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    Donnybrook
    Donnybrook
    Donnybrook
    Audiobook6 hours

    Donnybrook

    Written by Frank Bill

    Narrated by Tom Stechschulte

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The raw and as-insane-as-anticipated first novel from Frank Bill, author of Crimes in Southern Indiana The Donnybrook is a three-day bare-knuckle tournament held on a thousand-acre plot out in the sticks of southern Indiana. Twenty fighters. One wire-fence ring. Fight until only one man is left standing while a rowdy festival of onlookers-drunk and high on whatever's on offer-bet on the fighters. Jarhead is a desperate man who'd do just about anything to feed his children. He's also the toughest fighter in southeastern Kentucky, and he's convinced that his ticket to a better life is one last fight with a cash prize so big it'll solve all his problems. Meanwhile, there's Chainsaw Angus-an undefeated master fighter who isn't too keen on getting his face punched anymore, so he and his sister, Liz, have started cooking meth. And they get in deep. So deep that Liz wants it all for herself, and she might just be ready to kill her brother for it. One more showdown to take place at the Donnybrook. As we travel through the backwoods to get to the Donnybrook, we meet a cast of nasty, ruined characters driven to all sorts of evil, all in the name of getting their fix-drugs, violence, sex, money, honor. Donnybrook is exactly the fearless, explosive, amphetamine-fueled journey you'd expect from Frank Bill's first novel . . . and then some.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMar 5, 2013
    ISBN9781470337070
    Author

    Frank Bill

    Frank Bill is the New York Times bestselling author of The Ravaged, with Norman Reedus; the novels The Savage and Donnybrook, the latter of which was turned into a film in 2018; and the story collection Crimes in Southern Indiana, one of GQ’s favorite books of 2011 and a Daily Beast best debut of 2011. He lives and writes in southern Indiana.

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    Reviews for Donnybrook

    3.5/5

    43 ratings9 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Kind of like a Guy Ritchie movie - lots of flash, not a lot of substance and character development. It basically reads like a graphic novel with a fast paced story and not a lot of substance. If you like this genre, Donald Ray Pollock is much much better.
    • 1/5
      A very violent book. The premise is that a prize fight is being held for backwoods hicks with much of the action occurring as participants and spectators are traveling to the fight. Drug use and meth production feature prominently in the story.
    • 2/5
      (I did consider writing Mr. Bill. I initially typed that. I don't reflect enough on the virtues of Play-Doh.)

      Dear Frank Bill,

      I suppose it preferable to trace my position broadly, at least in the beginning. You see, I am reluctant to admit most positions. Life is too exceptional for specifics. My admission tends to dovetail with my respect for literature. Maybe that respect should be a love. Accuse me of indecent infatuations with books. Go ahead. One of the redeeming aspects of literature for me personally is the exercise of empathy. Anyone else's actions and world views can be sensible, if only momentarily through this wealth of language. I sort of need that.

      Your novel Donnybrook is populated with feral humans who offer incessant violence to one another. The only context and revealed motivation is a vague idea of the "economy" and the failure of American Promise. I would find these portraits of Southern Indiana depravity fascinating if I did not live in Southern Indiana. I felt your scratching through torture lore, sorting examples of excess to sate what you imagine as a morbid core for your inbred realm of horrors. I am not discounting the existence of such here. Shit, since your collection of stories was published, a serial killer has been arrested here in New Albany and a couple were later arrested for prostituting their teenage daughter in exchange for drugs. That said, I don't understand your aesthetic.

