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In the run-up to the 2016 election, Owen Callahan, an aspiring writer, moves back to Kentucky to live with his Trump-supporting uncle and grandfather. Eager to clean up his act after wasting time and potential in his early twenties, he takes a job as a groundskeeper at a small local college, in exchange for which he is permitted to take a writing course.
Here he meets Alma Hazdic, a writer in residence who seems to have everything that Owen lacks—a prestigious position, an Ivy League education, success as a writer. They begin a secret relationship, and as they grow closer, Alma—who comes from a liberal family of Bosnian immigrants—struggles to understand Owen’s fraught relationship with family and home.
Exquisitely written; expertly crafted; dazzling in its precision, restraint, and depth of feeling, Groundskeeping is a novel of haunting power and grace from a prodigiously gifted young writer.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
March 1, 2022 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593552025
- File size: 368703 KB
- Duration: 12:48:07
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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January 3, 2022
Cole’s nimble debut combines elements of Southern fiction, the campus novel, and youthful romance. Twenty-eight-year-old Owen Callahan, an aspiring writer, returns to his native Kentucky in 2016 after being semi-homeless in Colorado. He takes a job as a groundskeeper at Ashby College, where he audits a writing workshop and meets Alma Hadzics, the daughter of Bosnian immigrants. Alma has already published a book of short stories and is at Ashby on a fellowship. Alma has a sort of boyfriend, and she and Owen drift into a relationship that slowly becomes more serious. Inevitably, he introduces her to his dysfunctional family and she introduces him to her prosperous mother and father. Owen’s uncle Cort is a MAGA-lover, and Alma’s parents always have MSNBC on. In the end, it’s not politics that threatens to derail Owen and Alma’s romance but fealty to their own professional aspirations as Owen’s literary career begins to take off. Cole fills his novel with a gallery of fascinating supporting characters such as Owen’s conspiracy theorist coworker Rando; Owen’s grandfather, a WWII vet who keeps a VHS collection of classic westerns; and Alma’s Springsteen-loving father. And though Owen makes some questionable choices, he and Alma make for an odd couple worth rooting for. In the end, this is the strongest story about young writers in love since Andrew Martin’s Early Work. -
Love and its complexities--familial, romantic, geographical--are the backbone of this excellent audiobook. As Owen leads us through his time as groundskeeper at a Kentucky college, his days are punctuated by his budding romance with visiting author Alma and his entry into the creative writing program. Narrator Michael Crouch provides distinct vocal shifts as he portrays entire personalities with his thoughtful character development. He expertly renders secondary characters like Pop and Rando, and his narrative style is approachable throughout. Heartfelt moments are balanced with hilarious ones, and Crouch does not miss a beat. The pace and production are stellar, and the composition of the work is beautifully suited to the audio format. L.B.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine -
June 1, 2022
Returning to his hometown in Kentucky, Owen Callahan lands a job working days as a groundskeeper for a private college and sleeps at night in the basement of his grandfather's house. A benefit is he can take a writing class; he wants to get his life back on track to become a writer. He meets Alma, another aspiring writer, at a party. They are attracted to each other, finally taking their relationship to the next step of meeting the families where opposing histories of family, class, religion, politics, privilege, and poverty poke holes in their relationship, causing the two young lovers to drift apart. Michael Crouch reads each part of this debut with great skill. Owen, who has the slightest of northern Kentucky accents, is distinctive compared with his family members who never left the area, retaining a thicker regional sound. Crouch mirrors similar voicings for Harvard grad and well-bred Alma and her parents, both highly educated immigrants from Bosnia whose English sounds learned. VERDICT Their union is "gone with the wind" when two lovers realize that the things they hold dearest don't align in this fascinating audio production of Cole's debut novel.--Stephanie Bange
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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