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Ingram
New York Times Bestseller
"C.K. has written something close to a great American novel." —Book and Film Globe
A suspenseful, often harrowing yet hopeful odyssey through rural America follows a young drifter’s coming of age in an indifferent world, in this debut novel by comedian Louis C.K.
When Ingram is forced by overwhelming poverty and spiritual exhaustion to walk away from his home, he leaves behind a neglectful childhood on a dirt farm on a dead-end road. With no family, no resources, and no practical understanding of the world, Ingram’s only compass is the daily fight to survive and the narrow dream of one day owning a truck.
A picaresque novel set against the backdrop of working-class Texas, Ingram invites readers to see the world through the eyes of a child who drifts through a tough American landscape of corn farms and oil fields, guided by diner waitresses, migrant workers, and criminals, trying to make sense of a world that doesn’t care about him anymore than a jungle or desert does for the creatures that toil to survive within them.
The reality Ingram discovers is wild and cruel, but filled with unexpected wonders. Though this young boy faces tornadoes, explosions, thieves, and rampant violence, his curiosity, humor, and resilience never dull.
As he begins to push against the tide of social and natural bad luck that seems to almost chase him, Ingram begins to forge himself into an individual with agency and the ability and right to choose his own moves, even if he’s not always prepared for the consequences.
Through Ingram’s journey, he begins to come to terms with a forgotten tragedy from his past that shapes the way he understands himself, his family, and his own place in the world.
"C.K. has written something close to a great American novel." —Book and Film Globe
A suspenseful, often harrowing yet hopeful odyssey through rural America follows a young drifter’s coming of age in an indifferent world, in this debut novel by comedian Louis C.K.
When Ingram is forced by overwhelming poverty and spiritual exhaustion to walk away from his home, he leaves behind a neglectful childhood on a dirt farm on a dead-end road. With no family, no resources, and no practical understanding of the world, Ingram’s only compass is the daily fight to survive and the narrow dream of one day owning a truck.
A picaresque novel set against the backdrop of working-class Texas, Ingram invites readers to see the world through the eyes of a child who drifts through a tough American landscape of corn farms and oil fields, guided by diner waitresses, migrant workers, and criminals, trying to make sense of a world that doesn’t care about him anymore than a jungle or desert does for the creatures that toil to survive within them.
The reality Ingram discovers is wild and cruel, but filled with unexpected wonders. Though this young boy faces tornadoes, explosions, thieves, and rampant violence, his curiosity, humor, and resilience never dull.
As he begins to push against the tide of social and natural bad luck that seems to almost chase him, Ingram begins to forge himself into an individual with agency and the ability and right to choose his own moves, even if he’s not always prepared for the consequences.
Through Ingram’s journey, he begins to come to terms with a forgotten tragedy from his past that shapes the way he understands himself, his family, and his own place in the world.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 11, 2025
643 people are currently reading
4066 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 264 reviews
November 13, 2025
He mentioned on a podcast that his goal was to find that old voice that comes from the soil of America. I think he accomplished that. This story is brutal, but also the reality we live in.
I read this in two evenings over tea in my rocking chair. As much of an homage as I could offer to enhance the setting for the story.
I'm a big fan of Louis CK. His standup, his show Louis, and now this.
I read this in two evenings over tea in my rocking chair. As much of an homage as I could offer to enhance the setting for the story.
I'm a big fan of Louis CK. His standup, his show Louis, and now this.
February 10, 2026
Profound, clever and poetic. And very bleak.
Being familiar with his comedy, I had no doubts this would be a great journey.
It is also a gritty and raw journey.
Ingram’s life is about the bare bones: facts, things, survival. And the fact that he’s a young, innocent boy increases the intensity of everything that happens to him.
Louis CK is painting for us a shocking example of how cruel life can be. The reader has to struggle with the instinct to protect a young kid, while life throws horror after horror at him, and that’s heavy because as a reader, you can’t do anything to help him.
When I got to the end, I wondered to what extent this story must be autobiographical, since in the end every writer writes about themselves, and I’m sure that in at least a metaphorical way a lot of it is very personal for Louis.
Something that struck me is how Ingram’s growth, as a character, happens only as a matter of practical experience, of simply “being more used to the world”, rather than as real internal growth.
By the end, there is a mention of an internal trauma being somehow processed, but to me, that sounds more like “psychiatry fluff” rather than actual, profound growth.
What I mean is, there is street wisdom and then there is actual wisdom. Nowadays, the former is much more common than the latter.
Louis, like many modern secular men, stands at the foot of the Cross without Resurrection, which might look like clear-eyed courage, but is a kind of truncation.
He refuses to move, watching, as our Lord bleeds and suffers with us and for us. It’s late at night. Almost no sounds. It’s a warm night, with a little breeze.
He sees the wood very clearly. He does not flinch from nails, from blood, from pain, from the public exposure and humiliation (which he has had to endure himself, mutatis mutandis, due to the recent scandal).
He understands, with an acuity that is increasingly rare, that this world is a cold pit of selfishness, and that too many religious people simply seek faith for superficial comfort, or apply their selfishness to a grandiose delusion.
But — like most, he confuses real faith with “fables and bs”:
“I thought about all these words that meant the same thing: fables, bullshit, lies, fiction: things that weren’t real. What Marian said men need to believe, or what she said puts sugar in your mind. Then there were other words that come together, like what Jackson at the farm called “reality” and Marian called “the truth”: what you get stuck with. The way things are, that can’t be avoided, and are too much to look at.”
A lot of the novel’s core revolves around this concept of “truth”, of staring at it in the face rather than filling your head with fables.
Many people today erroneously believe that christianity is a prime example of these “fables”. Louis CK probably does, too, because when a priest (or bishop) visits Ingram in the hospital and tells him about Jesus’ presence in everyone’s life, Ingram says “that was the most untrue thing I’d heard in my entire life”, his life being defined by extreme loneliness.
