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Narrated by:
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Emily Woo Zeller
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By:
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Lee Smith
About this listen
When she is thirteen years old, Evalina Toussaint, the orphaned child of an exotic dancer in New Orleans, is admitted as a mental patient to Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. The year is 1936, and the hospital, under the direction of celebrity psychiatrist Robert S. Carroll, is famous for its up-to-the-minute shock therapies and for Dr. Carroll's revolutionary theory of the benefits of non-introspection.
Evalina finds herself in the midst of a kaleidoscope of characters, including the estranged wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Her role as accompanist for all theatricals and programs at the hospital gives her privileged insight into the events that transpire over the twelve years leading up to a tragic 1948 fire - its mystery unsolved to this day - that killed nine women in a locked ward on the top floor, including Zelda.
In Evalina Toussaint, Lee Smith has a created a narrator whose story is one of unstoppable and defiant introspection. At the risk of Dr. Carroll's ire and at all costs, Evalina listens, observes, delves, pursues, accompanies, remembers - and tells us everything. This is her wildly prescient story about a time and a place where creativity and passion, theory and medicine, fact and fiction are luminously intertwined.
©2013 Lee Smith. Recorded by arrangement with Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, a division of Workman Publishing Company, Inc. (P)2013 HighBridge CompanyListeners also enjoyed...
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Good book, TERRIBLE audio!
- By Whitney on 04-27-09
By: Margaret Atwood
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The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
- By: Eudora Welty
- Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat, Jessica Almasy, Victor Bevine, and others
- Length: 32 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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This complete collection includes all of the published stories of Eudora Welty. There are 41 stories in all, including those in the earlier collections A Curtain of Green, The Wide Net, The Golden Apples, and The Bride of the Innisfallen, as well as previously uncollected stories.
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Too Good For Audio
- By Yennta on 06-18-12
By: Eudora Welty
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Angel of Harlem
- By: Kuwanna Haulsey
- Narrated by: Brenda Pressley
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Inspired by the extraordinary events of Dr. May Chinn’s life, Angel of Harlem is a deeply affecting story of love and transcendence. Weaving seamlessly scenes from the battlefields of the Civil War, during which her father escaped from slavery, to the Harlem living rooms and kitchen tables where May is sometimes forced to operate on her patients, this fascinating novel lays bare the heart of a woman who changed the face of medicine.
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Really Enjoyed!
- By Amazon Customer on 08-08-19
By: Kuwanna Haulsey
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Marjorie Morningstar
- By: Herman Wouk
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 28 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Marjorie Morningstar is a love story. It presents one of the greatest characters in modern fiction: Marjorie, the pretty 17-year-old who left the respectability of New York's Central Park West to join the theater, live in the teeming streets of Greenwich Village, and seek love in the arms of a brilliant, enigmatic writer.
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Great story with really cheesy narration
- By James on 05-05-12
By: Herman Wouk
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The Confessions of Max Tivoli
- By: Andrew Sean Greer
- Narrated by: Brian Keeler
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Max Tivoli is uniquely cursed. His mind ages normally, but he is born with the withered body of a 70-year-old man, and his body ages in reverse. Despite this torment, Max manages three times to cross paths with Alice, the woman who captures his heart. Because he appears to be a different person each time they meet, Max has three chances for true love.
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odd premise, but it works!
- By Sean Dunnahoo on 03-03-04
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Silver Wattle
- By: Belinda Alexandra
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In fear for their lives after the sudden death of their mother, Adéla and Klára must flee Prague to find refuge with their uncle in Australia. Later, Adéla becomes a film director at a time when the local industry is starting to feel the competition from Hollywood. But even while success is imminent, the issues of family and an impossible love are never far away.
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Groan, Snore and Wince!
- By OrangeWisteria on 02-12-12
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Memphis
- A Novel
- By: Tara M. Stringfellow
- Narrated by: Karen Murray, Adenrele Ojo, Tara Stringfellow
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Summer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father’s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the family’s trajectory. Half a century earlier, Joan’s grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass—only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected.
