Mobility Audiobook By Lydia Kiesling cover art

Mobility

A Novel

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Mobility

By: Lydia Kiesling
Narrated by: Kelli Tager
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A propulsive novel about class, power, politics, and desire by the celebrated author of The Golden State.

The year is 1998, the End of History. The Soviet Union is dissolved, the Cold War is over, and Bunny Glenn is an American teenager in Azerbaijan with her Foreign Service family. Through Bunny’s eyes we watch global interests flock to the former Soviet Union during the rush for Caspian oil and pipeline access, hear rumbles of the expansion of the American security state and the buildup to the War on Terror. We follow Bunny from adolescence to middle age—from Azerbaijan to America—as the entwined idols of capitalism and ambition lead her to a career in the oil industry, and eventually back to the scene of her youth, where familiar figures reappear in an era of political and climate breakdown.

Both geopolitical exploration and domestic coming-of-age novel, Mobilityis a propulsive and challenging story about class, power, politics, and desire told through the life of one woman—her social milieu, her romances, her unarticulated wants. Mobility deftly explores American forms of complicity and inertia, moving between the local and the global, the personal and the political, and using fiction’s power to illuminate the way a life is shaped by its context. Coming of Age Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Political Women's Fiction World Literature Soviet Union
Intricate Details • Well-told Blend • Engaging Reading • Relatable Protagonist • Timely Tale • Worthy Read

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Was an interesting story about a girl becoming a woman with an international background. Interesting kind of slice of the world.

Interesting international story

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At first I thought I'd download a YA novel with all the details of make up and fashion with angst of a of a teenage, but stuck with it and enjoyed the last half much more.

Enjoyable

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This story is interesting but not that compelling. Spoiled teenage girl who is not the least bit interesting grows up to be ambitious and eventually successful adult who finally turns her back on a diabolical business to become a surprisingly decent person and mother.

Mobility

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Regarding the reader’s performance, she had the challenge of lots of accents and names and places from around the world. She got a number of them right but glaringly missed on a few place name pronunciations. Those were a distraction from an otherwise engaging reading.

Having no talent for identifying types of makeup, hair cuts, fashion designers and statement pieces, I learned a lot about the feminine world I’ve never wanted to immerse myself in. I’m just a mascara and lip balm gal. Bunny’s focus on the superficial is a clever character trait that helps move the plot and actually deepens the theme of the novel.

Good Cautious Tale

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… and least of all because the protagonist’s name is Bunny. I’m really grateful for this telling of the current state of the world, and its inevitable forecasting. For a while (ok, most of the book), Mobility feels like a crash course in the history of the oil and “energy” industries from the point of view of a vapid, I even found myself thinking “stupid”, and maligned woman throughout the course of her life. I found with a shattering realization that I am basically Bunny, trapped in consumerism and selectively uninformed. This ended up being a very emotional piece for me in spite of my initial annoyed appraisal, and having read it I feel, in a way, like I’ve been unplugged from the Matrix.

Really Sent Me Down the Rabbit Hole

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