(When a protagonist in fiction says something about God, it is generally the author’s own perspective).
What this perspective ignores, however, is that the christianity that they’re thinking about is simply not christianity. And that true christian doctrine is not about sugar-coating (think about all the christian martyrs, just as an example), but about getting deeper into our actual reality.
In this novel, the Cross becomes a practical lesson in realism rather than a passage. It is the place where illusions go to die, not where the dead rise and everything begins. Not the one place in history where a man symbolically, realistically, genuinely, metaphorically, authentically and literally defeated death.
And so Louis’s honesty, bracing as it is, risks closing in on itself and becoming cynicism. It circles human failure with precision, yet refuses the possibility that failure might be more than terminal.
The Cross is not merely the revelation of how bad things are and can be, but the condition of their transformation. To stop at the crucifixion is to grasp judgment without mercy, truth without completion.
It’s like reading only Inferno and thinking that’s the whole Divine Comedy. Dante understood that Christianity is not an opinion, but it’s the only thing that can explain the truth.
Yeah, not “my truth” or “his truth”.
The truth.
Our society of teenagers has lost the courage to say that.
The Resurrection, after all, is an offense to realism.
It breaks causality. It violates moral accounting. It forgives without pretending nothing happened.
In a sense, Louis makes the mistake that millions make today: being smart, they question tirelessly, thinking that faith asks you to do the opposite. But despite the appearances and the numerous examples of unthinking self-proclaiming christians, that’s not the case.
Real christian doctrine is not built on dumb acceptance of principles. It is rooted in a relentless desire to question reality and get to the bottom of it. It requires great rationality as well as great trust.
So, like many today, Louis waits at the Cross, looking at Jesus, almost a corpse by now. A tiny and grey body, the last pieces of garments flapping in the breeze.
He insists that meaning, if it exists, must be carried on human shoulders alone. Nothing is sacred. Nothing is divine.
But every single human heart needs to worship. Each of us worships something.
Therefore — real, true and deep happiness and growth cannot prescind from the truth of God. And the truth of the Resurrection.
It’s not an easy truth to accept, especially for the intellectually minded like Louis C. K. It’s very difficult.
But it’s the key to “salvation”, a word that comes from “being healthy” in latin.
“Tom! Enough with the preaching! Why do you go on about faith so much?”
Because — like Cardinal Sarah said — “in the end, it is God or nothing.”
Being familiar with his comedy, I had no doubts this would be a great journey.
It is also a gritty and raw journey.
Ingram’s life is about the bare bones: facts, things, survival. And the fact that he’s a young, innocent boy increases the intensity of everything that happens to him.
Louis CK is painting for us a shocking example of how cruel life can be. The reader has to struggle with the instinct to protect a young kid, while life throws horror after horror at him, and that’s heavy because as a reader, you can’t do anything to help him.
When I got to the end, I wondered to what extent this story must be autobiographical, since in the end every writer writes about themselves, and I’m sure that in at least a metaphorical way a lot of it is very personal for Louis.
Something that struck me is how Ingram’s growth, as a character, happens only as a matter of practical experience, of simply “being more used to the world”, rather than as real internal growth.
By the end, there is a mention of an internal trauma being somehow processed, but to me, that sounds more like “psychiatry fluff” rather than actual, profound growth.
What I mean is, there is street wisdom and then there is actual wisdom. Nowadays, the former is much more common than the latter.
Louis, like many modern secular men, stands at the foot of the Cross without Resurrection, which might look like clear-eyed courage, but is a kind of truncation.
He refuses to move, watching, as our Lord bleeds and suffers with us and for us. It’s late at night. Almost no sounds. It’s a warm night, with a little breeze.
He sees the wood very clearly. He does not flinch from nails, from blood, from pain, from the public exposure and humiliation (which he has had to endure himself, mutatis mutandis, due to the recent scandal).
He understands, with an acuity that is increasingly rare, that this world is a cold pit of selfishness, and that too many religious people simply seek faith for superficial comfort, or apply their selfishness to a grandiose delusion.
But — like most, he confuses real faith with “fables and bs”:
“I thought about all these words that meant the same thing: fables, bullshit, lies, fiction: things that weren’t real. What Marian said men need to believe, or what she said puts sugar in your mind. Then there were other words that come together, like what Jackson at the farm called “reality” and Marian called “the truth”: what you get stuck with. The way things are, that can’t be avoided, and are too much to look at.”
A lot of the novel’s core revolves around this concept of “truth”, of staring at it in the face rather than filling your head with fables.
Many people today erroneously believe that christianity is a prime example of these “fables”. Louis CK probably does, too, because when a priest (or bishop) visits Ingram in the hospital and tells him about Jesus’ presence in everyone’s life, Ingram says “that was the most untrue thing I’d heard in my entire life”, his life being defined by extreme loneliness.
(When a protagonist in fiction says something about God, it is generally the author’s own perspective).
What this perspective ignores, however, is that the christianity that they’re thinking about is simply not christianity. And that true christian doctrine is not about sugar-coating (think about all the christian martyrs, just as an example), but about getting deeper into our actual reality.
In this novel, the Cross becomes a practical lesson in realism rather than a passage. It is the place where illusions go to die, not where the dead rise and everything begins. Not the one place in history where a man symbolically, realistically, genuinely, metaphorically, authentically and literally defeated death.
And so Louis’s honesty, bracing as it is, risks closing in on itself and becoming cynicism. It circles human failure with precision, yet refuses the possibility that failure might be more than terminal.
The Cross is not merely the revelation of how bad things are and can be, but the condition of their transformation. To stop at the crucifixion is to grasp judgment without mercy, truth without completion.
