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Title: The Miracles of Ordinary Men

Author: Amanda Leduc

Narrator: Morgan Hallett

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-06-13

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 2 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Internationally acclaimed author Amanda Leduc has been shortlisted for numerous accolades, including the PRISM International Short Fiction Award. In Leducs debut novel, The Miracles of Ordinary Men, Sam wakes to discover that hes growing wings on his back. Elsewhere, Lilah undergoes her own transformation as she seeks sexual penance from her boss. Approaching the same mysterious fate, Sam and Lilah begin to see the world differently - and to find light in the most unlikely places.

Members Reviews:

Intriguing....confusing....not sure what else to say...

This was an interesting, but confusing book. I stumbled upon it while looking for another book, and this one showed up as a recommendation based on the book I was searching for. The premise intrigued me...a man wakes up one day and finds he is sprouting wings. I liked the story of Sam and the parallel story of Lilah and Timothy, although Lilah's relationship with Israel was disturbing and creepy. I thought the writing was very good and the story held my interest, but I got to the end and really had no clear idea what had actually happened. I thought the character of Lilah was under-developed...why was she so angry at her mother and life in general? Why was she so lost...traveling abroad for awhile? Timothy and Sam were entirely sympathetic characters, but I was not clear what/who they actually were and what their message was meant to be? Israel made my skin crawl. Although I was intrigued by the first 2/3 of the book, I found it less satisfying toward the end and was left feeling confused about the entire book : (

Gutsy, Provocative Theolgy

What would you think if one day you sprouted wings? Despite the fact that an unmanageable wingspan of at least 300 feet would be necessary to support human weight and the musculature just isn't there, surely the first thought would be, "Wings? Maybe I can fly!" But author Amanda Leduc's winged characters never so much as jump, feathers flapping, off a picnic table, which may be the point of this patchy and frustrating but nonetheless intriguing novel. Or something else may be the point. It's one of those books in which the reader is pretty much forced to manufacture a point, and those are the most fun.

MIRACLES OF ORDINARY MEN opens with its single miracle - the reanimation of his dead cat, Chickenhead, by English instructor Sam, shortly after awakening one morning with wings growing from his back. The wings, invisible to almost everybody except the cat, a couple of priests and one of his students, are an unbearable existential burden to Sam, who is still a wreck after the demise of a love affair with a woman who is now in a relationship with a Buddhist. (Since the novel's point of view reflects the author's now-jettisoned Roman Catholic background, all theological references are possibly significant, or not.) Sam's doctor sees only scars where the wings erupt from his back, and in desperation Sam seeks out the alcoholic priest of his student days, Father Jim, who sounds more like a wise old rabbi than a Catholic priest. If there is a hero in this tale, it's Father Jim, who doesn't even pretend to understand or interpret anything, but stays close beside Sam to the (maddeningly ambiguous) end.

Sam and his cohorts vaguely address the issue of "angels," seeming to have no other interpretation for winged humans, but the discourse goes nowhere.