Tomato Can Blues

by Mary Pilon, Bobby Cannavale (Narrator)

Charlie Rowan was a small-time cage fighter in rural Michigan who couldn't get a break.

His punches weren't landing. He owed money to impatient people. He needed to start over, but he didn't know how.

Then, at home on the sofa, he came up with a plan.

Original long-form journalism from The New York Times, read by the actor Bobby Cannavale.

Genres: Audiobook, Fiction

Audible Audio

First published September 17, 2013

About the author

Mary Pilon is a journalist focused primarily on the worlds of sports and business. She is the author of the bestselling books "The Monopolists" and "The Kevin Show," the co-editor of “Losers: Dispatches From the Other Side of the Scoreboard,” and co-host and co-author of the audio series “Twisted: The Story of Larry Nassar and the Women Who Brought Him Down.” Her work regularly appears in the New Yorker, Esquire, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Vice, New York, and The New York Times, among other publications.

She has worked as a producer with NBC at the 2016 Rio Olympics and on HBO’s forthcoming documentary “BS High.” She is currently co-directing a documentary about pickleball for Peter Berg’s Film 45.

Pilon previously was a staff reporter with The Times on the sports desk and at The Wall Street Journal, where she covered various aspects of business and finance.

A native of Eugene, Ore., Mary started reporting for her hometown paper, the Register-Guard, as a teenager and was a wildly mediocre athlete.

Today, she receives editorial input from her rescue puggle, Pedro, and her grandmother claims to be her biggest fan.

Reviews

[Shaun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well it was free.... and that's good because it probably wasn't worth paying for. It was very short (30 minutes). The author tried to tell too big a story in too short a time. It's completely predictable. But it was OK considering it was free I guess. Three stars is being generous. It deserves three stars only because I'm taking in to account that it was a free gift from Audible and that I did not pay for it. It would receive two stars if I had paid for it.

[Emilija · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t ever remember downloading this, but it was in my audible library so I must have at some point. It was boring and disjointed and doesn’t really seem to have a point to it. Wouldn’t recommend.

[Megan Collins · Rating 1 out of 5]

Charlie Rowan was a small-time cage fighter in rural Michigan. When his girlfriend announced his death in a car crash, the community came together to raise funds for his family only to be confused when they saw him on the news a couple of weeks later.
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Biographical pieces aren’t normally my forte and this one has a few added problems. There is a disjointed timeline despite the brief number of content pages. It was originally a news article, so it lacks a bit of narrative embellishment to increase reader engagement. The narration work is fine and it is available for free.

[Fiona · Rating 1 out of 5]

This title was free from Audible and had a celebrity narrator so I was hoping for merely a decent fictional diversion. However the story struggled to keep my attention for even 29 minutes and in retrospect I should have listened to something else.

[Krishnakanth Kurumeti · Rating 2 out of 5]

Forgettable

[José Ernesto · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yo sabia que algo gratis no podía ser bueno, y lastimadamente tenía razón.

[pdarnold · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review of audiobook format.

This definitely was not my cup of tea. I liked Bobby Cannavale's narration, but the story was just too short (all of 28 minutes in length) to care. The character Charlie Rowan - he came, he planned, he... to say anymore would give away to a spoiler. In fact, to say anything more outside of the description of the story here on Goodreads gives away the tale.

[debbicat *made of stardust* · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought the narrator was good... but that was really the best part of it. It was free to listen to on audible but I'm glad I didn't pay for it. This story about a fighter who came up with a get out of debt scheme was not for me.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining documentary about a cage fighter who feigns death. Frothy infotainment.

[Claire Gilligan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, I got it for free from Audible, and it was worth almost what I paid for it. The story seemed to have no purpose. Disjointed, meandering... At least it was fairly short!

[Kent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its OK. The news article style is interesting, but IMO it impedes connecting with the characters.

[ANNE Harlow · Rating 1 out of 5]

Received this free. It is not my usual read. I could not get into it.