Bleeding Edge
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Narrated by:
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Jeannie Berlin
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By:
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Thomas Pynchon
About this listen
Thomas Pynchon brings us to New York in the early days of the Internet. It is 2001 in New York City, in the lull between the collapse of the dot-com boom and the terrible events of September 11th. Silicon Alley is a ghost town, Web 1.0 is having adolescent angst, Google has yet to IPO, Microsoft is still considered the Evil Empire. There may not be quite as much money around as there was at the height of the tech bubble, but there's no shortage of swindlers looking to grab a piece of what's left.
Maxine Tarnow is running a nice little fraud investigation business on the Upper West Side, chasing down different kinds of small-scale con artists. She used to be legally certified but her license got pulled a while back, which has actually turned out to be a blessing because now she can follow her own code of ethics - carry a Beretta, do business with sleazebags, hack into people's bank accounts - without having too much guilt about any of it. Otherwise, just your average working mom - two boys in elementary school, an off-and-on situation with her sort of semi-ex-husband Horst, life as normal as it ever gets in the neighborhood - till Maxine starts looking into the finances of a computer-security firm and its billionaire geek CEO, whereupon things begin rapidly to jam onto the subway and head downtown. She soon finds herself mixed up with a drug runner in an art deco motorboat, a professional nose obsessed with Hitler's aftershave, a neoliberal enforcer with footwear issues, plus elements of the Russian mob and various bloggers, hackers, code monkeys, and entrepreneurs, some of whom begin to show up mysteriously dead. Foul play, of course.
With occasional excursions into the Deep Web and out to Long Island, Thomas Pynchon, channeling his inner Jewish mother, brings us a historical romance of New York in the early days of the Internet, not that distant in calendar time but galactically remote from where we've journeyed to since.
Will perpetrators be revealed, forget about brought to justice? Will Maxine have to take the handgun out of her purse? Will she and Horst get back together? Will Jerry Seinfeld make an unscheduled guest appearance? Will accounts secular and karmic be brought into balance?
Hey. Who wants to know?
©2013 Thomas Pynchon (P)2013 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
A New York Times Notable Book of 2013
"Brilliantly written...a joy to read.... Full of verbal sass and pizzazz, as well as conspiracies within conspiracies, Bleeding Edge is totally gonzo, totally wonderful. It really is good to have Thomas Pynchon around, doing what he does best." (Michael Dirda, The Washington Post)
"A precious freak of a novel, glinting rich and strange, like a black pearl from an oyster unfathomable by any other diver into our eternal souls. If not here at the end of history, when? If not Pynchon, who? Reading Bleeding Edge, tearing up at the beauty of its sadness or the punches of its hilarity, you may realize it as the 9/11 novel you never knew you needed...a necessary novel and one that literary history has been waiting for, ever since it went to bed early on innocent Sept. 10 with a copy of The Corrections and stayed up well past midnight reading Franzen into the wee hours of his novel’s publication day." (Slate.com)
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If you've never read a Repairman Jack novel, this is the place to begin. It's 1990. A twenty-one-year-old named Jack has dropped out of college, leaving his old life behind to build a new one in New York City. Manhattan's rough edges are jagged enough to shred any unwary newcomer, but perhaps not one who is determined to stay off the grid, at any cost, in the busiest metropolis on earth. And to do so, he'll have to take jobs of a less than legal nature.
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Fun, as long you don't think too much
- By Andrew Pollack on 01-17-14
By: F. Paul Wilson
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Bright Lights, Big City
- By: Jay McInerney
- Narrated by: Daniel Passer
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The tragicomedy of a young man in New York City, a writer, never named, who works as a fact-checker for a prestigious magazine. He struggles with the reality of his mother's death, alienation, and the seductive pull of drugs and a vibrant nightlife.
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Curiously, mundanely real
- By Amber on 01-07-12
By: Jay McInerney
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Stories I'd Tell in Bars
- By: Jen Lancaster
- Narrated by: Jen Lancaster, John Fletcher
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Unfiltered. Unapologetic. Older, but not wiser, Lancaster goes back to basics in this hilarious essay collection about everything from taking community policing classes to accidentally getting high with her waiter after a fancy dinner. These are the tales she'd tell if she met you in a bar... if she weren't too lazy to put on pants and go to a bar. Offering advice ranging from how to remain happily married to a man who refuses to blow his damn nose already to not creating An Incident at the cheese counter during an attempt at Whole30, she's you, only louder.
