dreams haunted for the rest of his days.By turns elegiac and comic, American Meteor is a novel of adventure, ideas, and mourning: a unique vision of America’s fabulous and murderous history.

About Norman Lock

Norman Lock is the award-winning author of novels, short fiction, and poetry, as well as stage, radio, and screenplays. He has won the Dactyl Foundation Literary Fiction Award, the Paris Review’s Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, and writing fellowships from the New Jersey Council on the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Lock’s The Boy in His Winter is also available from Blackstone Audio.

About Mark Bramhall

Mark Bramhall has won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration, more than thirty AudioFile Earphones Awards, and has repeatedly been named by AudioFile magazine and Publishers Weekly among their “Best Voices of the Year.” He is also an award-winning actor whose acting credits include off-Broadway, regional, and many Los Angeles venues as well as television, animation, and feature films. He has taught and directed at the American Academy of Dramatic Art.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jaclyn

This slim book is spare and powerful, with our protagonist finding himself around major historical figures and events over and over again. It starts with Moran as a cynical 16-year-old Union bugler. He’s wounded because he picked up a gun that subsequently misfired and took out his eye. His–err, cre......more

Goodreads review by Zach

Some beautifully written historical fiction. The Custer section is too short but the Lincoln section is lovely......more

Goodreads review by James (JD)

I love historical novels--and I love reading about the American West even more, but this book left me frustrated. In too many places were anachronisms that just couldn't be overlooked by this reader. Essentially the book uses the fictional character of Stephen Moran to connect dots linking Abraham Li......more

Goodreads review by Jay

Like “Forest Gump”, sans chocolate. A war, in this case the Civil War, introduces our main character, Stephen Moran. As a young bugler injured, he makes up a story of bravery and passes it on to Walt Whitman, who connects him with US Grant, the deceased President Lincoln, and so one to other famous......more

Quotes

“[A] pithy, compact, beautifully conducted version of the American Dream, from its portrait of the young wounded soldier in the beginning to its powerful rendering of Crazy Horse’s prophecy for life on earth at the end.” NPR

“Like the western sky, American Meteor stretches to the horizon in all directions…A lovely panorama to behold.” New York Journal of Books

“[American Meteor] is not only a history lesson but also a reading pleasure.” Historical Novels Review

“A spiritual treatise that forces its readers to examine their own role in history’s unceasing march forward [and] casts new and lyrical light on our nation’s violent past.” Shelf Awareness for Readers (starred review)

“This feels like a campfire tale, an old-fashioned yarn full of rich historical detail about hard-earned lessons.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Rather like Thomas Berger’s Little Big Man…[Lock] writes beautifully, with many subtle, complex insights.” Booklist

“Memorably encompasses grand themes and notions of transcendence without ever losing sight of the grit and moral horrors present in the period.” Kirkus Reviews

“Narrator Mark Bramhall employs a slightly gravelly tone for world-weary Stephen Moran…Bramhall’s versatility in voicing dialogue shines as he portrays a diverse group of people across a range of ages and ethnicities…Bramhall’s perfect pacing and understated drama enliven Moran’s adventures.” AudioFile

Awards

  • Publishers Weekly Best Book
  • Library Journal Editor’s Pick
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