
Blonde
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Narrated by:
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Jayne Atkinson
About this listen
In her most ambitious work to date, Joyce Carol Oates, one of America's most distinguished writers, reimagines the inner, poetic, and spiritual life of Norma Jeane Baker, the child, the woman, the fated celebrity, and tells the story in Norma Jeane's own voice: startling, rich, and shattering.
Drawing on biographical and historical sources, Joyce Carol Oates evokes the distinct consciousness of the woman and the unsparing reflection of the myth, writing as she has never written before, ecstatic, completely absorbed, inhabited as if by the spirit of her extraordinary subject. Rich with psychological insight and disturbing irony, this mesmerizing narrative illumines Norma Jeane's lonely childhood, wrenching adolescence, and the creation of Marilyn Monroe.
With fresh insights into the heart of a celebrity culture hypnotized by its own myths, Blonde is a sweeping novel about the elusive magic of a woman, the lasting legacy of a star, and the heartbreak behind the creation of the most evocative icon of the 20th century.
©2001 Joyce Carol Oates (P)2001 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel of the Roaring Twenties is beloved by generations of readers and stands as his crowning work. This new audio edition, authorized by the Fitzgerald estate, is narrated by Oscar-nominated actor Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain). Gyllenhaal's performance is a faithful delivery in the voice of Nick Carraway, the Midwesterner turned New York bond salesman, who rents a small house next door to the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby....
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Fifty years after her death, Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe still beguiles the world, her image enthralling millions. Many books have attempted to explain her allure and tell her story, but none has succeeded as well as this work by acclaimed biographer Donald Spoto. Spoto’s exhaustive research uncovers a conspiracy of silence, allowing him to present the facts, free from often-repeated myths and speculation. Granted access to more than thirty-five thousand pages of formerly sealed files containing letters, diaries, appointment books, and other intimate papers, he also interviewed nearly two hundred people who had never before spoken on record.
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Story
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A strong story
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The Apology of Socrates: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Apology of Socrates, by Plato, is the dialogue that presents the speech of legal self-defense, which Socrates presented at his trial for impiety and corruption, in 399 BC. Specifically, The Apology of Socrates is a defense against the charges of “corrupting the youth” and “not believing in the same gods as the city, but in other gods which are novel” to Athens.
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👍🏻
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Middlesex
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls' school in Grosse Pointe, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry-blonde classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that furtively develops between them - along with Callie's failure to develop physically - leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. In fact, she is not really a girl at all.
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Anything but middle.
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Critic reviews
"Atkinson narrates Oates's fictional biography of Marilyn Monroe in an intense, slightly husky voice that immediately grabs and holds the listener's attention." (Publishers Weekly)
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Definitely Dark and Deep
- By Monica on 01-10-17
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The Virgin in the Rose Bower
- The Mysteries of Winterthurn, Part One
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In this first part of her Gothic mystery trillogy, best-selling author Joyce Carol Oates introduces Xavier Kilgarvan, a romantic hero and amateur detective. He must discover who has murdered an innocent babe while it slept in his mother’s arms. This turn-of-the-century tale of monstrous deeds and heart-stopping suspense will leave you eagerly looking for the next Kilgarvan case.
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A Horror Noir Satire of the 19th Century
- By Michael on 06-24-12
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Beautiful Days
- Stories
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert, Stephen Graybill, Caitlin Kelly
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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A collection of 13 mesmerizing stories by American master Joyce Carol Oates, including the 2017 Pushcart Prize-winning "Undocumented Alien". The diverse stories of Beautiful Days explore the most secret, intimate, and unacknowledged interior lives of characters not unlike ourselves, who assert their independence in acts of bold and often irrevocable defiance.
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Poor editing
- By Needles on 11-18-18
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The (Other) You
- Stories
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Kate Reading, Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In this stirring, reflective collection of short stories, Joyce Carol Oates ponders alternate destinies: the other lives we might have led if we’d made different choices. An accomplished writer returns to her childhood home of Yewville, but the homecoming stirs troubled thoughts about the person she might have been if she’d never left. A man in prison contemplates the gravity of his irreversible act. A student’s affair with a professor results in a pregnancy that alters the course of her life forever. Even the experience of reading is investigated.