It’s like reading only Inferno and thinking that’s the whole Divine Comedy. Dante understood that Christianity is not an opinion, but it’s the only thing that can explain the truth.
Yeah, not “my truth” or “his truth”.
The truth.
Our society of teenagers has lost the courage to say that.
The Resurrection, after all, is an offense to realism.
It breaks causality. It violates moral accounting. It forgives without pretending nothing happened.
In a sense, Louis makes the mistake that millions make today: being smart, they question tirelessly, thinking that faith asks you to do the opposite. But despite the appearances and the numerous examples of unthinking self-proclaiming christians, that’s not the case.
Real christian doctrine is not built on dumb acceptance of principles. It is rooted in a relentless desire to question reality and get to the bottom of it. It requires great rationality as well as great trust.
So, like many today, Louis waits at the Cross, looking at Jesus, almost a corpse by now. A tiny and grey body, the last pieces of garments flapping in the breeze.
He insists that meaning, if it exists, must be carried on human shoulders alone. Nothing is sacred. Nothing is divine.
But every single human heart needs to worship. Each of us worships something.
Therefore — real, true and deep happiness and growth cannot prescind from the truth of God. And the truth of the Resurrection.
It’s not an easy truth to accept, especially for the intellectually minded like Louis C. K. It’s very difficult.
But it’s the key to “salvation”, a word that comes from “being healthy” in latin.
“Tom! Enough with the preaching! Why do you go on about faith so much?”
Because — like Cardinal Sarah said — “in the end, it is God or nothing.”
November 18, 2025
This was, without a doubt, the worst book ever written since writing was invented 4500 years ago. I would rate it zero stars if it would let me. The longest homosexual coming out story I’ve ever read. I don’t endorse burning books, but in this case I will make an exception. The main character is just him being angry at everyone because he can’t keep his man parts to himself. This whole thing is an ode to the mediocre white man being held accountable for inflicting his mediocre white peen upon the world. I knew this was going to be bad when he Thanked Theo Von with reading and helping him craft the story. Chris Rock should sue to have his name removed from the dedication page. A completely non-sensical story with flat zero dimensional characters and no discernible plot. I think he’s making a social commentary, but mostly he was too busy insulting the reader with stereotypical portrayals of every race and social standing. I would say it’s mostly misogynistic, but you realize that’s just the pretty wrapping on a misanthropic gift, that is Ingram. Or should it be called Baby Louis is angry with the world. Louis CK is the Temu Mark Twain/Cormac McCarthy. I feel like he was trying to write The Road, but only made it as far as the outhouse. Mothers, Fathers, friends, family…you know when you’ve created and coddled a mediocre white male, do not feed into or co-sign their delusions of grandeur, novels like this are the result…or school shootings. I hate to be so critical of any artistic endeavor; the artist is as close to a god as can reasonably be observed, in that they create from thin air what never existed. But this creation…birth is backwards. Louis CK has laid before us, the afterbirth. Please only read this book if you hate yourself or recommend it to someone you truly hate.
November 14, 2025
This book brought me right back to my roots growing up, invisible, in a single wide mobile home on wheels in Appalachia Kentucky. IYKYK Watch out Huck Finn! There’s a new kid in town and his name is Ingram.
November 23, 2025
I've been a big fan of Louis c.k.'s work since shameless came out almost twenty years ago. I've been lucky enough to see him live and I've purchased his side projects like Horace and Pete, which I enjoyed. All this to say I really wanted to love this book. I do have to be honest, no aspect of this narrative was executed well. The character development, settings, plot points, the pacing, the vernacular, everything, was just flat. In areas where it was clear from context that it should be a moving moment, the feeling just wasn't there. There were just way too many similes which also made it feel all the more amateur, and it really took me out of it. In the final third of the novel a major revelation gave me hope that there was still time for redemption. Unfortunately that was not the case. It felt like he ramped up for something big and didn't deliver in the end.
Louis is an incredibly gifted story teller imo. I absolutely loved how he was able to capture moments of the absurdity of everyday life on his show 'Louie'. There was never a moment in this novel where I could hear Louie's voice. It seemed too much like he was trying to write in the voice of Mark Twain. I feel like Louie needs to just be Louie. If he writes another one, which it sounds like he will, I really hope he finds his voice for it because I know it's there.
Louis is an incredibly gifted story teller imo. I absolutely loved how he was able to capture moments of the absurdity of everyday life on his show 'Louie'. There was never a moment in this novel where I could hear Louie's voice. It seemed too much like he was trying to write in the voice of Mark Twain. I feel like Louie needs to just be Louie. If he writes another one, which it sounds like he will, I really hope he finds his voice for it because I know it's there.
December 27, 2025
Did I accidentally order a Cormac McCarthy novel at the Scholastic Book Fair in the school library? Every commonplace event is described through the eyes of an innocent boy. That gimmick got tiresome and it was often excruciatingly inauthentic. Is this YA? I've never read any YA before (unless Huck Finn counts).
November 20, 2025
When I first heard that Louis C.K. had written a novel—let alone one that people were whispering might become a classic—I was skeptical. And yet here we are. Ingram is an unexpected achievement: a remarkably assured piece of fiction that at times feels timeless, even canonical, while also containing moments that hold it back from fully earning that status.
Let’s start with what works. The voice Louis C.K. creates for Ingram is extraordinary—simple, clear-eyed, strangely innocent, and immediately believable. The narrative feels like it’s filtered through a child’s perception, offering “new eyes on an old world.” The mix of ignorance, curiosity, and plainspoken observation is delightful. It’s a difficult narrative voice to sustain, and he does it with real skill.
I was also struck by the novel’s ambiguous time period. It initially evokes a scene out of the Great Depression, yet as the story unfolds we encounter details suggesting this world exists much later—perhaps even in a speculative future. The effect is disorienting but compelling, and it gives the novel a mythic, almost fable-like quality.
