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    Wreck and Order: A Novel
    Wreck and Order: A Novel
    Wreck and Order: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    Wreck and Order: A Novel

    Written by Hannah Tennant-Moore

    Narrated by Nicol Zanzarella

    2.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A boldly candid, raw portrait of a young woman's search for meaning and purpose in an indifferent world

    Purposefully aimless, self-destructive, and impulsively in and out of love, Elsie is a young woman who feels lost. She's in a tumultuous relationship, is stuck in a dead-end job, and has a relentless, sharp intelligence that’s at odds with her many bad decisions. When her initial attempts to improve her life go awry, Elsie decides that a dramatic change is the only solution.

    While traveling through Paris and Sri Lanka, Elsie meets people who challenge and provoke her towards the change she is seeking, but ultimately she must still come face-to-face with herself.

    Whole-hearted, fiercely honest and inexorably human, Wreck and Order is a stirring debut novel that, in mirroring one young woman's dizzying quest for answers, illuminates the important questions that drive us all.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateFeb 9, 2016
    ISBN9781511371001
    Wreck and Order: A Novel
    Author

    Hannah Tennant-Moore

    Hannah Tennant-Moore’s work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Republic, n+1, Tin House, and the Los Angeles Review of Books and has twice been included in The Best Buddhist Writing. She lives in Upstate New York.

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    Reviews for Wreck and Order

