Torch

By: Cheryl Strayed

Narrated by: Cheryl Strayed

Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

In her debut novel, Torch, best-selling author Cheryl Strayed weaves a searing and luminous tale of a family's grief after unexpected loss.

"Work hard. Do good. Be incredible!" is the advice Teresa Rae Wood shares with the listeners of her local radio show, Modern Pioneers, and the advice she strives to live by every day. She has fled a bad marriage and rebuilt a life with her children, Claire and Joshua, and their caring stepfather, Bruce. Their love for each other binds them as a family through the daily struggles of making ends meet. But when they received unexpected news that Teresa, only 38, is dying of cancer, their lives all begin to unravel and drift apart. Strayed's intimate portraits of these fully human characters in a time of crisis show the varying truths of grief, forgiveness, and the beautiful terrors of learning how to keep living.

©2012 Cheryl Strayed (P)2012 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"A heartbreaking anatomy of one family's grief.... Beautifully written and authentic." ( People)

"This novelist goes fearlessly into this place of raw grief and inappropriate lust and desperate love and simply reports what she sees: These are people who...live dense, perplexing, fascinating and authentic lives." ( Washington Post Book World )

" Torch is a steady stream of finely wrought portrayals of nuance, moments, and emotions.... Lovely turns of phrase are coupled with subtle and keen observations and truisms that remind a reader why she reads." ( Newsday)

The most precious reading of her own work

Cheryl Strayed’s creative and meticulously phrased moments build into the story a family and town processing the unexpected loss of a mother. It’s a touching and gentle story worth hearing Cheryl read in Audible.

Great book

Touches on all the emotions of losing somebody close to you. It's a great story and great character development. I really enjoyed it!

Meh. The characters just weren't likable

Be incredible? Really? I wish ALL the characters of this book would have taken that advice. The first part of the story is good. Meeting Teresa, the mom who has cancer is great. The characters around her and her relationships are great. But I lost interest during the rest of the 3/4 of the book.
If you are like me, you are interested in this book because you loved Wild. Strayed's style is in here. It's in here in the shocking, raw things that the characters do because they are flawed and because of their grief. I liked those moments. Where this book failed though was redeeming those characters and making them likable. In Wild, Cheryl obviously is super likable and does things and shares things that made me like her including and because of her flaws--I liked her because of her complete-ness.
The characters in Torch were selfish and narcissistic and shallow and single faceted in their flawed-ness. I had no reason to cheer for them, they were just kind of lame.
The end of the story was the worst part. It just fizzled as the characters continued to have things happen to them and as they just stumbled through their mediocrity.

I also did not like Cheryl as the narrator. She had an annoying lilt in the way she finished each sentence that got tedious.

I hope Strayed writes more books. Fiction or non-fiction, I'll read (listen to) it, because I like her style and I think she'll only grow as a writer.

I don't recommend this book.

Great! Exactly what I expect if Cheryl Strayed

After reading Wild, Cheryl did not disappoint me when I backtracked to Torch. Great story and very true to who she is as an author and person. The book itself felt intimate.

Beautiful story

Exquisite writing and you really feel with how the characters are feeling. Having lost my father to cancer this year, I could relate to Joshua and Claire. Cheryl strayed did an amazing job of putting into writing what can only be felt.
The story is a lot of missed connections, and you wonder why they feel like they can't share their feelings with one another. They are pretty alone in their grief. It's irritating to see what the characters cannot, and they don't really resolve any of their internal issues, they just stuff them down and move on. That was why I didn't give the story 5 stars. It doesn't have to have a happy ending, but I would have liked to have left with some wisdom. It was them I did leave with was my own inspiration to be more in touch with my feelings and not treat people the way that this family treated each other. So I guess that is something.
The reason I gave the performance three stars is because it is narrated with an upward inflection. I would get distracted because I would wait and braced myself to see if there would be another one. But the narrator did a good job with the voices, changing her voice in subtle ways.

No what I expected.

A great book for helping through a grieving process. If you are looking for a book for entertainment this is NOT your book.

A bit too long for me

I’ve read most of her books and really enjoyed them. I think she is a very good writer. I found that this book however was depressing with very little redeeming it at the end.

Great Book

Would you listen to Torch again? Why?

I loved the book! Sheryl is a great reader

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Mostly. Toward the end I was not as torn

Great book to get lost in-

Loved the tone and pace of the authors voice as she read this-listening to her became just as important as the characters and story. I got lost in witnessing the struggles of very relatable souls experiencing tough transition with life without their mom-the only buffer they've had against the world-as they learn to cope without her.

Beautiful

loved it . well written and narrated. Incredible story about love loss and forgiveness