
Asymmetry
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Candace Thaxton
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Arthur Morey
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Fiona Hardingham
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Aden Hakim
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By:
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Lisa Halliday
About this listen
A singularly inventive and unforgettable debut novel about love, luck, and the inextricability of life and art, from 2017 Whiting Award winner Lisa Halliday.
Told in three distinct and uniquely compelling sections, Asymmetry explores the imbalances that spark and sustain many of our most dramatic human relations: inequities in age, power, talent, wealth, fame, geography, and justice. The first section, "Folly", tells the story of Alice, a young American editor, and her relationship with the famous and much older writer Ezra Blazer. A tender and exquisite account of an unexpected romance that takes place in New York during the early years of the Iraq War, "Folly" also suggests an aspiring novelist's coming-of-age. By contrast, "Madness" is narrated by Amar, an Iraqi-American man who, on his way to visit his brother in Kurdistan, is detained by immigration officers and spends the last weekend of 2008 in a holding room in Heathrow. These two seemingly disparate stories gain resonance as their perspectives interact and overlap, with yet new implications for their relationship revealed in an unexpected coda.
A stunning debut from a rising literary star, Asymmetry is an urgent, important, and truly original work that will captivate any listener while also posing arresting questions about the very nature of fiction itself.
©2018 Lisa Halliday (P)2018 Simon & SchusterListeners also enjoyed...
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The first and third sections are also quite good though I found those two stories (which are more closely linked than the 2nd) of less interest. The first is about a young woman's affair with a well known writer who is much older than she is. Some of the descriptive passages are quite beautiful and it is not hard, on some level, to sympathize with the protagonist's sense of futility
and loneliness but it doesn't have the same relevance as the 2nd section.
great book
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Wow. Took me a bit to get into it, but glad I kept listening
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Leaving a Doll's House, again
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Confusing
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Worth your time
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A masterpiece
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Interesting to think about...
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review
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This is 2 really good short stories and some epilogue that makes little sense. They both suck you in before you know it. They are very well written, engrossing and deliberate In how the stories are told and what parts of the character’s stories are told.
Decent stories as 2 short stories, unfortunately, to really understand the “asymmetry” of the story you have to have a degree in Literature.
I don’t get it
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The novel opens with a love affair between a stylish young editor in Manhattan and an aging, worldly novelist (reportedly modeled after Philip Roth) whom she meets while sitting on a park bench. The novelist appears to have everything—culture, intelligence, respect, the financial security to support needy acquaintances (like the guy at the neighborhood newsstand), and the charisma to attract beautiful young women. Apart from his serial wives, the novelist tries to do good and to live an exemplary life.
The second section shifts to a different world. The narrator is an Iraqi-American economist, held at a London airport as he tries to fly to visit his brother in Iraq. Through flashbacks, the narrator calmly recalls his history in both America and Iraq, where much of his extended family remains. Those in Iraq have lived through chaos and terror, but the tone is light, as if the narrator were distancing himself from his suffering relatives. The asymmetry seems to be between the affluent and sophisticated New Yorkers of the first section, trying to do good and be fair while living well, and the nearly helpless Iraqis, also educated and trying to live well, but surrounded by constant threats and danger. America's role in creating the Iraqi situation is frequently invoked.
The third section returns to a character from the first. The character is seen in a different light. This section was especially well-narrated by Fiona Hardingham and Arthur Morey.
The novel regularly slips into brief philosophical discussions, which I found interesting. Overall, despite a slow start, “Asymmetry” was a well-written, thoughtful and provocative listen.
Top of the World, and Not
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