Lean on Pete movie tie-in audiobook

There are books that I can’t really fully explain in terms of why they were so enjoyable or had such an impact. ‘Lean On Pete’ is one of them. I’m going to try and unpick that for myself here in this review.The work seems really simple in the structure as a whole and in the clean style of writing, yet the impact it had on me was far more powerful than this simplicity might normally allow.Before the novel begins, there’s a quote from John Steinbeck:‘It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth.’I mention this because it has been perfectly selected for a book that reflects something of that tone all the way through.Charley Thompson has grown up in a single-parent family with his father at the helm. His father, a loving and kind one in many ways, is unreliable, unpredictable and liable to leave Charlie for days on end to fend for himself. This leaves Charley with the TV and the movie screen for company, cans of food to eat and a desire to run and keep fit so that he can keep alive his hopes of playing football. Football seems to allow Charley to feel part of something bigger than himself. To provide him with a family that works together. It’s important.This immediately resonates and creates emotional waves. A human adults need sex, shelter and food to exist and surely human children need food, shelter, companionship and nurturing to survive; because Charley has been stripped of some of these, it’s impossible not to feel for him from the outset.As he moves through the days, he stumbles into a job at the track working for a shady trainer and his horses. Of the horses, it’s Lean On Pete who captures Charley’s affections and it’s not long before Charley and Pete take off on a trip across country to Wyoming where there might at last be a haven for them.I really don’t want to give away anything about the story in the hope that you’ll go and find out for yourself. I think you’ll thoroughly enjoy it, whoever you are.Rolled up in this adventure are many scenes that would work as self-contained pieces. When put together, there’s a real sense of movement and hugely conflicting measures of hope and despair; it’s that ever-tipping balance between these two that offers the story its energy and had me completely captured as a reader. Like that quote in the beginning suggests, there’s good and bad in everyone and there’s enough of the latter to keep the species going. People react to Charley and his situation in many ways. There are the randomly generous, the needy, those who switch from generosity to bitterness without warning, the slippery and the aggressive. All of them are human and many of them are living in situations that all-too-often the media and those in power either have forgotten about or are busily sweeping under the carpet.Charley is no exception to the rule of good and bad. He’s a survivor, whether he knows it or not. He’s learned enough from his father and from his time surviving alone to get by. In order to do so, he has to turn to crime and violence. One of the things I loved about the piece is how much I excused all of these acts in Charley because of his needs, whether to eat or to defend himself. That shows the power of the writing for me. There’s also one moment when he’s acting purely out of pride and from anger and I know that if I’d been in his position I’d have done the same, so I was still on side even then. In fact, the blur between good and bad goes far enough to remind that these are relative terms in themselves and will be defined differently by every nation, culture and individual (and that’s impressive in a book).Half way through, I started to worry for the ending. I was hoping all the way that everything would finish with a scent of roses and Charley and Lean On Pete would live forever on the Big Rock Candy Mountain. That tore me. Much as I wanted it to be so, I couldn’t bear the idea that such an epic book might turn out to be a mushy fairy story. The hard edges of life and of Charley’s existence, even though they’d been handled with subtlety and dexterity, couldn’t allow for such a shiny finish. Thankfully, and it can’t have been an easy job, Vlautin’s denouement is superb, capturing something of the bitter sweet conflict of the whole book. I also had a wonderful occurrence with this story that doesn’t happen often. I’d be walking in the countryside or washing or cooking and I’d catch myself wondering how Pete and Charley were doing. I’d picture them on the road, getting by and enjoy the moments of their safety while worrying for them all the while.To summarise, I loved the book and am extremely grateful to the friend who recommended it for doing so. It has a real power and a stunning sense of reality that makes me want to be more observant and more generous in the world.I’ve also bought the previous 2 novels by Vlautin and I’ll be picking up the next as soon as it’s out early next year.Tremendous.

