Pharoni by Colin Dodds

This is a strange, and at times, mildly interesting story about the complications of friendships and how they mingle with business... what motivates people to make choices, and the payoff, or lack of it, that brings on regret and often apathy.

I listened to this story in audio book format. The story, told partly as a narrative, with an almost memoir feel, interspersed with the technical aspects of a screenplay, mingled back and forth without, I felt, a cohesive plot-line. I found it difficult to separate the sections of personal viewpoint with the "fly on the wall" distance required for a screenplay. Shifting from what felt like a story to what felt like stage directions and prescribed dialogue, was a bit like juggling; I'm not very good at juggling. I think that if I'd read the book in print, perhaps I would have understood the story's flow better. Sometimes, seeing it on the page rather than hearing it aloud, makes this style easier to understand.

I found the themes of mixing friends with business, and the pitfalls of that choice, mixed with the concept of what it means to start a religion, led by the resurrection of a dead friend who's resurrection isn't ever actually verified, a difficult set of plates to keep spinning in my head. Perhaps I would have found it easier to digest if i didn't have to shift from narrative to stage direction so often.

However, Burt Bonnem's voice acting performance was tremendous. I enjoyed the cadence of his voice and the delivery of built-in skepticism as the story progressed. I felt a little like even he didn't believe the story he was reading. Still, his performance was strong enough that I will seek out other books that he has narrated.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the author, Colin Dodds. This book felt more like work than entertainment, and I felt that it was also left unfinished in many aspects. Perhaps, if another title he writes catches my eye, I might try him again. But not for a while. This story has left me hesitant to work so hard for what I felt was too little reward.