Being There
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Narrated by:
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Dustin Hoffman
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By:
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Jerzy Kosinski
About this listen
Earphones Award Winner (AudioFile Magazine)
Audie Award Nominee, Best Solo Narration, 2013
Jerzy Kosinski’s clever parable of a naive man thrust into the modern world is more pointed now than ever. Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman (Rain Man, The Graduate), perhaps best known for his portrayals of vulnerable characters and antiheroes, gives an understated and exemplary performance of this satiric look at the unreality of American media culture.
Chance, the enigmatic gardener, becomes Chauncey Gardiner after getting hit by a limo belonging to a Wall Street tycoon. The whirlwind that follows brings Chance to his new status of political policy advisor and possible vice presidential candidate. His garden-variety political responses, inspired by television, become heralded as visionary, and he is soon a media icon due to his unknown background and vague, yet appealing, conversational nature. Being There was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film, starring Peter Sellers as Chance, in 1979.
Explore more titles performed by some of the most celebrated actors in the business in Audible’s Star-Powered Listens collection.©1971 Jerzy Kosinski (P)2012 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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"Dustin Hoffman's performance of this spare and provocative novel is a revelation. The story is surreal (though certainly not difficult and certainly highly amusing); to deliver it, what is needed is not pacing or vocal pyrotechnics but a thorough, thoughtful understanding of the text and the restraint to perform only exactly what is there." (AudioFile)
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Murder at the Kennedy Center
- By: Margaret Truman
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Kenneth Ewald has what it takes to win the presidency: the support of his party, a lovely wife, a dynamic campaign. What neither he nor any candidate needs is a corpse. He knows only one man capable of solving a crime, clearing his son, putting his campaign back on track and catching a killer: his best friend Mac Smith. Oddly enough, it was Mac and his dog Rufus who found the body in the first place.
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Truman
- By Barbra on 01-01-08
By: Margaret Truman
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The Good Liar
- A Novel
- By: Nicholas Searle
- Narrated by: Matthew Brenher
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Veteran con artist Roy spots an obvious easy mark when he meets Betty, a wealthy widow, online. In no time at all, he's moved into Betty's lovely cottage and is preparing to accompany her on a romantic trip to Europe. Betty's grandson disapproves of their blossoming relationship, but Roy is sure this scheme will be a success. He knows what he's doing. As this remarkable feat of storytelling weaves together Roy's and Betty's futures, it also unwinds their pasts.
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Hope the movie is better than the book?
- By S. Smith on 10-17-19
By: Nicholas Searle
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Finale
- A Novel of the Reagan Years
- By: Thomas Mallon
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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From the author of the acclaimed novel Watergate comes a galvanizing new novel about the tumultuous administration of the most consequential and enigmatic president of modern times - Ronald Reagan. Finale takes listeners to the political gridiron of Washington in 1986, the wealthiest enclaves of Southern California, and the volcanic landscape of Iceland, where the president engages in two almost apocalyptic days of negotiation with Mikhail Gorbachev.
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Gore Vidal for the 21st Century
- By philip on 10-31-15
By: Thomas Mallon
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Mortal Mischief
- By: Frank Tallis
- Narrated by: Richard Burnip
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Vienna, 1902: A beautiful medium has been found shot dead, and Dr Max Liebermann, a young disciple of Sigmund Freud, is called upon to help his friend Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt investigate her death. The room containing the body has been locked from the inside, and a cryptic note suggests a malevolent supernatural power is at work. Using the new science of psychoanalysis, Liebermann probes the minds of the suspects in an attempt to unravel this bewildering crime.
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Ho-hum Victorian mystery
- By Nancy E Day on 09-17-12
By: Frank Tallis
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The Submission
- A Novel
- By: Amy Waldman
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Claire Harwell hasn't settled into grief; events haven't let her. Cool, eloquent, raising two fatherless children, Claire has emerged as the most visible of the 9/11 widows who became a potent political force in the aftermath of the catastrophe. She longs for her husband, but she has found her mission: she sits on a jury charged with selecting a fitting memorial for the victims of the attack.
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Some books were meant to be read...
- By Barbara on 02-24-12
By: Amy Waldman
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Death at La Fenice
- Commissario Brunetti Mysteries, Book 1
- By: Donna Leon
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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During intermission at the famed La Fenice opera house in Venice, Italy, a notoriously difficult and widely disliked German conductor is poisoned—and suspects abound. Guido Brunetti, a native Venetian, sets out to unravel the mystery behind the high-profile murder. To do so, he calls on his knowledge of Venice, its culture, and its dirty politics. Along the way, he finds the crime may have roots going back decades—and that revenge, corruption, and even Italian cuisine may play a role.
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Hercule Poirot in Venice...!!!
- By Emil Grancagnolo on 10-09-22
By: Donna Leon
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The President's Hat
- By: Antoine Laurain
- Narrated by: Luke Thompson, Peter Noble, David Timson, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Dining alone in an elegant Parisian brasserie, accountant Daniel Mercier can hardly believe his eyes when President François Mitterrand sits down to eat at the table next to him. After the presidential party has gone, Daniel discovers that Mitterrand’s black felt hat has been left behind. After a few moments’ soul-searching, Daniel decides to keep the hat as a souvenir of an extraordinary evening. It’s a perfect fit, and as he leaves the restaurant Daniel begins to feel somehow...different.
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You need this book. I need that hat.
