And West Is West, by Ron Childress
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And West Is West, by Ron Childress
Best Ebook PDF Online And West Is West, by Ron Childress
Winner of the 2014 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Fiction
When Jessica, a young air force drone pilot in Nevada, is tasked with launching a missile against a suspected terrorist halfway across the world, she realizes that though women and children are in the crosshairs of her screen, she has no choice but to follow orders. Ethan, a young Wall Street quant, is involved in a more bloodless connection to war when he develops an algorithm that enables his company's clients to profit by exploiting the international instability caused by exactly this kind of antiterrorist strike.
Though only minor players, the actions of these two people have global ramifications that tear lives apart - including their own. When Jessica finds herself discharged from the service and Ethan makes an error that costs him his job, both are set adrift, cast out by a corrupt system and forced to take the blame for decisions they did not make.
In And West Is West, Childress has crafted a terrifyingly real scenario that takes listeners into the lives of these characters living in different worlds yet bound together by forces beyond their control.
And West Is West, by Ron Childress - Amazon Sales Rank: #105917 in Audible
- Published on: 2015-10-13
- Released on: 2015-10-13
- Format: Unabridged
- Original language: English
- Running time: 644 minutes
And West Is West, by Ron Childress
Where to Download And West Is West, by Ron Childress
Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Wonderful relevant story that will leave you examining your own world By Margaret This excellent, fast-paced novel, which won the Barbara Kingsolver Pen Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, tells its larger story of government and financial corruption through engaging, unique characters. In this twisty tale, the reader experiences how easy it is for a moral individual to become a cog in a corrupt organization's schemes. And how quickly that same individual can become a victim the Powerful want to destroy.The main characters are Ethan, a "quant" who writes software to make billions for his Wall Street firm without adding any value to society, and Jessica, a US Army sergeant who remotely pilots war drones that drop bombs on Somalia. The book moves back and forth between their stories, all the while maintaining your fascination with both. Wall Street and the US Army drone program would be interesting enough settings on their own, but the plots expand to include the international art world, the US prison system, the Nevada desert, a dysfunctional wealthy family, an aging hippy couple, and more. The author navigates these diverse worlds with ease. Each character, place and situation is believable, interesting, and memorable.I highly recommend this superbly written book. At little more than 300 pages, it's a swift, engrossing read that leaves you thinking about the real issue that faces us all: if an individual can't change a corrupt system, how do they live a moral life?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Long-distance consequences and face-to-face realities By Paul Mastin Behind the headlines, the lives and loves of today's young people look a little different than they used to. In Ron Childress's And West is West, two young people in positions that were unimaginable just a generation ago have to recreate their lives after they are pushed out the door in their respective positions. Ethan writes the code that helps his bank make billions on arbitrage trading of foreign currency. A decimal error (or a planted decimal error) loses the bank millions in seconds, and he finds himself jobless. Jessica sits in a desert warehouse in Nevada flying drone missions in the Middle East. When one mission goes wrong, she leaves the Air Force and lives under the radar.Childress brings these two parallel stories together in an interesting way. Readers will dwell on consequences, family histories, and the realities of the fast-moving, accelerated way the modern workforce can become distant from their actual work. Part of me became frustrated that Jessica and Ethan's stories had so little to do with each other. Even though Childress introduced the personal link rather late, he ultimately makes it work.The story of the characters' lives does not to be as epic as the roles they played, or potentially played, in their careers. Childress focusses on the drama of relationships and family, not on the global implications of the buttons Ethan and Jessica pushed. As the world becomes more interconnected, and as finance and warfare become more impersonal, linking consequences to our actions and faces to our interactions becomes more tenuous. And West is West illustrates that reality well.Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A great study on how technology isolates us, isolation destroys us, and kindness connects us. By KathLDK Literogo Perhaps the defining characteristic of this millennium is our isolation from each other despite being more connected, through technology, than any previous generation. Ron Childress’ novel, And West is West, explores how two lives can be utterly destroyed and rebuilt through our connection to other people.The novel follows two protagonists. First, Jessica Aldridge, a drone pilot for the military, who is forced to fire on innocents. Upset by the situation, she mentions it in a letter to her incarcerated father. This breach of confidentiality, which could embarrass the military and the politicians who benefit from good PR, results in her losing her job and everything that defines her, and having to go on the run. Meanwhile, Ethan Winter, a quant on Wall Street whose code helps his employers benefit financially from the crises caused by terrorist actions, becomes a scapegoat for a massive error. What’s more, he’s been entrusted with a terrible secret.Initially I expected this to be a typical thriller, with car chases, evil corporate overlords, and some kind of vigilante heroism. On the contrary, this is a character-driven novel in which the personal development of Ethan and Jessica is more important than the plot. It falls more in the category of literary fiction than a thriller, although it could appeal to fans of either genre. A result of this, though, is that the pace is somewhat slower than it could have been, which made it a little tedious at times.I found it a little difficult to connect with Ethan and Jessica at first, as they made choices that didn’t make sense to me, or as I felt too distant from their narrative voice. In fact, I connected most with Don, Jessica’s father, whose story is told in his own voice, through his letters to his daughter. In fact, the distance I felt from the characters heightened the feeling of isolation that permeates the novel, and after thinking about the book for some time I wondered if that might be deliberate: this is a novel about how we isolate ourselves from each other, alienate each other, and crave some kind of genuine human connection.The main premise of the book is that of scapegoating. Jessica becomes a scapegoat for a failed military operation, and Ethan is the scapegoat of financial corruption. They are defined by their actions, but they find their identity ripped away as actions are attributed to them, beyond their control. It brings to mind the concept of Ubuntu, in which people are defined by their kindness, empathy and compassion towards other human beings. And it is only through acts of kindness, and empathy, that they are able to recover from the tragedy of losing themselves, and rebuild their lives and characters. Jessica struggles to reconnect with her alienated father; Ethan connects to his estranged girlfriend too late. Finally, through generosity and a sense of commonality with strangers, they redeem themselves.With elegant prose, and a consistent thread of sincerity, this novel has more to it than meets the eye; it is a multi-layered moral study of modern society, and how our identity is dependent on our relationships with others.Read more of my reviews on Literogo.com
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