Preview
  • Blood Test

  • A Comedy
  • By: Charles Baxter
  • Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
  • Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
  • 2.0 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

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Blood Test

By: Charles Baxter
Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
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Publisher's summary

From the winner of the PEN/Malamud Award and “one of our most gifted writers” (Chicago Tribune) comes a comic novel about a divorced Midwestern dad who takes a cutting-edge medical test and learns that he has a predisposition to murder.

In this fresh take on love and trouble in America, Brock Hobson, an insurance salesman and Sunday-school teacher, finds his equilibrium disturbed by the results of a predictive blood test. Baxter, a master storyteller, brings us a gradually building rollercoaster narrative, and a protagonist who is impertinent, searching, and hilariously relatable. From his good-as-gold, gentle girlfriend to the macho subcontractor guy his ex-wife left him for, not to mention his well-raised teenage kids, now exploring sex and sexuality, the secondary characters in Brock's life all contribute meaningfully to the drama, as increasing challenges to his sense of self and purpose crash over him. The final battle—no spoilers, but there is one—couldn't be more delightful, as this quick and bracing novel reminds us to choose the best people to love, accept the ones we love even if we didn’t choose them, and love them all well.

©2024 Charles Baxter (P)2024 Random House Audio
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Critic reviews

“Riotously funny. . . . At its core, this is a disarmingly sweet novel about family, an entertainment with just the right amount of Midwestern menace.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Baxter’s sharp observations and ear for dialogue are on full display.” —Publishers Weekly

Blood Test is a funny, morally luminous, altogether irresistible caper that somehow, wonderfully, calls to mind both Nietzsche and Charles Portis. What a maestro Charles Baxter is.” —Joseph O'Neill, author of Godwin

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Creepy.. and also boring as hell

in a starting chapter main character in the first person is too creepy, commenting on specific sounds his teen daughter makes frequently during sex in his house, What “Dad” character does anyone want to hear saying that sort of thing. Trudged thru 7 chapters so far and while it is less creepy it is more dull. Never going to listen to NPR recommendations for books again. 2nd time I wasted money on something that they labelled as “comedic” that has no joy,

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