Another place where Louis C.K. shines is in his portrayal of people simply trying to survive. Characters don’t pontificate about politics or systems; they inhabit the world in front of them, doing their best within its constraints. Their lives are simple but never depicted as lacking intelligence or emotional depth. It’s a humane, grounded perspective that works beautifully.
But there are moments where the author’s hand shows more than it should. The clearest example is around money. Early on, Ingram is obsessed with burying his coins for safekeeping—an instinct that feels true for someone living in poverty. Yet moments later, he casually dumps stacks of dimes on a bed and walks away from them. It reads like authorial carelessness rather than character development. It also reflects something about the writer: a wealthy comedian who, perhaps, cannot fully imagine the hyper-protectiveness that poverty instills. The scene only becomes stranger when the thief is offered a moral choice so bizarre—“take half and I won’t stab you”—that it borders on parody.
A similar issue appears after the factory explosion, when Ingram learns from an attorney that his pain and suffering have monetary value. For someone who has known extreme poverty, his total indifference feels less like character consistency and more like the author imposing an idea. The book insists that Ingram cares only about whether people own a particular pickup truck—a detail meant to be quirky, but one that becomes thematically muddled as we learn the truck is nearly obsolete in this world.
And then there’s the question of segregation. I remain conflicted about how it functions in the novel. Given the realities of today’s society—where both wealth and poverty are racially diverse—it’s difficult to accept a future that reconstitutes a 1950s-style racial order. If anything, our trajectory suggests class stratification, not the reemergence of rigid racial segregation. The book’s portrayal of racial boundaries feels anachronistic, as if imported from mid-century America rather than earned within the logic of the world being built.
Despite these criticisms, I thoroughly enjoyed Ingram. It often reads like a classic. It feels like a classic. Louis C.K. has created a distinctively American voice and a richly imagined world. The novel does stumble in its later chapters—losing some of the clarity and control that made the opening so strong—but even so, this is an impressive, memorable debut. I’m glad I read it, and I suspect many others will be too.
Let’s start with what works. The voice Louis C.K. creates for Ingram is extraordinary—simple, clear-eyed, strangely innocent, and immediately believable. The narrative feels like it’s filtered through a child’s perception, offering “new eyes on an old world.” The mix of ignorance, curiosity, and plainspoken observation is delightful. It’s a difficult narrative voice to sustain, and he does it with real skill.
I was also struck by the novel’s ambiguous time period. It initially evokes a scene out of the Great Depression, yet as the story unfolds we encounter details suggesting this world exists much later—perhaps even in a speculative future. The effect is disorienting but compelling, and it gives the novel a mythic, almost fable-like quality.
Another place where Louis C.K. shines is in his portrayal of people simply trying to survive. Characters don’t pontificate about politics or systems; they inhabit the world in front of them, doing their best within its constraints. Their lives are simple but never depicted as lacking intelligence or emotional depth. It’s a humane, grounded perspective that works beautifully.
But there are moments where the author’s hand shows more than it should. The clearest example is around money. Early on, Ingram is obsessed with burying his coins for safekeeping—an instinct that feels true for someone living in poverty. Yet moments later, he casually dumps stacks of dimes on a bed and walks away from them. It reads like authorial carelessness rather than character development. It also reflects something about the writer: a wealthy comedian who, perhaps, cannot fully imagine the hyper-protectiveness that poverty instills. The scene only becomes stranger when the thief is offered a moral choice so bizarre—“take half and I won’t stab you”—that it borders on parody.
A similar issue appears after the factory explosion, when Ingram learns from an attorney that his pain and suffering have monetary value. For someone who has known extreme poverty, his total indifference feels less like character consistency and more like the author imposing an idea. The book insists that Ingram cares only about whether people own a particular pickup truck—a detail meant to be quirky, but one that becomes thematically muddled as we learn the truck is nearly obsolete in this world.
And then there’s the question of segregation. I remain conflicted about how it functions in the novel. Given the realities of today’s society—where both wealth and poverty are racially diverse—it’s difficult to accept a future that reconstitutes a 1950s-style racial order. If anything, our trajectory suggests class stratification, not the reemergence of rigid racial segregation. The book’s portrayal of racial boundaries feels anachronistic, as if imported from mid-century America rather than earned within the logic of the world being built.
Despite these criticisms, I thoroughly enjoyed Ingram. It often reads like a classic. It feels like a classic. Louis C.K. has created a distinctively American voice and a richly imagined world. The novel does stumble in its later chapters—losing some of the clarity and control that made the opening so strong—but even so, this is an impressive, memorable debut. I’m glad I read it, and I suspect many others will be too.
December 26, 2025
Hands down the worst book I have ever read. So disappointing that it will become an instant NY Bestseller because it is written by a celebrity and that's how marketing works - but all the more reason that strong criticism of it must be made.
I knew this was a disaster by the first paragraph. When a protagonist who was supposedly born and raised on a farm says of horses, "horses do what horses do," instantly shattered the immersion of a world attempting to be entered. It’s a glaring "tell" that the author hasn't done the basic research required to inhabit the world he's building. I hoped it would improve; instead, it descended into a parody of "meaningful" literature. What should have remained as an SNL Sketch became an actual novel.
It is clear that Louis CK is operating within a vacuum of sycophants. There is no evidence of an editor’s hand here. This book reads like a first draft that was applauded by people too intimidated by celebrity to speak the truth: it is unreadable. The writing doesn't just fail; it insults the reader. The characterization is so shallow that the boy feels less like a human being and more like a buffoon that came into spontaneous existence at 9 years old. I expected the boy to soon take delight by how wet water was. The author mistakes misery for depth and the dawning of awareness for insight. The character is a know-nothing in dialogue, but displays depth in narration and that's because Louis has no idea on how to write such a novel.