    2.5/5

    93 ratings39 reviews

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    • 2/5
      The book Wreck and Order is aptly named, although there was more wreck than order--actually I didn't see much order (maybe that's the point?). I enjoyed the parts about Elsie's time in Sri Lanka and her friendship with Suriya and her family. However, the main character Elsie was not likeable and seemed somewhat spoiled, needy and very self-absorbed.
    • 2/5
      While parts of this novel were somewhat interesting (Suriya and her family in Sri Lanka,) I had a very difficult time caring about self-absorbed, self-pitying, spoiled brat Elsie. I can't understand all the advance praise and rave reviews I've seen published elsewhere. I had the same though while reading this novel as as another reviewer: this is an uglier, fictional Eat, Pray, Love.
    • 3/5
      Elsie is a lost young woman seeking meaning through travel and sex. Although her behaviors are often self destructive, she begins to find her purpose by the end of the book. The author is truly talented, and the part of the story set in Sri Lanka is compelling. I have trouble empathizing with a protagonist who so often acts against her own interests, however, and for me reading a novel is all about the characters.This book is not for everyone, but I did like it while I cannot say I enjoyed it. A bit of a rough ride.
    • 1/5
      Wreck and Order is the story of a woman’s struggle to find herself among doomed relationships and reckless decisions told first person by the narrator, Elise. I found it extremely hard to connect with Elise and just had a real hard time finishing the book because of it. Perhaps it’s because I am a bit older than the Elise? I will say that I did find the time she spent in Sri Lanka interesting but all in all, this book was just not for me.
    • 3/5
      I received this book for free through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers. I can see why many people abandoned this book. The beginning is quite aimless and boring. For me, it wasn't until Elsie went to Sri Lanka for the second time that it got interesting. I don't quite know what to make of this book. I kind of see what it was trying to achieve but it lacked a clear direction. Overall, this wasn't completely horrible but it still wasn't a worthwhile read.
    • 4/5
      This book was enjoyable read, especially the scenes of Sri Lanka. The main character Elsie is a flawed young woman in search of a better life. The sex scenes in book were tedious and forced, and Elsie's lovers unsympathetic.
    • 1/5
      Well, I tried. I have a rule that I need to read to at least page 100 of books I start – and I made it to 100 – and then put “Wreck and Order” down. (Since I didn’t finish it – you may want to stop reading here and move to a reviewer who has.)The back of my copy advertises Hannah Tennant-Moore’s novel as “A boldly candid, provocative portrait of a young woman’s search for meaning and purpose in an indifferent world.” While I would CERTAINLY agree with the first part of that claim – the second part blames the world for what are the young woman’s problems.Elsie, the main character, is indifferent to her safety, her own mental health, any responsibilities she may have to the world or even to those she purports to care about…she was just an impossible character for me to either like or care about in the lease. When a character cares so little about ANYTHING – it seems a waste of time for a reader to spend any time in her point of view.The book is bold, it is extremely candid (I was so tired of reading about brutal and indifferent sex that I had to start skimming) and it is certainly provocative.There were small glimmers of hope that I could find something to latch on to to get me through. “I never used the blank moleskin notebook I’d brought with me, intending to record scenes and conversations for some future self, scavenging for the vaguely imagined article I planned to write or desperate to recall past joys.” There seems no joy at all in Elsie’s life – but almost entirely because of actions she takes that make it impossible for her life to start improving. Her only ambitions seem to involve either living off her father’s money for as long as possible or being involved in relationships where at least one of the partners is treating the other horribly.When she goes to a silent meditation center, she again seems to be seeking something, some sort of peace – but what comes across more strongly is her desire to not have to do anything – not have to be or interact with anyone in a meaningful way. “…it wasn’t that I felt that place as freedom, like the man in white suggested. But at least it was no longer clamoring for my attention.”So I am setting “Wreck and Order” aside. I thought for a moment for peeking at the ending. But in true Elsie fashion, I decided I just didn’t care enough.
    • 2/5
      I got this book from the Library Thing Early Reviewers program. I confess I barely skimmed the last third of it. I just didn't connect with the main character and frankly didn't like her much. I'm familiar with the coming of age genre, and I'm no prude. I'm happy to read about sex if it's part of self discovery -- but honestly I think this character just needed a great therapist instead of talking to me about it! haha. The angst about sex and the driftlessness of her life didn't seem to ever really resolve into any kind of meaningful point, at least to me.
    • 4/5
      Unlike many readers of Wreck and Order I found the narrative of the protagonist, Elsie, which is presented in a first-person stream-of-consciousness style, immediately engaging. From the first page I was absorbed fully in her "story." I understand other readers' frustration with this character's choices and actions (or lack thereof). Hannah Tennant-Moore does not offer readers a compelling plot in this work; however, the main character's insights are often resonant, funny, interesting. The quality and depth of character development, rather than the story told, distinguish this book as a worthwhile read, IMHO. Please be advised I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. Thanks for reading my thoughts; I hope they are helpful.
