Mouth to Mouth: Antoine Wilson

Product Information

Arsenault’s life becomes complicated, threatening to divide his family, and he presses Cook for loyalty. It becomes a deadly game.

Stars — What an odd-story indeed. With its short and sharp chapters that leave you wanting more more more, the unnamed character, and audience at the centre of this story is — for me — it’s finest asset though as he acts on our behalf in a quizzical and comical way only to somehow simultaneously also not want us to know quite as much as he does.. fascinating stuff. It’s the kind of writing and prose that you enjoy literally sentence by sentence. Sharp, unnerving and unsettling yet subtle! From where I sat near the gate, I could examine this Jeff Cook closely, in profile. I had all but determined that he wasn’t the Jeff Cook I’d known and was going to turn my attention elsewhere, when he looked in my direction. I knew those high, broad cheekbones and that penetrating gaze. Although the central drama of Mouth to Mouth is between Jeff and Francis (and arguably the narrator), other characters—specifically women—play a major part in the book. In what ways do G, Chloe, Alison, and Astrid affect the trajectory of the plot? How do they each exercise control?Jeff laughed slightly. His demeanor changed, and I expected him to ask if he should have heard of any of my books. Instead, he asked if I’d ever gone under. A] taut, compulsive chamber piece of a novel, which you’ll struggle not to rip through in one sitting… Mouth to Mouth is an elegantly told and supremely gripping tale of serendipity and deception—and delivers a brilliant ending that will leave you guessing about everything that came before.” — Vogue Jeff strolled up, two beers in hand. He put one in front of me, announcing that he’d found a nonalcoholic brew, and that he wasn’t sure if I drank them, but he thought it might make things feel more ceremonial—that was the word he used—for us to catch up over a couple of beers, alcoholic or not, for old times’ sake. We had never drunk together that I could remember, but I let it go. We clinked bottles and sipped, our eyes turning to the plane traffic outside. The narrator turns up at JFK for a flight that is now delayed. There, he runs into an old acquaintance from university called Jeff. Jeff then proceeds to tell him what's happened in his life in the twenty or so years in which they haven't seen each other, beginning with how he saved the life of a drowning man and this action sent his life spiralling off in a direction he never predicted (or did he?).

Now that we've finished all that, I just found myself wondering what the point was when it was all over. Not what was the point of the book, that was quite clear and as I mentioned it was effectively made. But why tell this story when it has, frankly, been told so many times already? I was in the mood for something different but I didn't expect this short audiobook to be as good as it was! It starts slow, meanders for a while, and then it takes you to a surprise ending. I did not see that one coming!

Table of Contents

Joan Didion, who died Thursday, left a seismic impact on the literary world and her home state of California. Francis Arsenault Fine Arts was located in Beverly Hills, Jeff recounted wanting to see the stranger whose life he saved. "I didn't want it to seem like I had come to collect anything...You don't save someone's life to collect a reward." If that be the case, why accept a job at the gallery and start to become indispensable to Francis?