Ik was heel erg onder de indruk van Laat me niet vallen en wilde meer lezen van deze auteur. De achterflappen van mijn andere boeken waren veelbelovend - het gaf eenzelfde sfeer weer.Noordwaarts (met soundtrackcd, lijkt me een bijzondere ervaring) stond nog ongelezen in de kast, maar omdat ik binnenkort naar de verfilming van dit boek ga, toch dit boek maar als eerste opgepakt. Want ik wil altijd eerst het boek lezen voordat ik de film zie :)En Vlautin doet het inderdaad weer: een klein, treurig leven klein en mooi omschrijven. Ik vind het knap hoe Charley zich staande houdt en bij zijn principes blijft en zich door vanalles heen slaat. De omschrijving welke mental support je van een dier in je omgeving kunt hebben is ook erg mooi en erg sterk.Gewoon weer echt een heel goed verhaal dat je bijblijft. Wel vind ik de en toen en toen en toen schrijfstijl net wat minder mooi, maar het past wel weer bij de eenvoud en treurigheid van het leven van Charley. Een poëtische schrijfstijl zou misschien juist weer uit de toon vallen..Ik vind trouwens de eerdere Nederlandse titel, De ruwe weg, mooier passen bij het verhaal. Hoewel deze titel ook een mooie dubbele betekenis heeft.

I heard Willy Vlautin speak at Live Wire Radio in Portland years ago and have been entranced by his authenticity ever since. So when our book club decided to have the next gathering at the local horse racing venue, this book, set around Portland Meadows, seemed apt.His prose is simple and propulsive. But the emotional weight of what happens on the page is powerful and unsparring. I read LEAN ON PETE in one sitting, could't walk away. Looking forward to talking about it at the track.

Willy Vlautin’s style is calm and clear-eyed. Zero flash. The prose is dry-eyed. The opening lines: “When I woke up that morning it was still pretty early. Summer had just begun and form where I lay in my sleeping bag I could see out the window. There were hardly any clouds and the sky was clear and blue.” The narrator is fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson. He has just moved to Portland to Spokane with his father. they are starting over. They are in a rundown house next to a trailer park. There are promises of getting a barbecue and a dog, but his father starts getting tangled up with the secretary in the front office where he works as fork lift driver. Soon, Charley has no food and no money and his father isn’t coming home. Charley dreams of playing football for the new high school. His speed as a runner helps when it comes time to steal cans of soup from the grocery store. “Lean on Pete” is the name of a horse at the Portland Meadows racetrack. He’s owned by a 70-year-old guy named Del. “He smelled like beer and his eyes were bloodshot and glassy. He had a big gut and was going bald. The hair he did have was mostly gray on the sides and he had it greased back. His right arm was in a cast and he was chewing tobacco.” Del has a flat tire but, with only one arm, needs help.Soon Charley is in the thick in the world of horses and racing—but Del’s world is down and dirty. Del doesn’t give Charley all that he deserves or what he has worked for, but Charley keeps hoping. Life and luck are day-to-day. Drinking never stops. Charley tries hard to find the gears that will kick his life into a smooth ride, but it’s all a grind. Without giving too much away, soon Charley and Lean on Pete are off on their own—running—for many reasons. Keeping them both in fuel and food is a constant challenge. Charley sets a course for a long-lost aunt who lives somewhere in Wyoming. Charley is resourceful. He needs what we all need. He must quickly size up strangers. H must quickly measure risk and reward. But you can only test your luck for so long before the hard world takes its toll.“Lean on Pete” is human and original. Comparisons to Steinbeck and Carver are apt. The ending is about as well-crafted and touching, without giving an ounce away to sentimentality, as any book I’ve read in a long, long time. Willy Vlautin is also lead singer of the band Richmond Fontaine. The guy clearly has talent to burn.

Gorgeous! Absolutely gorgeous!!So far this year I’ve read quite a few books that I’ve loved, but none more than Lean On Pete by Willy Vlautin. It’s so hard to describe, there’s just something so quietly tender and beautiful about it, the way I felt when reading this is the same way I felt when I read Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, it filled my entire being with equal parts happiness and sadness. On the forefront, it looks like a story about a boy and his horse but it’s so much more than that, it’s a story of loss, belonging, love and friendship. Charley is a fantastic character and the way he is written is perfect, it's not often an author has such a great understanding of their characters but what Willy Vlautin has done with the characters in this book is a marvel, and quite admirable.Not only my favourite book I’ve read in 2018 but also now an all-time favourite. I can’t recommend it enough.