The danger of this book isn't just that it’s bad—it’s that it represents the "celebrity-first" plague of publishing - pushing away the talent in lieu of the famous. The wit and timing he has on stage are nowhere to be found in these pages. The prose is so "confidently moronic" that it risks poisoning the well. Between the algorithmic drift of AI-generated content and the ego-driven vanity projects of celebrities, the bar for "good writing" has been lowered to the floor. This book came into existence as trash, never having served any purpose other than being garbage and to the garbage it shall go.
I had AI remove my vitriol to stay within the community guidelines. Do yourself a favor and remove it from your reading list.
I knew this was a disaster by the first paragraph. When a protagonist who was supposedly born and raised on a farm says of horses, "horses do what horses do," instantly shattered the immersion of a world attempting to be entered. It’s a glaring "tell" that the author hasn't done the basic research required to inhabit the world he's building. I hoped it would improve; instead, it descended into a parody of "meaningful" literature. What should have remained as an SNL Sketch became an actual novel.
It is clear that Louis CK is operating within a vacuum of sycophants. There is no evidence of an editor’s hand here. This book reads like a first draft that was applauded by people too intimidated by celebrity to speak the truth: it is unreadable. The writing doesn't just fail; it insults the reader. The characterization is so shallow that the boy feels less like a human being and more like a buffoon that came into spontaneous existence at 9 years old. I expected the boy to soon take delight by how wet water was. The author mistakes misery for depth and the dawning of awareness for insight. The character is a know-nothing in dialogue, but displays depth in narration and that's because Louis has no idea on how to write such a novel.
The danger of this book isn't just that it’s bad—it’s that it represents the "celebrity-first" plague of publishing - pushing away the talent in lieu of the famous. The wit and timing he has on stage are nowhere to be found in these pages. The prose is so "confidently moronic" that it risks poisoning the well. Between the algorithmic drift of AI-generated content and the ego-driven vanity projects of celebrities, the bar for "good writing" has been lowered to the floor. This book came into existence as trash, never having served any purpose other than being garbage and to the garbage it shall go.
I had AI remove my vitriol to stay within the community guidelines. Do yourself a favor and remove it from your reading list.
November 16, 2025
Surprisingly profound in its simplicity and CK's creative interpretation of the world through a lost child's eyes. Touching if you wish to be touched. Moving if you wish to be moved. Captivating and hopeful through countless tragedies. Ingram consistently defies the alternative, even through passivity. Highly recommend.
December 17, 2025
..netipisks un aizraujošs stāsts par mazu puiku, kurš piespiedu kārtā tiek aizsūtīts pasaulē. kā tāds brutāls Sprīdīša variants no štatiem. un paša autora balsī pavisam cits baudījums. | 4,5*
November 16, 2025
I acknowledge heavy bias as a fan of the author. Is this a prize-winning book? No. Is this the next Great American Novel? No. Is it incredibly repetitive in its simplistic prose due to being written in the first person by the main character, an illiterate child? Yes. The best description I have read for this book is 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Forrest Gump as the main character' - in the sense that the character stumbles through a hard life, encountering meanness from people who should know better, and kindness from people his peers would have taught him to hate, and events just seem to happen to him, and he learns something from every experience.
There is nothing ground-breaking or life-changing here. However, I enjoyed my time with it, and I will revisit it in the future. I'm glad I bought the audiobook, as I think seeing the prose as the written word would have frustrated me greatly as a reader.
There is nothing ground-breaking or life-changing here. However, I enjoyed my time with it, and I will revisit it in the future. I'm glad I bought the audiobook, as I think seeing the prose as the written word would have frustrated me greatly as a reader.
December 30, 2025
Shockingly, this novel is written by the Grammy winning and extremely famous and successful comedian Louis CK. Did anyone else on the whole planet know that he was writing a novel? I saw it on the shelf at Barnes & Noble and was reading through reviews before it occurred to me who the author was. I could not have been more shocked….. except for when I learned what the book was about. For anyone who is familiar with CK’s work, they would expect this book to be something significantly more lighthearted. Fair warning, it is not.
The writing here is not good. I think with time it could get that way. Ingram, however, is very rudimentary. The story follows a young boy cast out of his family home, who is forced to learn his life’s lessons on his own in extremely difficult circumstances. This of course is a story that has been told many times before. The novel that I can think of that most closely resembles what CK is attempting here is Kingsolver’s Pulitzer Prize winning Demon Copperhead, which is a sweeping epic tale of a boy in similar circumstances. Both stories seem to be heavily inspired by notions of David Copperfield, but Ingram is definitely a poor man’s version.
I have to applaud a few things here – a well-known comedian getting in to novel writing is a huge intellectual jump, and I think he did it with aplomb. He also crossed a genre gap in a way that is almost belies believability, and though I felt that he missed the mark somewhat, the novel is extremely serious in tone and tackled some difficult themes. It also manages to wrap up the multiple storylines in a way that is satisfying and feels thorough, although it was done in sort of a clumsy ham fisted way. I believe his next novel might be truly excellent.
This book is good. It is not great. For people interested in literature as a progressive art form I think this might be an important book to check off of your to-read list. CK seems to be announcing himself as a serious author and I think in the next 5 to 10 years he will quite possibly have achieved something excellent. Ingram is a smoke signal — CK has declared himself a serious contender in story telling and I find that extremely exciting!
The writing here is not good. I think with time it could get that way. Ingram, however, is very rudimentary. The story follows a young boy cast out of his family home, who is forced to learn his life’s lessons on his own in extremely difficult circumstances. This of course is a story that has been told many times before. The novel that I can think of that most closely resembles what CK is attempting here is Kingsolver’s Pulitzer Prize winning Demon Copperhead, which is a sweeping epic tale of a boy in similar circumstances. Both stories seem to be heavily inspired by notions of David Copperfield, but Ingram is definitely a poor man’s version.