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self absorbed
- By D D H on 06-15-19
By: Jen Lancaster
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Black Fridays
- By: Michael Sears
- Narrated by: Erik Bergmann
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Sometimes a man can be redeemed. But not in the way he expects. Jason Stafford is a former Wall Street hotshot who made some bad moves, paid the price with two years in prison, and is now trying to put his life back together. He’s unemployable, until an investment firm asks him to look into possible problems left by a junior trader who died recently in an accident. What he discovers is big - there are problems, all right, the kind that get you killed. But it’s not his only concern. Stafford has another quest as well: to reclaim his five-year-old son, "the Kid", from his unstable ex-wife, and then learn just what it means to make a life with him.
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I enjoyed it. I loved the end!
- By John on 05-16-14
By: Michael Sears
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Supervolcano
- Eruption
- By: Harry Turtledove
- Narrated by: Jim Frangione
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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A supervolcanic eruption in Yellowstone Park sends lava and mud flowing toward populated areas, and clouds of ash drifting across the country. The fallout destroys crops and livestock, clogs machinery, and makes cities uninhabitable. Those who survive find themselves caught in an apocalyptic catastrophe in which humanity has no choice but to rise from the ashes and recreate the world.
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Jerky horrible narration.
- By Ann on 04-23-12
By: Harry Turtledove
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If Walls Could Talk
- Haunted Home Renovation, Book 1
- By: Juliet Blackwell
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Melanie Turner has made quite a name for herself remodeling historic houses in the San Francisco Bay Area. But now her reputation may be on the line. At her newest project, a run-down Pacific Heights mansion, Mel is visited by the ghost of a colleague who recently met a bad end with power tools. Mel hopes that by nailing the killer, she can rid herself of the ghostly presence of the murdered man - and not end up a construction casualty herself....
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A Nice Change
- By Carole T. on 06-15-15
By: Juliet Blackwell
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Maybe the Moon
- By: Armistead Maupin
- Narrated by: Armistead Maupin
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Abridged
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Story
All of 31 inches tall, Cady is a true survivor in a town where, as she says, "you can die of encouragement". Her early starring role as a lovable elf in an immensely popular American film proved a major disappointment, since moviegoers never saw the face behind the stifling rubber suit she was required to wear. Now, after a decade of hollow promises from the Industry, she is reduced to performing at birthday parties and bat mitzvahs as she waits for the miracle that will finally make her a star.
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short but good
- By Charlene on 08-06-07
By: Armistead Maupin
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The Tomb
- Repairman Jack #1
- By: F. Paul Wilson
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, Gia, Repairman Jack doesn't deal with electronic appliances. He fixes situations for people, often putting himself in deadly danger. His latest project is recovering a stolen necklace, which carries with it an ancient curse that may unleash a horde of Bengali demons. Jack is used to danger, but this time Gia's daughter Vicky is threatened. Can Jack overcome the curse of the yellow necklace and bring Vicky safely back home?
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Pretty good story
- By Elena on 07-15-09
By: F. Paul Wilson
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Big City, Bad Blood
- By: Sean Chercover
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Disillusioned newspaper reporter-turned-private detective Ray Dudgeon doesn't want to save the world; he just wants to do an honest job well. But when doing an honest job threatens society's most powerful and corrupt, Ray's odds of survival make for a sucker's bet.
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Quintessentially Chicago
- By Eva Gannon on 09-21-09
By: Sean Chercover
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Trust Your Eyes
- By: Linwood Barclay
- Narrated by: Ken Marks, Rick Holmes
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Thomas Kilbride is a map-obsessed schizophrenic so affected that he rarely leaves the self-imposed bastion of his bedroom. But with a computer program called Whirl360.com, he travels the world while never so much as stepping out the door. He pores over and memorizes the streets of the world. He examines every address, as well as the people who are frozen in time on his computer screen. Then he sees something that anyone else might have stumbled upon - but has not - in a street view of downtown New York City: an image in a window. An image that looks like a woman being murdered.
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One of 2013's best!
- By karen on 09-07-13
By: Linwood Barclay
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The Lost Ones
- A Novel
- By: Sheena Kamal
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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It begins with a phone call that Nora Watts has dreaded for 15 years - since the day she gave her newborn daughter up for adoption. Bonnie has vanished. The police consider her a chronic runaway and aren't looking, leaving her desperate adoptive parents to reach out to her birth mother as a last hope. A biracial product of the foster system, transient, homeless, scarred by a past filled with pain and violence, Nora knows intimately what happens to vulnerable girls on the streets.
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Would make a great movie!
- By Shay on 08-27-17
By: Sheena Kamal
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Going Grey
- Ringer, Book 1
- By: Karen Traviss
- Narrated by: Euan Morton
- Length: 22 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Ian isn't crazy. Life would be a lot simpler if he was. He's eighteen, on the run, and scared - the shape-shifting delusions he's had since childhood have turned out to be real. He's the result of a dynamic mimicry project intended to help undercover agents "go grey" and blend in unnoticed. Now the biotech company wants its property back, and the only people he can trust are two private military contractors sent to find him...
