the good, the bad and the ugly

my early childhood focused on "...good, better and best..."
competition, literacy and education were constantly stressed
and then, after 26 years of schooling, i became a resident physician

i was asked to care for people living "...good, bad and ugly..." lives
a steady diet of medicaid and uninsured patients came my way
i didn't help them so much as try to keep them from harming themselves

their capacity for self destructive behavior was truly impressive
their homes and neighborhoods were a finishing school for failure
mary pilon captures the mood and tone of this world better than anyone

bobby cannavale's matter-of-fact narration fits the story perfectly
does the USA really rank 38th in global, overall health care quality ?
the lives, brought to light, in mary pilon's story may help explain why

5 people found this helpful

True Crime episode

This story reads like one of those "true crime" episodes on tv.
Sad-sack Charlie Rowan's life has always been on the "dead-end" track. He's a cage-fighter that fights for free, he owes some small time drug dealers some cash. So he decides to make the dash by playing dead. Only problem is, he doesn't leave the very small town in which he resides. To earn some cash to "maybe" leave town, Short-sighted Charlie decides to hold up a gun store.
It kind of goes down hill from there. Sort of a "how not to live your life " story. A bit dry in it's set up and delivery. But pretty good story.

3 people found this helpful

Awesome Story!

I listened to this story and had it grip me from minute one. I don't know if it was the way the story was written or the the way it was read by the narrator, but, either way, I felt like I experienced the events in this story firsthand. Simply phenomenal!

2 people found this helpful

I don't get the appeal

The story is pretty hum-drum. No drama, no suspense, no surprises or twists. A loser who makes bad decisions and suffers the consequences. That's real life, but poor fodder for a story in this case. If it hadn't been free, I'd be angry to have wasted my money.

Okay

Minor story, boringly read and with weird long pauses, so long I kept thinking was wrong with the playback

not much substance

i was not a fan of this book, not a lot of substance and not strung together well. maybe of i was familiar with the story before i may have appreciated it more. disappointed.

a fantastic first audibee

decided to give audible a try. saw this short highly rated one. wasn't disappointed :)

a twist

good short for me to listen to. hope to have more shorts like this one