Mouth to Mouth: ‘Gripping... Shades of Patricia Highsmith and Donna Tartt’ Vogue

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This sets in motion the story-within-a-story structure, in which we learn that the classmate, Jeff, has saved a man's life (via mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but the book title of course also refers to oral storytelling), and then became obsessed with this very man, aiming to find out what he did with his second chance.

I kept reading and reading to get to the promised twist that everyone has been raving about, but, honestly, the biggest surprise for me is that the ending surprised anyone. Noticing an arm rising from the water, he was impelled to plunge into the cold sea, bringing the dead weight of the body to land and administering CPR, mouth to mouth. We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. As Jeff finds himself seduced by the lifestyle, he pursues a deeper connection with Francis, until morals become expendable and their relationship becomes ever darker, leaving Jeff finally to wonder…should he have just let Francis drown? Not that Cook needed much prompting, he’s on a roll and seems determined to provide an unexpurgated version.This book is an entertainment to be consumed quickly, a postprandial diversion after lunch, the power of the ride it takes us on to be savored only for a few moments before an announcement of evening cocktails. Jeff found seats by the window, a low table between them, and gestured for me to sit, as if he were my host. Though the frame narrative can feel contrived, and Francis might not be as memorably monstrous as, say, Graham Greene’s Harry Lime, the extended scenes of self-fashioning and occluded vision make good use of Patricia Highsmith’s influence.

While waiting, Jeff decides to unload his burden, his story of how he became so financially successful. We checked into the lounge at a marble counter, where an officious young man took my pass and waved us in, letting us know that they would be announcing when it was time for us to head down to the gate. In a first-class lounge at JFK airport, our narrator listens as Jeff Cook, a former classmate he only vaguely remembers, shares the uncanny story of his adult life—a life that changed course years before, the moment he resuscitated a drowning man. Turning up at the airport for his flight, the narrator of this story bumps into his old friend, Jeff, who he knew from university. And yet, the final sentence brings the conclusion into question: Did Cook leave the narrator with a lie?Readers are hooked by what’s to come when Cook foreshadows events with direct statements like “Stick with me here” or “I’ll get to that.

The novel’s cleverest trick is how he and Cook interrogate their roles as storyteller and audience . I’d been on the left side of the plane, and we’d gone south over the ocean, accident of fate, affording me a panoramic view of the city at night: amber streetlights dotting neighborhoods; red-stripe, white-stripe garlands of freeway traffic; mysterious black gaps of waterways and parkland. Knowing this world very well, w a close chum who was a NY art dealer for decades, and another pal who has assisted in 3 major NYC galleries, along w many artist friends, in NYC and Los Angeles, I cannot take this melodrama seriously -- or as satire, which may be its failed aim. While reading it, I was enjoying the wild ride, but much like Peggy Lee, once it was all over, I kept asking myself: "Is that all there is?Perhaps if I’d been paying closer attention, or if I’d known what was to come, I’d have detected a glimmer of desperation in his eyes. It knows what it wants to say, it's efficient, and if it maybe hits the nail on the head a bit more than is my personal preference, it was never really going for subtlety anyway.

A] taut, compulsive chamber piece of a novel, which you’ll struggle not to rip through in one sitting… Mouth to Mouth is an elegantly told and supremely gripping tale of serendipity and deception—and delivers a brilliant ending that will leave you guessing about everything that came before. These moments make the narrative flow more dynamic and remind readers that they are listening to a story just as much as they are reading a text. Ultimately, this is a story of sliding-door moments, a fate vs fickle-lottery of random events type battle that culminates in an ending well befitting it’s setup. Now, should this ever happen in my actual life (which, it would not, because there is zero chance I would ever make eye contact with anyone at an airport, let alone get roped into a conversation with them), I would most assuredly be saying . Coming out of surgery,” he said, “waking up in the recovery room, foggy as hell, I didn’t feel the sense of relief I had expected to feel—that only came later when I saw my family again.A gloriously addicting tale of decisions and deception… Despite the story being a short once, it doesn’t lack suspense — and Wilson’s ending delivers. I like the way Jeff tells the story although parts of it makes you feel a growing discomfort when you witness his actions with Francis which becomes akin to obsession. Francis doesn’t seem to recognize Jeff, however, he sees something in Jeff that makes him become sort of a mentor for him. Seated by the window drinking the bar’s complimentary beers, Jeff begins to recount a dramatic turning point in his life. Spotting someone in difficulties, he went to the rescue of the swimmer who almost seemed to register him before being whisked off to hospital.