Audiobook5 hours
Diablerie: A Novel
Written by Walter Mosley
Narrated by Richard Allen
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
3/5
()
About this audiobook
In this icy noir from a master of American fiction, the darkest secrets are the ones we keep hidden from ourselves.
Ben Dibbuk has a good job, an accomplished wife, a bright college-age daughter, and a patient young mistress. Even as he goes through the motions of everyday life, however, inside he feels nothing. The explanation for this emotional void lies in the years he spent as a blacked-out drunk before pulling his life together-years in which he knows he committed acts he doesn't remember. Then a woman from his past turns up at a gala for his wife's new gig at a magazine called Diablerie and makes it clear that she remembers something he doesn't. Their encounter sets wheels in motion that will propel Dibbuk toward new knowledge and perhaps the chance to feel again. With the same erotic force as Killing Johnny Fry but grounded in a far darker vision of human nature, Diablerie is a transfixing new novel from one of our most powerful writers.
Ben Dibbuk has a good job, an accomplished wife, a bright college-age daughter, and a patient young mistress. Even as he goes through the motions of everyday life, however, inside he feels nothing. The explanation for this emotional void lies in the years he spent as a blacked-out drunk before pulling his life together-years in which he knows he committed acts he doesn't remember. Then a woman from his past turns up at a gala for his wife's new gig at a magazine called Diablerie and makes it clear that she remembers something he doesn't. Their encounter sets wheels in motion that will propel Dibbuk toward new knowledge and perhaps the chance to feel again. With the same erotic force as Killing Johnny Fry but grounded in a far darker vision of human nature, Diablerie is a transfixing new novel from one of our most powerful writers.
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Reviews for Diablerie
Rating: 3.2352941441176473 out of 5 stars
3/5
68 ratings11 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very suspenseful. Never new what was coming kept me listening till the end
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Meh. I read the blurb, and it sounded so good. Right off the bat, I hated the main character. I could not identify with him, and he seemed so frigid and an all around jerk. But I pressed forward, wanting to know what was going on. There was a lot of sex, some of which I thought did not really need to be in the book. The whole lead of the book is "did he or didn't he?" and Mosely leads you on to wonder if this main character (Ben) is sick in the head, or just gets turned on by "taboo" things. Diablerie is shallow. All of the characters are flat, and when the author made an attempt to explain why Ben is the way he is, it is hard to even find an ounce of sympathy. On top of it all, most of the characterd are broken and dead inside, desperate for love, and even though it should be a feeling most people can relate to, it is just too difficult to connect with anyone in the book. Very disappointing.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Meh. I read the blurb, and it sounded so good. Right off the bat, I hated the main character. I could not identify with him, and he seemed so frigid and an all around jerk. But I pressed forward, wanting to know what was going on. There was a lot of sex, some of which I thought did not really need to be in the book. The whole lead of the book is "did he or didn't he?" and Mosely leads you on to wonder if this main character (Ben) is sick in the head, or just gets turned on by "taboo" things. Diablerie is shallow. All of the characters are flat, and when the author made an attempt to explain why Ben is the way he is, it is hard to even find an ounce of sympathy. On top of it all, most of the characterd are broken and dead inside, desperate for love, and even though it should be a feeling most people can relate to, it is just too difficult to connect with anyone in the book. Very disappointing.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ben Dibbuk is a middle aged computer programer with a wife, daughter and mistress. He also has an alcoholic past which comes back to haunt him when an woman he meets claims to know him and accuses him of a murder he can't remember, but fears he may have committed. The personal stories and relationships of the characters are deftly woven into the plot and the writing moves along gracefully.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not the usual Walter Mosley. Pretty light reading. Based on the build up, I expected a better ending. I was into it because I couldn't identify with the main character. I kept trying to figure out what was up with him. Glad the book was short.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Walter Mosley, who is most famous for his Easy Rawlins mysteries, has written a modern, icy, noir novel. The victim is a nondescript, dispassionate computer programmer who's past life as a violent alcoholic has caught up with him in the form of a woman who witnessed him murder a rival lover. Or did she? This short (180 pages) had me up all night; alas, the ending was not satisfying or typical for this genre.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I have to agree with a fellow reviewer of this book. Absolutely the worst book I've ever read. What a waste of paper and ink. Ridiculous, shallow, boring, with some sex thrown in on about every page. I have to wonder why the author bothered. I hope no one spends money on this trash. Pointless and just plain weird. This guy has written best sellers? He must have been smoking crack while writing this one.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Very disappointed in this book. I've read many other books by this author and found this one lacking in many areas. The characters were flat -- I did not have feelings for any of them. I'm not one to mind sex in a book as long as it has something to do with the story. The constant sex in this book makes me think all the characters were on viagra and the acts were more sexual abuse than acts of love.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An excellent and quick read! I haven't read anything by Mosley before but I intend to read more of his books in the future.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Although not as good as his Easy Rawlins series, Diablerie is still a compelling read true to Mosley’s smart writing and complex characters. Through the main character of Ben Dibbuk, Mosley yet again exploits the dark side of human nature by taking us on a journey through Dibbuk’s past as he tries to uncover a deep, buried secret in which he may be a murderer. This is a short (only 180 pages), daring and intense novel where Mosley mixes crime fiction, human psychology and even a bit of pornography.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is a quick read, but mostly just b/c of page number. It seemed to be the ramblings of a man losing his mind and I found myself bored at times.We know that this man had drunken blackouts from the beginning. It doesn't change. There really was not much suspense.