    • 1/5
      This year I am embracing a 'new' concept; I stop reading books I can't stand to read another page of or risk running around my house screaming. I haven't been in this predicament often because I'm stubborn, but this year is about quality vs. quantity and I can't waste my time. I was planning to go with Nancy Pearl's rule of 50 pages for this book, but each time I looked at my reading pile beside the bed I would quickly dive under the covers. "Please don't make me read another page of that book!"The description on the back of my arc starts with these words, "Decisively aimless..." No. This is destructively aimless and tries, oh so painfully, to be a book of many 'nothings' trying to be 'somethings'. The age old trick of waving our intelligence around in these merry-go-round philosophical ways only works for some and not here. It felt chaotic, uncomfortable, and not messy in a way you would/could find refreshing in other novels looking for meaning in life. And less I forget the sexual dealings within are better forgotten.
    • 3/5
      As other reviews have mentioned, this book isn't necessarily for the meek and mild. Still, that doesn't mean that there isn't an interesting story here. I realize the irony in saying this, but I would recommend going into this one as blindly as possible...
    • 1/5
      A day after reading it I still literally no positive thoughts about this book (other than that I'm glad I don't have to read it anymore) - cliche after cliche, no plot, RELENTLESS rich white person ennui, dumb characters we're told to see as smart due to pasted-on intelligentsia jobs, faux confessional/memoir writing style but the true protagonists are a few shitty, "ambiguously abusive" boyfriends, as though someone read Eat Pray Love and thought "what if I fused this with the concept of 'HBO's Girls, but worse' and added some rape to it?"I keep coming up with words like dull, tired, and literally repulsive - as I read I kept wanting to interpret this as a parody novel or piece of deliberate satire about white privilege or something, but even with that charitable interpretation it's still a bland, meandering, plotless book. I left my copy (with a warning note) in a coffee shop for a stranger to take, but I honestly felt guilty about passing such a waste of time on to another person.
    • 4/5
      Wreck and Order by Hannah Tennant-Moore follows Elsie, a young lady who is a mess. Struggling with an inherent emptiness and a desire to be left mostly alone, Elsie leaves her chaotic relationships behind and uses money her father throws at her to skip college and go traveling. Partly influenced by growing up with her mother's New Age search for Enlightenment, Elsie goes to Sri Lanka to meditate, to change her life. She meets young Suriya who challenges her a bit, and whose presence in the novel allow readers to further get to know Elsie for who she really is. Rather than being another Eat Pray Love, Wreck and Order is full of refreshing human honesty. During meditation Elsie fights the urge to scratch itches and ignore bugs. She is self aware, realizes she isn't going to have some grand Ah-Ha moment and be changed forever. Elsie is aware of her privilege, and she is aware that her dissatisfaction and perception of life is more debilitating than it should be. She knows her relationships are unhealthy, is aware of her destructive behavioral patterns ("'He made me this way.' This wasn't untrue. But it was also true that I'd chosen him because he did this to me. He was my excuse." "I liked when the word *abusive* came up. It was neat and respected and freed me of responsibility.")Still, I found sympathy for Elsie due to how relatable she is, as she feels "still entirely at a loss as to how to be a human being."But Elsie does understand some things about being human. Wreck and Order is full of many quotable lines, and Elsie gaining understanding of people around her. When wondering about why people worship, she answers herself "because we want to live well and we don't know how." This highlights her intelligence and insight, and makes her Privileged White Girl Traveling a Poor Country situation more palatable and human. Another thing about Elsie is that she likes sex. This is prevalent throughout the novel, and because this is an honest book about a lost woman, the sex scenes are not beautiful. Sex is not a beautiful thing to Elsie. Sex is sex. (In fact she often finds herself feeling emptier still after her encounters.) The descriptions in these scenes are therefore just that, and some readers may find the language crass. However, they paint a picture of Elsie's psyche, the way she interprets the world. The last thing she is is a romantic. This fact may make her less endearing of a main character to many readers, but I found I could appreciate the novel for what it is: the raw, gritty journey of a lost young woman. *I received Wreck and Order in exchange for an honest review. This review also appears of Goodreads and Amazon
    • 2/5
      I honestly had a really hard time reading this. The narration is in a sort of stream-of-consciousness style and it keeps jumping around between the present and various points in the past. On top of that, the narrator/main character is not at all likable, but the author also doesn't really provide any compelling reason for why we should read her story. I hoped that something would come through in the end that caused it all to make sense. But there was nothing. I can't really recommend this one.
    • 4/5
      This was a very enjoyable read. I found the main character both intriguing and real; I felt her pain and understood her life's struggle as she searched for her answers. The writing is strong and the settings, characters, and storyline was excellent. I would recommend this to any readers who have searched to find their own answers in life.
    • 4/5
      I'm sure a lot of people will find the narrator intolerable, but I think there was a healthy dose of acknowledgement for that. In other words, I think the book kind of commented on itself. The execution wasn't perfect, but I sort of like the attempt it made to put imperfection in a glaring light.
