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    The Life List of Adrian Mandrick
    The Life List of Adrian Mandrick
    The Life List of Adrian Mandrick
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Life List of Adrian Mandrick

    Written by Chris White

    Narrated by David Aaron Baker

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    H Is for Hawk meets Grief Is the Thing with Feathers in this evocative debut novel about a pill-popping anesthesiologist and avid birder who embarks on a quest to find one of the world's rarest species, allowing nothing to get in his way-until he's forced to confront his obsessions and what they've cost him. Anesthesiologist Adrian Mandrick is filled with contradictory impulses. He wants to be a good husband to his wife and a good father to his children; he wants to forgive his once-beloved mother for the crime she committed and the long lost father who accused her. But when he receives a call from his mother after years of silence, he takes solace in the very pain medication he prescribes, spiraling downward into addiction. His sole source of true comfort is his "life list"-the all-encompassing record of the 863 bird species he's spotted and identified. His is the third longest list in all of North America. But when Henry Lassiter, the legendary birder who held the region's second longest list, dies suddenly, Adrian seizes the opportunity to make his way to the very top. A desperate search for the extremely rare Ivory-billed Woodpecker eventually leaves him stranded in the thick swamplands of Florida's panhandle, where he is forced to confront his past and present failures, to reflect on what his obsessions and addictions have cost him, and to question what is truly important in his life. Combining wry humor and mystery with environmental adventure, The Life List of Adrian Mandrick is a fast-paced, engaging story that heralds the arrival of a new literary talent.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateApr 17, 2018
    ISBN9781501982019
    The Life List of Adrian Mandrick

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    Reviews for The Life List of Adrian Mandrick

    3.5/5

    16 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I'd actually rate this one 3.5, but I'm feeling generous this morning, and I really did enjoy it overall. Chris White is clearly a gifted writer - crisp, vivid, interesting. And I am a birder with a special fondness for woodpeckers, so I was happy to follow Adrian Mandrick along on his quest. Poor Adrian. A shy, anxious boy traumatized by a nasty divorce, he spends his adult life as an anesthesiologist, devoting himself entirely to the avoidance of all pain, both for his patients and for himself, using the wonders of modern chemistry. This eternal search for numbness checks him out of any real connection with his wife, his kids, his family, and leaves him utterly self-absorbed. Only birds can light him up, and even that has become corrupted by a competitive obsession with the (ahem) length of his list. White herself is apparently not a birder, but she has caught the loveliness of the birds themselves and some of the glowing ardor we birders have for them. The chat-group reports from an anonymous novice birder describing his sightings of utterly common birds are charming and touching, and they touch a chord in Adrian too. We trudge along with Adrian as he fumbles and stumbles his way through an ill-advised affair, emotional neglect of his grounded, gifted wife, and a life-threatening illness, to the realization that if a species (plant, animal, bird, or human) cannot adapt to changing circumstances, it is doomed. Towards the end, the plot veers into melodrama territory in a dangerous swamp and the appearance of a mysterious stranger, but the rediscovery of a childhood photograph is truly moving. And it ends on a note of hope... and you know what Emily Dickinson said about hope.
    • 3/5
      Adrian Mandrick is a mess - a doctor who is addicted to pills, estranged from his mother, experiencing relationship problems with his wife, struggling to connect to his children, and all the while obsessing over his life list of birds. He is not a sympathetic character until about the last 80 pages when he finally faces his demons and perhaps, in the end, redeems himself - the ending is kind of ambiguous, so it's hard to say. I enjoyed reading about the birding portion of the story, but the tortuous journey of Mandrick left me fairly unmoved.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful debut novel from the award-winning playwright Chris White. With several plot lines intertwined in the same story this is an interesting read. The main character isn't particularly sympathetic and the story is heavily referenced with ornithology and prescription drug details, but somehow it works. A story of redemption without being cliched.
    • 4/5
      Adrian Madrick's personality traits shine through in his choice of hobby and career. His obsessiveness is revealed in his hobby of birding where his life list holds third place in the national birder society. As an anesthesiologist addicted to opiates, this man will do almost anything to avoid feeling emotional pain. He loves his wife, Stella, and his children and he pops pills to avoid thinking about what dangers they might encounter. He's estranged from his mother, another way to block out emotional pain. His previous close relationship with his mother introduced him to birding when once, as a young boy, they may have spotted an Ivory Billed Woodpecker.His obsession, addiction, and avoidance behaviors start to catch up with him as he makes a series of serious mistakes in his relationship with his wife. As well as ignoring a call from his mother who is reaching out to him. The story follows him through chasing after the sightings of several rare birds while popping pills as a means of avoiding the demands of his real life. After his mother's death, he is lured by a novice birder to Eglin Airforce Base on Florida's panhandle to search for the elusive Ivory Billed Woodpecker. This trip is where he finally confronts the pain and truth of his life.Adrian isn't a particularly likable character mostly because his behavior is consistently that of an addict. Compact and well written, the story is well paced and engaging.