Recently I won a pass to see a pre-release screening of Lean On Pete in West Los Angeles (a faithful, excellent adaptation, by the way). I remembered that years ago I had bought the book, which had disappeared into my voluminous TBR piles. I dug it out and finally read it. All I can say is what took me so long? Charley Thompson tells the harrowing story of his attempt to save a broken-down race horse while searching for his long-lost aunt in clear, simple language. Willy Vlautin creates a universe of people (and animals) who are broken by life but still fascinating, in some cases quite sympathetic. This book is one of those quiet gems that finds the drama in everyday people and their struggles.

Featuring a fifteen-year-old boy with a string of hard luck, the new book by Willy Vlautin mines a similar storyline as his first two books and it's just as good. You may think it would be tiring to always write about the depressing lives of people but Willy does it so well, giving his readers a shining thread of hope to hold on to throughout. At times the book had the feel of a classic kid's adventure ala Huck Finn and I admit I did tear up a few times while reading it. The Portland setting at the beginning was cool too.

Review from Badelynge.Willy Vlautin is the frontman of a band called Richmond Fontaine who also writes novels. Lean on Pete is his third such book. It introduces us to Charley Thompson, a 15 year old boy who lives an unsettled life with his dad. Pretty much left to his own devices and uprooted from his previous life in Spokane, Charley tries to make the best of things. He pines for his old home and friends while doing his best to stock a fridge that is as neglected as himself. His dad isn't a bad sort but doesn't make spending time with his son a high priority. Charley just wants a bit of stability in his life. He doesn't get it. Tragedy and bad luck dog the boy's steps from page to page and an already introverted personality starts to slide. The book charts an emotional and fraught journey as Charley takes responsibility for a no-hope race horse called Pete. It's all told in a spare and economical first person, with the eye and imagination of a 15 year old. Is there no hope for Charley? Can he save Pete? There is only one way to find out.This review is from an uncorrected proof.

Med en glasklar och driven prosa trollbinder han mig. Utan metaforer eller abstraktioner, utan psykologisering och snitsiga formuleringar. Han gestaltar rakt upp och ner, osentimentalt utan att väja för det som är brutalt och äckligt. Jag som tror att jag är en läsare som framförallt gillar vackert språk inser när jag läser Vlautin att jag också älskar berättelser. Om de berättas väl. Willy Vlautin gör karaktärer till människor jag aldrig mött och tar mig med till platser jag aldrig varit på. Böcker kan vara otroligt olika, Vlautins skiljer verkligen ut sig ur mängden.Fattigdom, svordomar, hunger, ärr, smuts, bekymmer, missbruk, smärta, damm och alkohol är ingredienser i den fond som vår huvudperson femtonåriga Charley marineras i. Han flyttar runt med sin pappa som tar olika ströjobb, när vi först träffar honom är de i Portland. Här möter Charley ljuset i mörkret; hästen Lean on Pete (me). Och det är så rörande att jag tror jag aldrig kommer att glömma den här läsupplevelsen.Det är en hård och manlig värld som skildras men utan att jag som kvinnlig läsare känner mig negligerad. Författaren lyckas med konststycket att skriva om pålitliga kvinnor på ett realistiskt sätt utan att ens snudda vid något som liknar sexism. Men mest handlar det om utsatthet och ensamhet genom femtonåriga Charley som kämpar sig igenom motgång efter motgång.Charley springer vilket är en praktisk och fysisk syssla som utan att det nämns i ord får mig att känna hopp. Löpningen betyder att pojken har driv, han kan förflytta sig i rummet och kommer väl också kunna förflytta sig från proletariatets botten, hoppas jag.Lean on Pete finns också som film.

This book WRECKED me. So lonely, and sad, and aching. I cried twice. Best book of 2021 so far.