    • 3/5
      I received this book for free through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers. I can see why many people abandoned this book. The beginning is quite aimless and boring. For me, it wasn't until Elsie went to Sri Lanka for the second time that it got interesting. I don't quite know what to make of this book. I kind of see what it was trying to achieve but it lacked a clear direction. Overall, this wasn't completely horrible but it still wasn't a worthwhile read.
    • 1/5
      Do you ever run across something that makes you feel old? Hannah Tennant-Moore's novel Wreck and Order was one of those things. I was intrigued by the premise before reading it but I spent much of the novel wanting to shake some sense and motivation into the self-destructive, annoying, and thoroughly unlikable main character. Obviously this does not bode well for my eventual overall impression.Elsie is a thirty-something young woman who drops out of college and thereafter coasts on the money her father gives her. She is intermittently translating an obscure French novel, which is somehow supposed to reinforce her own (misguided) idea that she is intelligent and special. But her navel gazing narration of an unmoored life lived as a series of destructive sexual encounters or, when not actively engaged in those encounters, fantasizing about them, makes the reader question any implication of intelligence previously granted. Elsie connects with a lying, cheating, boozy boyfriend who becomes an obsession in her life, the man she returns to again and again. At one point when she has broken free of Jared, she is too bored by her colorless (a synonym for violence-free to Elsie) sex life with the normal man she's met so she sabotages their life together. At another point she travels to Sri Lanka and stays with Suriya, a young woman she intends to help achieve her dream of teaching English. And yet even in this trip, which just highlights over and over again her self-centered preoccupation, ennui, and unpleasantness, Elsie can't maintain an interest in this poor girl and her family, ending up treating Suriya as an embarrassing and disposable project she can just abandon rather than as a human being she should care about.Perhaps Elsie's character as written would be forgivable if the book had been more interesting all around. Instead, she is a caricature of a vapid, spoiled millennial and who wants to read about that? Self-destructive characters can be worth reading about if they serve a greater purpose. Elsie does not. Character and plot are both aimless. The erstwhile philosophical pieces were tiresome, overblown, and filled with circular ramblings that didn't actually mean anything if you took the time to parse them out. I think the book is meant to come off as profound but sadly, it only came off as profoundly boring. Then again, maybe it will appeal to readers a generation younger than me who can more readily connect with the Elsies of the world. But if this is their reality, I have to say I pity them.
    • 3/5
      Hannah Tennant-Moore is clearly a huge talent, and WRECK AND ORDER occasionally stuns with its language and insight. It frequently tries too hard, though, and something about it just reads clichéd and trite.
    • 3/5
      At the end of Part Two of Hannah Tennant-Moore’s Wreck and Order Elsie says, “I’m the type of human who will die out.” Given the type of lifestyle she leads, particularly with her “friend,” Jared, one would think she’s probably right, but when you follow her through Sri Lanka and witness her interactions with that country’s inhabitants, particularly with her friend, Suriya, you certainly hope she’s wrong. I was perhaps the wrong person to read this book. While turning its pages, it reminded me of a millenial’s version of “Eat, Pray, Love.” Twenty-something feels lost and goes on a soul-searching mission to Paris and Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, she is never quite able to leave her past behind and that past is pretty sordid. I admired Elsie’s guts, I thought she had heart and I ached at her capacity for self-destruction. It just wasn’t enough for me to love the book.
    • 4/5
      Love this girl. Elsie and I are a bit similar, both peripatetic and unmoored. I appreciate the insights and enjoyed her story.
    • 4/5
      I was given an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.An unexamined life is not worth living. But what happens when the examined life turns out to be not so great?Wreck and Order, the debut novel by Hannah Tennant-Moore, is not an easy book to review because it is not an easy book to read. The basic story is easy enough. Elise is an only child of wealth who is on a life-long journey to find, understand, and improve herself. While this may sound similar to many recent novels and movies, in this case the result is very different. That is because despite all the new locations and lovers she travels through in the end she is left with herself.Wreck and Order is a great example of how your greatest strengths can also be your worst weakness. What makes this book so compelling is its honest depiction of Elise and her struggles to find answers. What makes this book so hard to read is its honest depiction of Elise and her struggles to find answers. Many new books are hyped with terms like honest, fierce, raw, fearless, and unnerving. In Tennant-Moore's obviously capable hands these are understatements. I found that I could not read this book for long without putting it down because it was so stark and intense. I also found that I could not stop myself from picking it back up because it was so intense and stirring.This is not a book to read lightly. But it definitely is a book to read if you want to be challenged.
    • 2/5