I have to applaud a few things here – a well-known comedian getting in to novel writing is a huge intellectual jump, and I think he did it with aplomb. He also crossed a genre gap in a way that is almost belies believability, and though I felt that he missed the mark somewhat, the novel is extremely serious in tone and tackled some difficult themes. It also manages to wrap up the multiple storylines in a way that is satisfying and feels thorough, although it was done in sort of a clumsy ham fisted way. I believe his next novel might be truly excellent.
This book is good. It is not great. For people interested in literature as a progressive art form I think this might be an important book to check off of your to-read list. CK seems to be announcing himself as a serious author and I think in the next 5 to 10 years he will quite possibly have achieved something excellent. Ingram is a smoke signal — CK has declared himself a serious contender in story telling and I find that extremely exciting!
November 18, 2025
Ingram is one of the most mesmerizing books I’ve read. The boy’s clarity and calm acceptance of reality were unexpectedly moving. I couldn’t stop listening, even pushed work aside just to finish it.
January 4, 2026
This novel is narrated by its protagonist Ingram who as young and poor boy has to find his way in the world. Knowing nothing more than life on a small farm in Texas, everything outside is new and confusing. His life’s story is certainly among those which are not often told or heard. His experiences with how strange a society and how absurd human existence can be makes for an interesting thought experiment: How well would you fare if you had to teach yourself everything, heading off with only the worldview you had when you were about 10?
Ingram is a strong story about facing hardship as well as learning in life, and Louis C.K. proved to be the right author to tell it. Listening to the recordings of him reading the novel enhances the general feeling of this part of America thoroughly. Don’t expect punchlines, because if there is comedy to be found in all this misery it comes with some sort of subtlety or a certain ridiculousness in the grand scheme of things.
A great adventure in the wastelands of the Southern United States. A fine debut novel from a seasoned story-teller.
Ingram is a strong story about facing hardship as well as learning in life, and Louis C.K. proved to be the right author to tell it. Listening to the recordings of him reading the novel enhances the general feeling of this part of America thoroughly. Don’t expect punchlines, because if there is comedy to be found in all this misery it comes with some sort of subtlety or a certain ridiculousness in the grand scheme of things.
A great adventure in the wastelands of the Southern United States. A fine debut novel from a seasoned story-teller.
January 7, 2026
Took 27 pages to realize this was not good at all - so I stopped there. T’is a shame….or t’is not a shame depending on your pov on this slob. I bought the book in great shame, but I had to know how CK translated as a writer, since I’ve loved all his other creative stuff (except for his standup which I haven’t watched in years and years). It really shows itself immediately to be a terrible book. Badly written, bad story, and while I figured the misery that is draped all over it would be interesting on some perverse level, it is not at all. Ah well…starting 2026 off on the right foot
February 5, 2026
I picked up Ingram mostly because I enjoy Louis C.K.’s comedy and figured I’d see what kind of world he’d build in a novel. I ended up listening to the audiobook read by him, and I finished it in under a week so it definitely wasn’t boring. It keeps moving, characters enter and exit at good moments, and the world feels vivid...a strange blend of Depression-era poverty and futuristic technology.
What worked best for me was the world itself and the way it shows progress without justice. Planes, machines, cities changing - but race and class still deciding who gets stuck where. That part felt clear and intentional, and probably the strongest thing the book had to say. It’s like the world keeps upgrading but the rules about who matters don’t.
But where the book lost me was emotionally and psychologically. Ingram mostly observes the world, rarely chooses in a way that feels morally meaningful, and remains oddly unchanged by what happens to him. His reactions don’t always make sense given how deprived and isolated his childhood was supposed to be. The novel gestures at guilt about his brother, family, belonging, and loss, but never really dramatizes those ideas through consequence or transformation. Kindness exists in the book, but it stays episodic and sentimental instead of becoming something risky or costly. It never fully ties that kindness to the racial and class inequality the book is clearly interested in.
Where I felt less satisfied was the emotional side of it. The book circles big ideas: family, guilt about his brother, belonging, loss, but it never really opens them up all the way. I kept expecting the family storyline to matter more, or the guilt to turn into something bigger, and instead it just… settles. When his father turns against him, it feels important, but also strangely flat. And the idea of family gets talked about a lot without really being resolved. Ironically, one of the moments that hit hardest for me was when he loses all his money in the tornado, even though it’s barely lingered on. That loss felt like it actually had weight in a way a lot of the emotional material didn’t.
So I don’t think Ingram is a bad book. It’s easy to follow, and it sustained my attention for a world I could picture. Ultimately, it feels like an attempt at a big literary form that doesn’t quite earn its gravitas.
What worked best for me was the world itself and the way it shows progress without justice. Planes, machines, cities changing - but race and class still deciding who gets stuck where. That part felt clear and intentional, and probably the strongest thing the book had to say. It’s like the world keeps upgrading but the rules about who matters don’t.
But where the book lost me was emotionally and psychologically. Ingram mostly observes the world, rarely chooses in a way that feels morally meaningful, and remains oddly unchanged by what happens to him. His reactions don’t always make sense given how deprived and isolated his childhood was supposed to be. The novel gestures at guilt about his brother, family, belonging, and loss, but never really dramatizes those ideas through consequence or transformation. Kindness exists in the book, but it stays episodic and sentimental instead of becoming something risky or costly. It never fully ties that kindness to the racial and class inequality the book is clearly interested in.