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Amazing
- By Betsy Ross on 01-28-23
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The Tin Drum
- A New Translation by Breon Mitchell
- By: Günter Grass
- Narrated by: Richard Powers
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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To mark the 50th anniversary of the original publication of this runaway best seller, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, along with Grass' publishers all over the world, offer a new translation of this classic novel. Breon Mitchell, acclaimed translator and scholar, has drawn from many sources. The result is a translation that is faithful to Grass' style and rhythm, restores omissions, and reflects more fully the complexity of the original work. After 50 years, The Tin Drum has, if anything, gained in power and relevance.
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It's a metaphor, right?
- By Barry on 08-11-12
By: Günter Grass
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Flint Kill Creek
- Stories of Mystery and Suspense
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Kelli Tager
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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These new, recent, and reformulated stories by Joyce Carol Oates showcase a wide range of crime fiction and psychological suspense. A young, insecure woman finds her relationship changing as she grows more and more dependent on a man who likes to take her on long walks beside a dangerously roaring creek. Another woman, nervous around men, not quite knowing how to act when paid a compliment, becomes flustered when a doctor suggests they go out for coffee, or possibly a drink.
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Brilliant writing; wretched narration!
- By howshermun on 11-16-24
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Miao Dao
- Dark Corners collection
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 2 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Bad things have been happening since Mia began to mature. Her dad left. Boys at school can’t keep their hands to themselves. A lecherous stepfather has moved in. Her only refuge is an abandoned lot on her suburban cul-de-sac, crawling with feral felines - one of which follows Mia home. Ghostly white and affectionate, she is Mia’s new companion and - as Mia’s tormenters will soon discover - her fierce protector.
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Not scary, not great reading.
- By Smurfnibble on 01-04-19
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The Adventures of Augie March
- By: Saul Bellow
- Narrated by: Tom Parker
- Length: 22 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Augie is a poor but exuberant boy growing up in Chicago during the Depression. While his friends all settle into chosen professions, Augie demands a special destiny. He tests out a wild succession of occupations, proudly rejecting each as too limiting - until he tangles with the glamorous perfectionist Thea.
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THAT part of the Universe visible from Chicago!
- By Darwin8u on 05-09-12
By: Saul Bellow
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Night, Neon
- Tales of Mystery and Suspense
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Joe Hempel, Chelsea Stephens
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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From literary icon Joyce Carol Oates comes a brand-new collection of haunting and, at times, darkly humorous mystery and suspense stories. These are tales of psyches pushed to their limits by the expectations of everyday life - from a woman who gets lost on her drive home to her plush suburban home and ends up breaking into a stranger's house, to a first-person account of a cloned 1940s magazine pinup girl being sold at auction and embodying America's ideals of beauty and womanhood.
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Excellent Stories
- By Donea Clancy on 06-15-24
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Caramelo
- By: Sandra Cisneros
- Narrated by: Sandra Cisneros
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Lala Reyes’ grandmother is descended from a family of renowned rebozo, or shawl-makers. The striped (caramelo) is the most beautiful of all, and the one that makes its way, like the family history it has come to represent, into Lala’s possession. The novel opens with the Reyes’ annual car trip - a caravan overflowing with children, laughter, and quarrels - from Chicago to “the other side”, Mexico City. It is there, each year, that Lala hears her family’s stories, separating the truth from the “healthy lies” that have ricocheted from one generation to the next.
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Love, family, history, and fantasy, Caramelo
- By Michele on 08-07-20
By: Sandra Cisneros
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Underworld
- By: Don DeLillo
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 31 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Nick Shay and Klara Sax knew each other once, intimately, and they meet again in the American desert. He is trying to outdistance the crucial events of his early life, haunted by the hard logic of loss and by the echo of a gunshot in a basement room. She is an artist who has made a blood struggle for independence.
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CYBEX burned into my eyes
- By Ruth Ann Orlansky on 07-01-12
By: Don DeLillo
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Lost Children Archive
- A Novel
- By: Valeria Luiselli
- Narrated by: Valeria Luiselli, Kivlighan de Montebello, William DeMeritt, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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A mother and father set out with their two children, a boy and a girl, driving from New York to Arizona in the heat of summer. Their destination: Apacheria, the place the Apaches once called home. Why Apaches? asks the 10-year-old son. Because they were the last of something,answers his father. In their car, they play games and sing along to music. But on the radio, there is news about an "immigration crisis": thousands of kids trying to cross the Southwestern border into the US but getting detained - or lost in the desert along the way.