      I'm being generous with 2 stars for this book - I struggled to finish it. The story of Elsie and her aimless life was not engaging at all. She was not a likable character and her only redeeming quality was her genuine friendship with and love for Suriya. I didn't understand this character's motivations - her feelings about sex, her relationship with Jared, the way she feels about herself. She comes across as spoiled and self-absorbed - a stereotype of a millennial young woman. The writer clearly has talent but the story itself is just not relatable or enjoyable. I received an ARC of this book from LibraryThing.
    • 4/5
      Wreck and Order by Hannah Tennant-Moore follows Elsie, a young lady who is a mess. Struggling with an inherent emptiness and a desire to be left mostly alone, Elsie leaves her chaotic relationships behind and uses money her father throws at her to skip college and go traveling. Partly influenced by growing up with her mother's New Age search for Enlightenment, Elsie goes to Sri Lanka to meditate, to change her life. She meets young Suriya who challenges her a bit, and whose presence in the novel allow readers to further get to know Elsie for who she really is. Rather than being another Eat Pray Love, Wreck and Order is full of refreshing human honesty. During meditation Elsie fights the urge to scratch itches and ignore bugs. She is self aware, realizes she isn't going to have some grand Ah-Ha moment and be changed forever. Elsie is aware of her privilege, and she is aware that her dissatisfaction and perception of life is more debilitating than it should be. She knows her relationships are unhealthy, is aware of her destructive behavioral patterns ("'He made me this way.' This wasn't untrue. But it was also true that I'd chosen him because he did this to me. He was my excuse." "I liked when the word *abusive* came up. It was neat and respected and freed me of responsibility.")Still, I found sympathy for Elsie due to how relatable she is, as she feels "still entirely at a loss as to how to be a human being."But Elsie does understand some things about being human. Wreck and Order is full of many quotable lines, and Elsie gaining understanding of people around her. When wondering about why people worship, she answers herself "because we want to live well and we don't know how." This highlights her intelligence and insight, and makes her Privileged White Girl Traveling a Poor Country situation more palatable and human. Another thing about Elsie is that she likes sex. This is prevalent throughout the novel, and because this is an honest book about a lost woman, the sex scenes are not beautiful. Sex is not a beautiful thing to Elsie. Sex is sex. (In fact she often finds herself feeling emptier still after her encounters.) The descriptions in these scenes are therefore just that, and some readers may find the language crass. However, they paint a picture of Elsie's psyche, the way she interprets the world. The last thing she is is a romantic. This fact may make her less endearing of a main character to many readers, but I found I could appreciate the novel for what it is: the raw, gritty journey of a lost young woman. *I received Wreck and Order in exchange for an honest review. This review also appears of Goodreads and Amazon
    • 3/5
      I hated the first quarter of this book. Elsie is a difficult character to read about; she is overprivileged, entitled, shallow, whiny, and continually makes bad life choices. I don't generally have a problem with unlikable protagonists, but her self-absorption could be hard to take. But I do think she developed some layers as the book went on, and she was self-aware enough to realize a lot of her own faults. I probably wouldn't have put this on the First Novel longlist, but I will be looking out for Tennant-Moore's next novel.
    • 1/5
      It was difficult to even give this novel a rating of one star. I must say that I couldn't finish it. It seemed to be the aimless rambling of a completely unlikable character. I don't have to like the main character ofevery book that I read but found "Elsie" so unlikable that I really didn't care whether she was successful in improving her life. She bounced from relationship to relationship and from bed to bed, being either a slow learner or a masochist.
    • 3/5
      This is a decent novel with well drawn characters. However, I found the story to be unsatisfying. Self Destructive characters can be fascinating as well as enjoyably frustrating but if they don't in some way change what really is the point of their story except to wallow in the downward spiral? Not something I enjoy. 3 stars for the writing but 2 stars off for the unsatisfying story arc.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed a lot of this story, but I certainly wasn't expecting it to be quite so graphically sexual. It didn't bother me, it just seemed to be the primary theme of the story, rather than just one element of the main character's life. I wanted the stronger themes of searching for meaning, self-motivation, sense of place, etc., to be more fleshed out, but in the end Elsie just seemed to continue going around in circles. There was no real evidence at the end that she was changing course, and the potential to be headed back into the beginning of her self-destructive cycle is high. I think the parallels to the book she is translating are more important than I initially realized - primarily that at the end, it turns out to just be a boring, pretentious book that no one, not even Elsie, cares about. The feeling at the end of the book is that her entire life is the same. I wish there had been a bit more direction, a bit more progress, but I think I see the point she was trying to make. Maybe this is just too real-life (other than the sex stuff) to make a particularly enticing story.
    • 2/5
      This book was okay. I enjoyed the characters not because I necessarily liked their personalities, but because they were well made. However, I would have liked to see them in a story that was actually interesting. Way too sexual for my taste.
    • 3/5
      I love to read about damaged people, and anyone so unlike myself that I feel like I'm privy to things I shouldn't even be told- or certainly wouldn't admit if it were me. I had a love/hate relationship with this book and though it sounds cliche, it's all I've got.(I will return and try to pick a side after I let it sit for awhile)