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Oddly wonderful
- By Barbara Kindle Customer on 08-24-15
By: Karen Traviss
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..everybody's a hero at least once...
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Good book, Average recording
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brilliant!
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How this differs from the other version
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What listeners say about Bleeding Edge
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Frank
- 09-28-13
Worst Narrator Ever
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
Re-record with a new narrator and I think the book would be great.
Would you be willing to try another one of Jeannie Berlin’s performances?
Never, no way!!!!
Any additional comments?
I am astonished that this made it out of production, this is akin to an April fools joke. I cannot believe this narrator was hired, the most awful I have heard in well over 300 books.
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5 people found this helpful
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- richard
- 10-04-13
Plotz! plotz! Kvetsh! Try giving it a chance, nu?
I admit that I had much the same negative reaction when I started Bleeding Edge. But over time, Ms. Berlin's reading has come to charm me. Not only does she embody the sound and style of New York Jewish protagonist to a T, but in a way her bumpy reading reflects the uncertainty and disorder of her character as she stumbles from one clue to another on the journey Pynchon has laid before her. I now find Ms. Berlin's reading to be refreshing. I can see why Pynchon blessed the reading, and I find myself agreeing with him.
Shalom.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-21-15
The Bleeding Ear
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
It's not the book, it's the horrid narration. It took me several attempts just to get past the first chapter.
What other book might you compare Bleeding Edge to and why?
The metal-on-metal screeching of a train derailing.
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Jeannie Berlin?
Jar Jar Binks would have been an improvement.
Any additional comments?
Pynchon is a fine author. His prose is special. This narrator manages to hold a pillow over the face of Pynchon's humor and smother it to death.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anthony
- 09-17-13
Jarring Narration
How did the narrator detract from the book?
From the first few sentences I was surprised at how amateurish the narration was. She is reading; not narrating. Her voice is grating. She misreads words (Silicone Valley vice Silicon Valley). I love Thomas Pynchon but it is going to be a long slog getting through 15 hours of Jeannie Berlin.
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43 people found this helpful
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- Barbara E. Cosslett
- 11-15-13
Really poor narration
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
This is a wonderful book, but the narration is terrible. I have a high tolerance for different voices but I couldn't listen to this narration. It is so flat and the inflections are so poor the humor of the story is lost.
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Jeannie Berlin?
Roslyn Landor is my favorite narrator although I'm not sure she would be right for this. Pynchon requires an ironic voice like the narrator who read Inherent Vice
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
Yes
Any additional comments?
Offer a new version of the narration and try and get the rest of Pynchon available on audiobook.
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2 people found this helpful
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- JM
- 04-16-19
Ruined by narration
This is a challenging book to read, and I'm sure it's a nightmare to narrate. The narrator seems like she's giving it her best shot, but has awkward pauses that make it hard to follow the already difficult sentences. Near 6:31 there's a perfect example of this, she's got a sentence about characters going to a diner and digging in. There's an awkward pause before "dig in" and it's clear she didn't quite understand the sentence the first time around.
Characters don't have sufficiently distinct voices and the dialogue, which has characters interrupting each other and not finishing sentences requires a lot of focus to follow.
I've listened to a few books of similar difficulty where the narration actually helped make the book easier to follow.I have no idea if I'll make it through this one.
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- Kyle Lehenbauer
- 12-01-13
Narrator ruins this book
What didn’t you like about Jeannie Berlin’s performance?
I can tell the book is well written and funny, but out of the many, many audio books my wife and I have listened to we both agree the narrator is the worst we have heard -- almost unlistenable. Her voice is grating and very unpleasant. But even worse than that, she reads in a monotone, completely missing the normal cadences of speech and of the writing. It makes the sentences difficult to understand and makes most of the funny passages fall flat. I would certainly recommend reading this book and passing on this version.
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9 people found this helpful
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- JGE
- 10-06-13
Someone is playing a joke
I have listened to hundreds of books over the years and this is by far the worst reader I've heard.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 10-27-21
Holy narrator batman
I found this impossible to listen to. I genuinely do not understand how multiple people thought this was ok to publish with the narration as it is. An incredible story absolutely ravaged of emotion and depth by the most grating monotone I've heard since grade school.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 04-26-22
maxine is molly jong-fast
A previous review said that the performance was unlistenable bc of the reader's accent. I thought the accent was perfect, and here's why: The novel uses a third-person limited POV where our understanding of the characters and events are filtered through the protagonist Maxine. Maxine is complex: the daughter of aging left-wing New York Jewish intellctuals from the Upper-West Side, the somewhat clueless but caring mother of two digi-native teens, and a cynical yet conspiracy-curious gumshoe who has seen it all. So, what should this character sound like? She should sound like Molly Jong-Fast, and she does.
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1 person found this helpful