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Ground Control to Major Tom
- By Nicole Del Sesto on 07-21-19
By: Valeria Luiselli
What listeners say about Blonde
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- James Hill
- 04-04-22
FARCICLE STORY
Talk about rewriting history. Joyce Carol Oates obviously just pumped this story out to make a few bucks and meanwhile added to the misconceptions regarding Marilyn Monroe. Not well written, but well performed. Written like the author walked away from the manuscript for weeks at a time and didn't look at where she left off.
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1 person found this helpful
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- TS
- 09-11-22
A Literary Triumph
Powerful. First the writing was exceptional. Second, the narration was phenomenal and lit this work on fire! Fabulous as an audio book.
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- cocopuff
- 09-27-12
Couldn't stop listening
Rarely write a review, but the melding of prose and reader was so perfect. I don't care about the historical accuracy ... it was psychologically convincing and mesmerizing.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Hal
- 04-30-08
When it's good it couldn't be better
When its bad its only mediocre.
The recreation of her first date with Arthur Miller, for example, is a high point. Her attempts to create great literature don't always work, for example, the opening scene with the messenger boy delivering death.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- S. Munnell
- 11-04-05
Conflicted points of view
While lending credibility to the possibility that Marilyn Monroe was misused and misunderstood, reports of her talent are over stated by the author. The voice of the narrator tells us of her lovers, while secondary reports tell us of her depravity. If you accept only the narrator's perspective, then you will be sympathetic to Marilyn's plight. If you believe the narrator's voice telling you how brilliantly she did in "Misfits," then you'll wonder why her name isn't mentioned today with the same reverence as, say, Katherine Hepburn.
What you do gain is insight into the early Hollywood heydays where the studio controlled all and starlets were merely chattel. If this interests you, you will enjoy "Blonde." As a fictionalized biography, Blonde covers most aspects of Marilyn's life yet she still comes off as vacuous in the book as she did in the movies. As with any novel, the key is in having a charater you care about. It's hard to care for Marilyn. I even listened to the interview with the author regarding her character development, but while I could see Oates' craft in the novel, "Blonde" was only fair.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Maya A.
- 07-07-16
Amazing writing and narration, what a treat!
I've never read a real biography written this way before. Blew me away, so fun. Loved the narrator making the story come to life In a whole new way with her changes in tones and voices.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Rsw
- 10-13-22
Exceptional
loved it! hung on every word. the prose like writing appeals to your emotions and connection. Oates has out done it with Blonde!
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- Claire - plants.and.romance
- 02-08-23
Great Fictional Bio!
So, apparently the audiobook is the abridged version. I didn't know that until after I listened to it and went back to it and in small letters where no one looks, it does in fact say abridged. So, one day I will just have to buy the actual book to fill in the blanks.
This book is a FICTIONAL BIOGRAPHY. That deserves to be in all caps because people seem to not realize it. Even though this is a work of fiction, you can't help but think that some of this actually happened to her given what we do know to be true about Norma Jeane's past.
THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU IF: You're a fan of fictional biographies and Hollywood icons.
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- Reggie
- 03-16-19
My Own Fault for Not Noticing
I finished this audiobook thinking, "man, that book could have been awesome, but it felt like the skeleton of an amazing book." It was only then that I saw the word, "abridged," on the file. Curse me for being stupid and curse the monster who invented abridgments and curse the punk who thought this book should abridged.
As it stands, this abridgement was fine. JCO makes a few speculative leaps about the inner workings of Norma Jean cum Marilyn, that feel spot-on. It was the first book I've read where someone really tried to understand the mechanisms of Marilyn's genius. ...and she as a genius at what she did, unquestionably. She was just so good; so talented; so funny.
When JCO comes to Marilyn's sing-song at JFK's birthday I stopped listening and watched the footage on Youtube. She's clearly a little tipsy, and perhaps out of her league in that den of Ivy League privilege, but they were only more educated than Marilyn. They were not smarter, and they might scorn her, but they absolutely bowed to her genius too. All she does is take off a coat and take a breath, and the room is hers. It's incredible.
Anyway, I don't know if I'll go back and read the unabridged version now. Marilyn had a hard life, and this is an equally hard book. It's brilliant, but not pretty.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Sarah
- 09-02-22
Abridged!
I don’t see where it says abridged but it is missing a ton of the book! It was hard for me to get into the book reading it myself but I loved the narration. Until I realized it was skipping a lot!!!
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1 person found this helpful