- By Amber on 10-25-13
By: Antoine Laurain
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The Magnolia Palace
- A Novel
- By: Fiona Davis
- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Eight months since losing her mother in the Spanish flu outbreak of 1919, 21-year-old Lillian Carter's life has completely fallen apart. For the past six years, under the moniker Angelica, Lillian was one of the most sought-after artists' models in New York City, with statues based on her figure gracing landmarks from the Plaza Hotel to the Brooklyn Bridge
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This isn't my favorite but entertaining
- By Linda on 02-01-22
By: Fiona Davis
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Bloodline
- By: Sidney Sheldon
- Narrated by: Jenny Agutter
- Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
- Abridged
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Elizabeth Roffe, only child of one of the world's richest men, has it all; beauty, intelligence, innocence and youth. But when her father dies, she discovers that she has inherited not only his vast pharmaceutical company, with offices and factories all over the world, but also an unspeakable terror that threatens to destroy the business. As she struggles to save the company that took her family four generations to build, she realizes that she herself is the target of an unknown assassin.
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Awful, I want my credit back.
- By Jojo on 12-23-19
By: Sidney Sheldon
What listeners say about Being There
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Marcia Nathai-Balkissoon
- 09-05-13
Wasn't quite my cup of tea
Is there anything you would change about this book?
I would make it a bit less insulting to the media and to people in general, whom the book portrays time and again as supremely gullible and superficial.
What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
I felt dissatisfied with the ending. I wanted more credibility.
Which scene was your favorite?
I felt sad when Chance walked out of the garden and the gate closed behind him, locking him out (forever) of the only place he had ever known.
Also, how Chance was dubbed Gardiner was a really smart bit.
Did Being There inspire you to do anything?
The book has opened my eyes some more to the cynicism and insincerity that underlies many public political interactions and relationships. Perhaps what it inspired me to do is set out to be more authentic in my interactions.
Any additional comments?
I feel vaguely unsatisfied at the end of the audiobook. Something substantial seems to be missing, but I cannot say exactly what. I think it has to do with the portrayal of so many people as so easily misleadable. Perhaps there is some truth in that, but not given this book's premise. I wonder what the movie portrayal was like, but I do not think I would undertake this story a second time.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Dubi
- 04-17-15
Still There
Amazing that 45 years later, Jerzy Kosinski's political fable remains not only relevant, but magnified by contemporary American politics. In 1970, Kosinski imagined Chance, the newly homeless gardener, as just one slow-witted figure who is given the steering wheel to the political bus by people who should know better. Today, we have the clown car of candidates, filled to overflowing, growing more crowded each day, taken far too seriously by people who should know better.
Being There posits the notion that politics is all about just, well, being there -- years before Woody Allen coined the phrase "80% of life is just showing up" in Annie Hall (although some still debate whether Kosinski actually wrote any of this stuff himself). Thus does Chance, despite his mental handicaps, rise to become a revered political pundit and even presidential candidate within a matter of days, his truisms about gardening and TV watching mistaken for profound metaphors about the political and economic climate (pun intended).
The 1979 movie version is wonderful, one of my all-time favorites, Peter Sellers pitch-perfect as Chance ("I like to watch"), as is the entire supporting cast, and with Basketball Jones making a memorable video cameo. The original novella is not quite as fully realized, the difference being a more complete depiction of the impact of TV upon a simple anonymous character like Chance, via actual TV clips like Basketball Jones (easier for a visual medium like film to pull off).
But it is still a great, quick read. I read it way back when, and welcomed this opportunity to listen to Dustin Hoffman narrate it in audio format. Hoffman's reading is a tad slow and gruff, but it is still a treat.
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- Flossiesmommy
- 04-15-15
So great I can't wait to see the movie!
This is a fabulous book with a very new (to me) story; a protagonist who is so truly simple that he's mistaken for a genius. "Chance the Gardener", dressed in hand-me-down - yet expensive, lovely, & hand tailored - clothes gets misunderstood as "Chauncey Gardener", & away we go. Chance's views on gardening happen to make wonderful metaphor for the nation & world's financial & poitical woes. The less he speaks, the more leaders in world politics & business/finance thinks what he "says", through what they deem as pregnant pauses or speaking louder through one's silence than through words, is profound. When he answers "I don't read newspapers; I watch tv" (SORTA SPOILER ALERT: cuz he doesn't read) to a reporter's query on which newspapers he reads, he almost starts a journalistic revolution. This is a brilliant book, & hilarious - just not in a "haha" manner. The plans for Chance at the end of the book will leave you with a grin on your face. Gets you thinking & wondering...
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- Jodi Carr
- 06-03-15
Perfectly narrated
This is an engaging story made even better by exceptional narration. Dustin Hoffman brought the subtlety of every character to life.
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- David
- 08-08-12
This is great!
Any additional comments?
This is a wonderful story, related by a superb actor.
Many will remember the incredible performance of Peter Sellers in this film. But the narated book is possibly better. I would recommend this to everyone.
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19 people found this helpful
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- sam
- 10-16-15
a good story read by a master
I liked the story and man ascending by circumstance. Dustin Hoffman's style lended a warm reality to the story.
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- Rebecca
- 04-21-15
Brilliant timeless classic
Movie was always my favourite and audio book did not let me down.
Dustin Hoffman is fantastic narrator, highly recommended
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- Dedrea
- 01-13-17
Great political satire
One of my all time favorites. Dustin Hoffman did a nice job. Perfect for 2017!
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- Lyn
- 05-08-15
political and human satire
author made excellent social comment through satire. Suspend your disbelief and just savor the nuggets of insight.
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- Michelle Jones
- 09-23-15
Dustin Hoffman Brings Chance to Life
What did you love best about Being There?
This charming and thought-provoking story was most famously portrayed by Peter Sellers in the movie of the same name. I have always loved the possibilities - is Chance purely a simple man whose words translate for other into deep contemplations or is he truly singularly insightful. Mr. Hoffman's performance breathed believable life into Chance. Great listen! Try this one with a first-time audiobook listener.
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