The point-of-view character is Charley Thompson, 15 years old. He is the loneliest, most disadvantaged, bravest, most innocent, ingenious, and eternally hopeful survivor I've come across in literature in a long time. He has something in common with the "Noble Savage" and yet he is not wild. He is amazingly civilized (except for table manners) for all the neglect and disinterest he has suffered. He lived with his dad after his mom--someone named Nancy-- abandoned him as a baby. The relationship between Charley and his dad was precisely drawn--the dad loved his son but was driven by his addictions. (He could cook though, when so inclined.) At his dad's whims, Charley has moved from place to place, sometimes attending school, and knowing only one relative--an aunt somewhere, sometime ago in Wyoming. Arriving in Portland, Charley is left to his own pursuits, is often hungry, without money, always lonely. Running helps him cope. He meets a shifty horse owner at the Portland Meadows racetrack and takes a job, meets a horse--Lean on Pete-- who eventually becomes Charley's substitute family. Charley witnesses a brutal attack on his dad, and after the dad dies, Charley is homeless and moves in to a tack room at the racetrack, spends happy moments confiding in Pete.Charley's goals are to find a loving family home, go to school, and play football. The more desperate Charley's living situation becomes, the more chances he is willing to take. He frees Pete from his similarly disadvantaged life, and they go on the road in search of a better life for both. There is a touching scene over halfway through the book where Charley spills out his heartfelt wishes for a better life to Pete. A tragic scene unfolds soon after, but in the end, Charley's hopes are coming true. The book ends in the middle of a happy conversation between Charley and his aunt, and I wished for a bit more resolution about some of the major events that occurred in Portland. I began to grow tired of the endless listing of the foods Charley managed to buy, beg, or steal, although I know that being constantly hungry is one of the hallmarks of a 15-year old boy. This was emphasized, and perhaps necessarily so, as Charley recounted his tale. I also thought that there was too much of aimless wandering and cruel incidents toward the end of the book; almost like the author didn't want to end the story too quickly. But he could have ended it sooner in my opinion. One less attack, one less hunger situation, would have been fine. I admired the writer's precision and the voice he adopted for teen age Charley; it seemed just right, and I could picture this boy. Other characters were also cleanly drawn: Charley's dad, the shifty horse owner Del. Others who appeared briefly were easy to picture; most of them were people you'd fear to find in a dark alley or in a car stopping along the roadway. Most of the women were unattractive and desperate but quite humanly possible. I appreciated that cruelty to horses by the race track crowd was hinted at but not graphically shown. The innuendos and mention of 'buzzers,' mysterious pills, and strange treatments noticed by Charley, and odd behaviors of the horses were enough to indicate the suffering these animals endured.

A boy 15 years of age moves with his dad to Portland. They have plans he wants to get into a football team at a school there and his father is working a new job as a fork lift operator and a little relationship with a woman who already has a boyfriend a very big Samoan.The lad has a bit of an emptiness you find from reading this story, due to his mother dumping him with his father at one years old without concern or care for anymore contact.He has been through many hard times and has many more terrible days ahead of him as he finds himself sleeping rough homeless and penniless fighting and scavenging for the next meal everyday.He faces troubles and a few brush-ins with the law and criminals. People try to steal from him on the rough streets others are charitable and give him free rides on the freeway and food here and there.His only hope is his aunt shes a librarian and possibly the one person left who can help and love him.This story is a poignant tale of hope and survival.The plight and journey of this boy becomes more engrossing as the story develops.Leon on Pete is a beautiful horse that he wants to save from being run into the ground and eventually put down due to not winning its way.Boy and horse you wish the two never part company but their union was inevitably going to come to an end somewhere in their timeline of life.When one can't provide for himself the chances are very bleak for those around him.It give you a peak into a life of possible teenagers that have walked the same walk and maybe homeless, lost and poor, as our main protagonist contained within these pages.The writing style was layered out a nice and easy reading pattern.The reading process just flew by like the wind but the story and the characters remain for more than the course of daylight.Review, video interview and book trailer found at review page @http://more2read.com/review/lean-on-pete-by-willy-vlautin/

Un très beau roman américain qui plaira à ceux qui aiment les road trip dans l'Amérique des laissés pour compte. Un auteur que je vais continuer à lire.

Yeah, that is one hell of a good book.