Where I felt less satisfied was the emotional side of it. The book circles big ideas: family, guilt about his brother, belonging, loss, but it never really opens them up all the way. I kept expecting the family storyline to matter more, or the guilt to turn into something bigger, and instead it just… settles. When his father turns against him, it feels important, but also strangely flat. And the idea of family gets talked about a lot without really being resolved. Ironically, one of the moments that hit hardest for me was when he loses all his money in the tornado, even though it’s barely lingered on. That loss felt like it actually had weight in a way a lot of the emotional material didn’t.
So I don’t think Ingram is a bad book. It’s easy to follow, and it sustained my attention for a world I could picture. Ultimately, it feels like an attempt at a big literary form that doesn’t quite earn its gravitas.
November 13, 2025
Listened on audiobook. My husband wanted to listen to it with me. I gave it 4 chapters and just couldn’t do anymore. I give 1 star for books I cannot finish. It’s the writing and the contradictions. Maybe it gets better but it was like nails on a chalkboard to me and I couldn’t do it anymore.
December 3, 2025
I went into the book wanting to like it, but it was a mess of one dimensional characters and caricature-ized tropes. For all that Ingram went through, he still managed to be written as a one dimensional flat line of a character with no development, which was disappointing. This book was a publishing of an idea with no editing or fine-tuning of the sentences or the characters. No one seemed to check or hold the author accountable for any of it, which is a shame.
I didn’t struggle to pick up the book, there was a part of me that always wanted to see where Ingram’s story ended, but it was overall a disappointment and waste of time.
I didn’t struggle to pick up the book, there was a part of me that always wanted to see where Ingram’s story ended, but it was overall a disappointment and waste of time.
February 4, 2026
Right from the start my heart went out to Ingram. He is a nine year old boy who was unloved, abused and told by his mother to leave and survive on his own. His story of hunger, exhaustion and fear tugged at my heart. His journey through life, with the rare episodes of kindness from strangers, was heartbreaking. I loved Ingram’s simplistic approach to survival and how he remained true to his own inner goodness.
I understand that the author, Louis C K, is actually a comedian. There were definitely humorous moments in this well written story despite the terrible circumstances of Ingram’s life.
I understand that the author, Louis C K, is actually a comedian. There were definitely humorous moments in this well written story despite the terrible circumstances of Ingram’s life.
November 24, 2025
A beautiful, American hero's journey. I knew Louis CK could write comedy, but DAMN can he write a novel too. I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Louis, but I will definitely buy this in hard copy and read it again. Absolutely loved it.
January 7, 2026
I've been a fan of Louis C.K for as long as I can remember. Family road trips often heard his comedy hours playing in the background, alongside other comedians like Patton Oswald or Bill Burr.
There was always something a little different about Louis, though, something hard to describe. While on the surface, he's a freckle riddled ginger, who, like my father, enjoys the odd joke about farts and boobs, but there was always something more under the surface. There's a wisdom to Louis that is very rare in the modern entertainment sphere, an esoteric element to his work, evidenced by his very successful, and absurd yet profound FX show 'Louie.'
Ingram is a huge departure from anything Louis has done before, separated entirely from the comedic realm. This is a grim book, plain and simple. One of those books that somehow comforts you while squeezing your chest so as to never let you get too comfortable. A book that serves as a reminder of how tough, agonizing, and unfair life can be, how downright terrifying man can be.
Ingram himself, like other beloved characters I've read, will find a permanent spot in my heart, one which I'm sure will resemble the unforgiving plains of Texas he calls home.
Few books have welled tears in my eyes, but Ingram is the newest addition to that list, a book with such a subtle, yet dreadful beauty that will end up on my forever bookshelf, no matter where that ends up being in my life, sharing space with my all time favorites.
There was always something a little different about Louis, though, something hard to describe. While on the surface, he's a freckle riddled ginger, who, like my father, enjoys the odd joke about farts and boobs, but there was always something more under the surface. There's a wisdom to Louis that is very rare in the modern entertainment sphere, an esoteric element to his work, evidenced by his very successful, and absurd yet profound FX show 'Louie.'
Ingram is a huge departure from anything Louis has done before, separated entirely from the comedic realm. This is a grim book, plain and simple. One of those books that somehow comforts you while squeezing your chest so as to never let you get too comfortable. A book that serves as a reminder of how tough, agonizing, and unfair life can be, how downright terrifying man can be.
Ingram himself, like other beloved characters I've read, will find a permanent spot in my heart, one which I'm sure will resemble the unforgiving plains of Texas he calls home.
Few books have welled tears in my eyes, but Ingram is the newest addition to that list, a book with such a subtle, yet dreadful beauty that will end up on my forever bookshelf, no matter where that ends up being in my life, sharing space with my all time favorites.
January 14, 2026
I’m a big Louis C.K. fan — not just of his jokes, but of the way he thinks in general. I see him as a kind of modern-day philosopher. I knew this book wasn’t supposed to be funny, but even serious books often contain some humour, and this one had very little.
The plot was interesting and had several unexpected turns, but the characters and the narration often felt a bit flat (which I understand could have been intentional but I just didn't like it). Having an ignorant boy as the protagonist, who has to learn almost everything about the world, gets a bit old after a while. It also often seems random which words he knows and which he doesn’t (for example, he uses the word wisdom while not understanding much simpler concepts), and this inconsistency can be distracting (for instance, he uses the word tornado before being told what it is).
That said, there are some nice observations and poetic descriptions scattered throughout the book. All in all, it’s not bad for a first novel, and I hope he continues writing.
The plot was interesting and had several unexpected turns, but the characters and the narration often felt a bit flat (which I understand could have been intentional but I just didn't like it). Having an ignorant boy as the protagonist, who has to learn almost everything about the world, gets a bit old after a while. It also often seems random which words he knows and which he doesn’t (for example, he uses the word wisdom while not understanding much simpler concepts), and this inconsistency can be distracting (for instance, he uses the word tornado before being told what it is).