      Oh and citing musical artists might work for Ian Rankin, but it sucks here. By "here" I mean your novel not Southern Indiana. Well it does suck in Southern Indiana but Donnybrook even more so. So, there.
    • 4/5
      Raw, gritty, and primal, this novel of madness, violence, money, and drugs was brought beautifully to life via audiobook. Seriously, the narrator was spot on and his inflections, accents, and gravely voice added to the story. Donnybrook follows a cast of characters in the south as they make their way to southern Indiana to fight in a massive bare-knuckle fighting match to fight, sell drugs, or seek revenge. No character is without his or her flaws and violence is streaked throughout the pages. If you're going to read this, I highly recommend listening to the audiobook to get the full experience. Excellent!
    • 3/5
      Ultra violent super hillbillies make their way to Donnybrook, a sort of Bonnaroo for meth addled criminals. The main attraction at Donnybrook is the "winner take all" bare knuckle boxing tournament. Beautifully written, but marred by relentless over the top violence and baffling extraneous characters (a mysterious Chinese assassin/martial arts guru; a hippie prophet). Can't wait for part two.
    • 4/5
      3.5 out of 5. I'm tempted to rate the book higher, give it a full four stars (which I'll do here on Goodreads, for the hell of it) - but there's something stopping me. It's not the violence or the content - in fact, I actually rather enjoyed how many different ways to inflict pain or describe said pain Mr. Bill was able to deploy. I think it just was the maelstrom of characters and choppy structure that got to me. I wanted, of all things, just a little more cleanliness to the whole shebang - considering there's so much mess in the story itself. But gawtdamn this was a bullet crack of a read. I was shaking my head when I put it down - and laughing, too. It's as insane as all the hype tells you. I'd suggest taking the trip, if you're in the mood. You won't regret it, that's for sure.
    • 5/5
      Amazing book horribly violent but quote entertaining
    • 5/5
      When I opened Crimes in Southern Indiana, I literally put the book down after the first page, looked around for a moment just to ground myself, picked it up again and reread the first page. Then I thought, this guy writes killer material. It wasn’t too long after that I set the book on top of my read pile and began scouring the websites looking for more books by Frank Bill. Needless to say, it’s been a year long wait to get my hands on his next offering, Donnybrook.Unlike the first book, a compilation of interrelated short stories, this beauty is the full deal, and no less hard hitting. A novel filled with uncompromising characters and a writing style that will leave you feeling like you’ve gone ten rounds with Mohammed Ali & Mike Tyson in the same ring. The finesse is in the believability and stark writing, using only enough words to draw the scene then in the same breath delivering a knockout punch to the senses.Donnybrook is a three day bare-fisted fighting competition where the last man standing wins a large cash prize. With a thousand dollar entry fee, only the serious need apply, and Jarhead is determined to be the winner of this year’s contest, if only to provide for his family. He secures the entry fee the only way he knows how, by stealing it from a local store, going on the run, avoiding law enforcement and getting caught up in more illegal activities when he tries to play Good Samaritan.Then there is Chainsaw Angus, a legend and previous winner of Donnybrook, unwittingly on his way back while chasing his double-crossing, meth-cooking-assistant sister, and her current beau. He leaves a trail of broken bones, blood, and bodies in his wake, making it easy for others out for their piece of vengeance to follow. What ensues is a Tragedy written on a grand scale with a blow by blow, play by play, ending laid out in words that give the impression you’re viewing it on Blu-ray. Not for the squeamish or faint of heart.I would define it as viscerally harsh: a high-octane caffeine kick infused with steroids, Frank’s delivery is poetical beauty. It’s the withdrawals and long wait for the next offering I’m dreading.
    • 5/5
      The title of Frank Bill’s first novel, DONNYBROOK, comes from the name of the three-day bare-knuckle tournament that takes place in a wire-fence ring on a large patch of land in southern Indiana. Fighters converge to try to win the pot in a gladiator-style brawl with few rules and only one winner. In DONNYBROOK, the reader follows an interesting cast of characters as they make their way to that patch of land. Jarhead wants to try to win the tournament to improve life for his wife and children; Chainsaw Angus is searching for the people who have taken his meth and left him for dead; and countless others hope the Donnybrook will give them an opportunity for profit, fun, or revenge.I the book in a rush, anxious to get to the end so that I could breathe again. The action in DONNYBROOK is blood-spattered and fierce, the landscapes are miserable, and the people are some of the most worthless you hope to never meet. The few characters who try their hand at honorable behavior go unrewarded; in fact, most are punished for their relative gentleness. Through all of that nastiness, Frank Bill’s writing is absolutely gorgeous. There are some scenes that had made me pause and take a break because of their brutality, but then I found myself reading those scenes again for the beauty of Frank Bill’s language.Perhaps it’s the impact of the black and white drawing of a man being punched in the face on the cover, but as I was reading, the scenes in my head were black and white animation with explosions of red. One night I even had a dream about the book (something I hope never happens again), and that nightmare had the same lack of color except when it came time for bloodshed.I didn’t know there was a genre called “grit-lit” until now, but the name fits. I remain astounded by this book, and I look forward to reading more by Frank Bill—after I let my pummeled sensibilities rest a bit.