Waiting for Bojangles, Olivier Bourdeaut
Waiting for Bojangles, Olivier Bourdeaut
List: $14.99 | Sale: $10.50
Club: $7.49

Waiting for Bojangles

Author: Olivier Bourdeaut, Regan Kramer

Narrator: Gibson Frazier

Unabridged: 3 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/19/2019


Synopsis

An “oddball fairy tale” (The New York Times)—shortlisted for one of France’s highest literary prizes—a dark, funny, and wholly charming novel about a young boy and his eccentric family, who grapple with the realities of mental illness in unique and whimsical ways.

A young boy lives with his madcap parents, Louise and George, and an exotic bird in a Parisian apartment, where the unopened mail rises in a tower by the door and his parents dance each night to Nina Simone’s mellifluous classic “Mister Bojangles.” As his mother, mesmerizing and unpredictable, descends deeper into her own mind, it is up to the boy and his father to keep her safe—and, when that fails, happy. Fleeing Paris for a country home in Spain, they come to understand that some of the most radiant people bear the heaviest burdens.

Told from the perspective of a young boy who idolizes his parents—and from George’s journals, detailing his epic love story with his wife—Waiting for Bojangles is a “lighthearted and yet sorrowful tale” (San Francisco Chronicle) that will stay with you long after the final page.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Angela M on April 03, 2019

Eccentric is a word describing this family from the book blurb, but that is to say the least - that is not the half of it. It’s fun and funny, actually zany, sweet and endearing, something different and it’s really very sad. Yet, this is a story filled with so much love and that is overwhelmingly th......more

Goodreads review by Jaline on May 07, 2019

Poetry is a fascinating language. Iamb, iambic, trochee, ionic, pyrrhic, spondee, masculine rhymes, feminine rhymes, irregular rhymes; there are beats and measures and rhythms to poetry. This book is and is not poetry; it does and does not have specific measures or rhythms throughout. It most definit......more

Goodreads review by Karen on March 04, 2019

What a wonderfully crazy and delightful family that is encountered here, a couple and their young son. A couple madly in love, with a touch of crazy..a real mess unfolds in a most charming yet sad way, as mental illness takes over. I really enjoyed this story! I think you will too! Thank you to Netgal......more

Goodreads review by Hamisoitil on February 08, 2016

En attendant Bojangles est une belle claque à tous les niveaux. J'ai tout simplement dévoré ce roman en une journée ; tellement addictif. D'une légèreté incroyable avec une plume fluide mais surtout magnifique. Je suis trop fan. En attendant Bojangles, c'est l'histoire d'une famille hors du commun don......more


Quotes

“Spirited and graciously zany, Waiting for Bojangles is a passionate love story told through the eyes of a child.”

“The novel is written in partial rhyme… [and] the singsong prose adds to the madcap nature of this lighthearted and yet sorrowful tale.”

“This fanciful love story, fraught with sadness, is a sweet meditation on the more unorthodox gifts that parents leave the children they cherish.”

“A charming tale that revels in colorful detail and language and a heart-rending depiction of the brutal march of mental illness… A unique, evocative debut.”

“At once delightfully whimsical and hugely touching.”

“A very well written story, with a touch of craziness, an awesome rhythm and a libertine use of words. I loved the book, I loved the subject. A wonderful mix of reality and invention. What a terrific book.”

“Bourdeaut tells the story with incredible ease, without falling into the ‘feel good’ trap.”

“A worthy heir of a tradition that includes authors such as Queneau, Prévert and Romain Gary.”

“In this novel, fantasy reigns supreme. The author plunges us into a delightful, joyful, and witty mess.”

Waiting for Bojangles reads like the love between the family: delightful and overwhelming.”