It’s probably because I’m absolutely hopeless at multitasking, but I’ve always struggled with the idea of an audiobook. Perhaps it’s a symptom of being permanently online and watching quick media that rots a brain faster than a whippet on a racetrack. I’ve convinced myself that concentrating on someone talking for hours upon end and absorbing what they are saying is a skill that I lack so I’ve never really given the medium a go. But, with the continued rise of narrated novels spreading to all corners of the internet, and the fact that humans have been telling oral stories for hundreds of thousands of years, I decided to challenge myself. After all, I’m not in the business of just accepting my limitations.
The first book I plumped for was POP!, a novel by Angel Luis Colón (Hell Chose Me and No Happy Endings). Poppy Leathers is a woman in New York working two jobs: one as a gallery assistant for an idiot artist who paints with his *ahem* brush, and the other as an unpaid intern for a gun-for-hire. After a few years as a dogsbody for hitman Atticus Garcia, and with no real career prospects in the underworld, Poppy (don’t call her Pop) has decided to take matters into her own hands and set up shop on her own. The trouble is, branching out as a criminal aficionado without stepping on anyone’s toes, or getting yourself a new pair of concrete shoes, is tough work. Let alone when your boss takes a personal interest in the one human you’re attracted to.
The story begins with Poppy giving birth to an unwanted child, setting her as a cold, uncaring protagonist. In the first few chapters, she easily gives her child away to the highest bidder, gaining a job within a very sketchy adoption agency. Then, after a quick succession of time jumps, we join Poppy as an established assistant to hitman Atticus Garcia, along with her legitimate job of being an art director. After years of serving everybody else, she feels ready to take the jump and kick-start her own criminal career. Colón has not only created a main character who is driven, but her pure selfishness and lack of development early on threatened to put me off finishing the piece.
It wasn’t until halfway through, when the twists and turns started coming into their own, that I started to enjoy Poppy’s drive. Her selfish, bratty attitude gave way to her remarkably headstrong business head and when she focused in on the reasons for wanting a better life, the character did become more likeable. That said, the latter half of POP! feels a little like a scattergun approach to see what sticks. The underworld of New York City seems less about crime and more about making sure one “product” is purchased through one supplier. The ridiculousness of the competition becomes ever clearer once Poppy starts to mix her two worlds. The climax of the book really ramped up in unexpected ways, although it left me divided. On the one side, subverting Brooklyn’s mob bosses was a bold and hilarious angle, and the other left me questioning the point of the story. Ultimately, I think the plot works in the context of the prose, even if it’s silly and not at all what you would expect from a crime novel.
POP! is narrated brilliantly by Annie Henk, who sets about bringing the absurd novel to life. Henk’s vocal changes effortlessly differentiate between each character, ensuring that the 10 hours of the story are easy to follow. Even Poppy, through her unlikable phase, encouraged me to push on. Henk’s delivery, including her numerous uses of MF-bombs, made Poppy easier to swallow. Other characters had distinct voices too, with a favourite being the crime boss Silo, a ugh-sounding, De Niro-type of New Yorker that is much too tired to be dealing with Poppy Leathers.
Clocking in at around ten hours, POP! starts off with one hell of an unlikable protagonist, but when the chess pieces start moving, she becomes someone else entirely, someone I began to root for. Once Poppy is established, the plot begins to effortlessly move pieces into place, like an intricate game of chess that you expect to see when dealing with New York’s criminal underbelly. As the coil begins to unravel at the end and the book’s surprising revelations, I was left laughing at the absurdity of the hurdles in Poppy’s way. Although it should be said, I certainly won’t be looking at Capybaras in the same way ever again.