An American Childhood
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Narrated by:
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Tavia Gilbert
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By:
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Annie Dillard
About this listen
A book that instantly captured the hearts of readers across the country, An American Childhood is Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard’s poignant, vivid memoir of growing up in Pittsburgh in the 1950s.
Much of the book focuses on her parents and some of her intellectual pursuits. Her mother was a non-conformist; her father taught her about plumbing and economics, and shared his enthusiasm for the novel On The Road. Annie took piano and dance classes, went rock and bug collecting, and loved books, especially about World War II.
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The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.
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Something for Everyone
- By Nicole on 05-24-17
By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, and others
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The Visiting Privilege
- New and Collected Stories
- By: Joy Williams
- Narrated by: Richard Powers, Emily Woo Zeller, Elisabeth Rodgers, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Joy Williams has been celebrated as a master of the short story for four decades, her renown passing from one generation to the next even in the shifting landscape of contemporary writing. And at long last the incredible scope of her singular achievement is put on display: 33 stories drawn from three much-lauded collections and another 13 appearing here for the first time in book form.
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I sure tried.
- By A.C. CALLOWAY on 01-28-24
By: Joy Williams
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The Bell Jar
- By: Sylvia Plath
- Narrated by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful but slowly going under - maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.
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A must-read for every woman
- By Julie W. Capell on 05-06-16
By: Sylvia Plath
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She Got Up Off the Couch
- By: Haven Kimmel
- Narrated by: Haven Kimmel
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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When we last saw Zippy, she was oblivious to the storm that was brewing in her home. Her mother, Delonda, had literally just gotten up off the couch and ridden her rickety bicycle down the road. Her dad was off somewhere, gambling or "working." And Zippy was lost in her own fabulous world of exploring the fringes of Moorland, Indiana.
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Great fun !!
- By Kim on 04-20-11
By: Haven Kimmel
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Too Close to the Falls
- A Memoir
- By: Catherine Gildiner
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Welcome to the childhood of Catherine McClure Gildiner. It is the middle of the 1950s in Lewiston, New York, a small and sleepy American town very near Niagara Falls. No one is divorced. Mothers wear high heels to the beauty salon and children pop Pez candy and swing from vines over a local gorge. But at the tender age of four, it becomes clear to her Cathy's parents that their rambunctious daughter is no ordinary child and they soon put her "to work" at her father's pharmacy.
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Brilliant and funny and touching.
- By Kindle Customer on 11-07-19
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Middle C
- By: William H. Gass
- Narrated by: Jeremy Arthur
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Gass’ new novel moves from World War II Europe to a small town in postwar Ohio. In a series of variations, Gass gives us a mosaic of a life - futile, comic, anarchic - arranged in an array of vocabularies, altered rhythms, forms and tones, and broken pieces with music as both theme and structure, set in the key of middle C. It begins in Graz, Austria, 1938. Joseph Skizzen's father, pretending to be Jewish, leaves his country for England with his wife and two children to avoid any connection with the Nazis, who he foresees will soon take over his homeland....
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All the world was a stage. But not for all the wor
- By Darwin8u on 06-07-14
By: William H. Gass
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The Blind Assassin
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Margot Dionne
- Length: 18 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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For the past twenty-five years, Margaret Atwood has written works of striking originality and imagination. In The Blind Assassin, she stretches the limits of her accomplishments as never before, creating a novel that is entertaining and profoundly serious. The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental.
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Good book, TERRIBLE audio!
- By Whitney on 04-27-09
By: Margaret Atwood
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A Death in Kitchawank, and Other Stories
- By: T. C. Boyle
- Narrated by: T. C. Boyle
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Few authors write with such sheer love of story and language as T. C. Boyle, and that is nowhere more evident than in his inventive, wickedly funny, and always entertaining short stories. Here are 14 new tales previously unpublished in book form. By turns mythic and realistic, farcical and tragic, ironic and moving, Boyle's stories have mapped a wide range of human emotions. The stories here reflect his maturing themes.
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Mixed Bag
- By AuntGert on 09-22-20
By: T. C. Boyle
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Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules (Unabridged Selections)
- By: Edited by David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris, Mary-Louise Parker, Cherry Jones
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules is a collection of short stories, some classic, others impending, selected and introduced by David Sedaris.
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Great stories but only 5 of 17 are included
- By Terri Kirk on 07-13-12
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What listeners say about An American Childhood
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- GM
- 11-13-20
Overblown narration
Dillard is a superlative reader but narration is awful; narrator sounds like a teacher reading to squirmy toddlers. It's a shame, as the book, which I plan to buy, is a gem.
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- Linda Martin
- 04-04-24
Loved this memoir!
I love memoirs, in general. This one stands out because of the excellent writing style. I enjoyed learning about Annie's childhood memories, her unique family, her sibling rivalry, and her emotional ups and downs. Great story!
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- mary
- 03-18-23
Beautiful prose and fascinating life
I love Annie Dillard’s writing and it was fascinating to learn of her growing up. The Pittsburgh history lesson from an insider was informative.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Charissa R
- 10-05-18
brought me back in time
I met a kindred spirit on this book and re-examined life through the spirited, imaginative eyes of a child. Delightful, thoughtful, soulful.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Zelig
- 10-19-24
Coming alive to consciousness
Is able to create a present tense for events that took place long ago, in the different person that was herself (all of ourselves) as a child. Truly lovely.
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- Stef Mazasz
- 12-08-22
Great Writer
I grew up in Pittsburgh at the same time as the author but lived in a poorer neighborhood: Lawrenceville.
(A primarily Polish neighborhood. I lived across the street from the GMC Truck factory and next door to a business that may have been auto repair). When the Author was having the freedom of roaming her affluent neighborhood, I was locked in the cellar on Liberty Avenue. Though I could not relate to her childhood pursuits, I could relate to her realizations of autonomy. In that cellar, I came to the realization that “I was the only one behind my eyes!”
The Author’s writing expertise held me there as it was enjoyable to listen to her use of words. I recognized the names of places even though I didn’t travel there, except for passing on the bus on the way to my first secretarial job at Mellon Institute.
For a native of “The Burgh” it is an interesting listen!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anders P Morley
- 02-24-21
The early formation of one of our great literary minds
A fascinating memoir of Annie Dillard’s first seventeen years. This book is dense and intricate with interest and meaning, and resonant with themes that the author explores in her other work. I look forward to returning to it again and again.
Tavia Gilbert may very well be my favorite audiobook narrator. She’s brilliant at interpreting Annie Dillard.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 11-28-20
Stay fir the ending
This book haunts me. Not because of its beginning or middle. The last 15 minutes cuts me down the middle and makes me see myself for who I am. Beautiful like poetry
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- woody
- 01-30-11
Very Disappointing
Overwritten, overly boring. I cannot imagine how a Pulitzer Prize-winning author could write such an uninteresting memoir. It is, and by far, the worst memoir I have ever read. I only wish I had heeded the poor reviews on Amazon.com before wasting my monthly credit on this one.
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6 people found this helpful