That said, there are some nice observations and poetic descriptions scattered throughout the book. All in all, it’s not bad for a first novel, and I hope he continues writing.
January 13, 2026
Okay, here we go. Well, it wasn’t cheery, for sure, but I kept turning the pages. I really do need a happy book. One is in at the library, I think it’s happy. The only problem with this was the last paragraph, really the last three sentences and that’s a shame. It could have been so easily fixed with good editing. It’s first novel for this writer. He’s a comic my son enjoys and my husband told me to read this novel. Trigger alert for quite a few things - child abuse, suffering, oh the suffering. The store line kept me going though. For a first novel, it’s getting 5 stars from me. We put such faith in authors, eh? To carry us along, to evoke their imaginings for us, to keep us in their fictional world, to wrap things up solidly, not like oh no, what now? Or like what? Are you kidding me? Or like oh, I now need to sleep for two weeks straight to dispel this feeling. The novels that work so well are the ones that are never forgotten and the feeling they brought stays with us for years and years and years. I’ll take any suggestions out there. I am a snob. I am. I own that. A literary snob (who sometimes likes a good zombie book, yeah).
On to the next thing. May your page turning fill you with joy and delight.
Peace,
Pam /Fishgirl
On to the next thing. May your page turning fill you with joy and delight.
Peace,
Pam /Fishgirl
January 28, 2026
Ingram
I mean… I had to read this. The title is my name. It wasn’t what I would have expected from Louis CK. Ingram is a kid whose parents abandon him out of desperation from extreme poverty. He hadn’t really left the farm before but he walks into the world to find his way. He’s a great character and I was rooting for him.
I mean… I had to read this. The title is my name. It wasn’t what I would have expected from Louis CK. Ingram is a kid whose parents abandon him out of desperation from extreme poverty. He hadn’t really left the farm before but he walks into the world to find his way. He’s a great character and I was rooting for him.
January 5, 2026
"Being a boy is alone. Being a man is even more so."
January 21, 2026
“Everybody does have a book in them, but in most cases that's where it should stay.”
-Christopher Hitchens
-Christopher Hitchens
January 7, 2026
This book was actually so good. I liked that none of the characters Ingram met along the way onky stayed with him emotionally, and not physically. Incredible character development and a super f*cked story? Banger.
February 8, 2026
Surprisingly captivating!
December 1, 2025
Slower start- maybe Intentionally bleak.
Stick with it- you’ll be rewarded with moments of beauty.
Stick with it- you’ll be rewarded with moments of beauty.
January 24, 2026
The only reason this got to be two stars is that it somehow made me finish it.
Louis wanted this to be so many things and all of them were executed poorly.
First he wanted to create a long road of suffering for the main protagonist so the ending would feel particularly earned, but instead of making me emphasise for Ingram it made more than half of this novel feel tedious. Because he never got anything out of it. His lack of knowledge as well created so many god-damn plot holes. So you‘re telling me this kid doesn‘t even know what playing means because his brother died when he was six? Okay. At times it even felt like Louis was making fun of his own protagonist which is a terrible look (I‘m thinking of the painful "Let‘s make a baby. I know how to do it."-conversation at the end). Speaking of Ingram‘s lack of knowledge: What an easy way to create some kind of dystopian US without ever having to explain any of it. So we‘re in the future, with electric cars being the wealthy standard and moon colonies being close, but the lower class got so poor that there‘s no technology whatsoever? Okay, but then tell me about it. Explain. This could be interesting. But it probably would have taken too much work.
The foreshadowing of Ingram‘s brother having died and this being the reason for his parents, especially his father, rejecting him was pretty clear from the start and the never-ending glimpses downward amateurish at best. But this was supposed to be the great revelation at the end during Ingram‘s conversation with his father. Speaking of which. I despise the sentiment of having to owe your parents anything, especially when they treated you like shit, left you out to die on the streets.
Was this supposed to be some twisted happy ending? The abused, now all grown-up Ingram forgiving his father, together heading out to look for his mom, burning the little money he got on gas INSTEAD OF building something for himself without ever looking back? The people in this don’t act, talk or feel like real people at all. It’s very stiff and artificial most of the time. None of this adds to the reading experience.
Louis. You know how to tell stories. What happened?
Louis wanted this to be so many things and all of them were executed poorly.
First he wanted to create a long road of suffering for the main protagonist so the ending would feel particularly earned, but instead of making me emphasise for Ingram it made more than half of this novel feel tedious. Because he never got anything out of it. His lack of knowledge as well created so many god-damn plot holes. So you‘re telling me this kid doesn‘t even know what playing means because his brother died when he was six? Okay. At times it even felt like Louis was making fun of his own protagonist which is a terrible look (I‘m thinking of the painful "Let‘s make a baby. I know how to do it."-conversation at the end). Speaking of Ingram‘s lack of knowledge: What an easy way to create some kind of dystopian US without ever having to explain any of it. So we‘re in the future, with electric cars being the wealthy standard and moon colonies being close, but the lower class got so poor that there‘s no technology whatsoever? Okay, but then tell me about it. Explain. This could be interesting. But it probably would have taken too much work.
The foreshadowing of Ingram‘s brother having died and this being the reason for his parents, especially his father, rejecting him was pretty clear from the start and the never-ending glimpses downward amateurish at best. But this was supposed to be the great revelation at the end during Ingram‘s conversation with his father. Speaking of which. I despise the sentiment of having to owe your parents anything, especially when they treated you like shit, left you out to die on the streets.
Was this supposed to be some twisted happy ending? The abused, now all grown-up Ingram forgiving his father, together heading out to look for his mom, burning the little money he got on gas INSTEAD OF building something for himself without ever looking back? The people in this don’t act, talk or feel like real people at all. It’s very stiff and artificial most of the time. None of this adds to the reading experience.
Louis. You know how to tell stories. What happened?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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