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Awful narrator
- By Rachael edwards on 06-07-22
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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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Evergreen Falls
- By: Kimberley Freeman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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A long-forgotten secret, a scandalous attraction and a place where two women's lives are changed forever. 1926: Violet Armstrong is one of the few remaining members of staff working at the grand Evergreen Spa Hotel as it closes down over winter. Only a handful of guests are left, including the heir to a rich grazing family, his sister and her suave suitor. When a snowstorm moves in, the hotel is cut off and they are all trapped. No-one could have predicted what would unfold.
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Soooo Boring
- By Merford on 10-09-19
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The Witch of Little Italy
- By: Suzanne Palmieri
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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When young Eleanor Amore gets pregnant, she returns to her estranged family in the Bronx, called by the "Sight" they share. It is the first time she has been back since she was 10, and while everyone else remembers that summer, Eleanor can’t recall anything earlier than the moment she left. With her past coming back to her in flashes, she becomes obsessed with recapturing those memories. Aided by her childhood sweetheart, she learns the secrets still haunting her magical family.
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Kept me entertained......
- By Barbara on 05-25-13
By: Suzanne Palmieri
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Pronunciation matters!
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Orphaned when her father dies in the Civil War, Molly Petree is taken in by Uncle Junius on his Agate Hill plantation. But the terminally ill Junius is manipulated into marriage by his housekeeper, Selena, who inherits Agate Hill upon his death. Neglected and abused under Selena's watch, Molly escapes to a better life with help from her father's closest battlefield companion. But as she grows into a refined, educated woman, Molly remains haunted by tragedy.
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Wonderful book and narration
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Aging Herb’s charmed life with his dear wife, Susan, in their Key West house is coming undone. Susan now needs constant care, and Herb is in denial about his own ailing health. The one bright spot is the arrival of an endlessly optimistic manicurist calling herself Renee. She sings to Susan during manicures, gets her to paint, and brings her a sense of contentment. But then Herb and Susan’s adult children arrive to stage an intervention on their stubborn, independent father, and as a consequence, Renee’s gig with Susan—and her grand plans for her own life—start to unravel as well.
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Great storytelling!
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Having justly earned her reputation as a master storyteller, Lee Smith's name evokes images of authentic country folk struggling through life's arduous tests. Saving Grace adds a stunning spiritual dimension. The daughter of a preacher who ignores his destitute family, Florida Grace doesn't think much of Jesus. He's the reason she's lived in squalor and He wasn't there for her through her failed marriage. But in one shining moment He calls out to her and she returns to her roots to heed His call.
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Not (just) for Christians
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Fair and Tender Ladies
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What a treat!
- By Linda on 02-17-12
By: Lee Smith
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Dimestore
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Pronunciation matters!
- By Tricia on 03-26-16
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Wonderful book and narration
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Aging Herb’s charmed life with his dear wife, Susan, in their Key West house is coming undone. Susan now needs constant care, and Herb is in denial about his own ailing health. The one bright spot is the arrival of an endlessly optimistic manicurist calling herself Renee. She sings to Susan during manicures, gets her to paint, and brings her a sense of contentment. But then Herb and Susan’s adult children arrive to stage an intervention on their stubborn, independent father, and as a consequence, Renee’s gig with Susan—and her grand plans for her own life—start to unravel as well.
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Great storytelling!
- By Pamela Martin on 04-27-23
By: Lee Smith
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- By Barbara on 12-04-10
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The Plot Against the President
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Investigative journalist Lee Smith's The Plot Against the President tells the story of how Congressman Devin Nunes uncovered the operation to bring down the commander-in-chief. While popular opinion holds that Russia subverted democratic processes during the 2016 elections, the real damage was done not by Moscow or any other foreign actor. Rather, this was a slow-moving coup engineered by a coterie of the American elite, the "deep state," targeting not only the president, but also the rest of the country.
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Nunes is a national treasure.
- By Chip Atkinson on 01-30-20
By: Lee Smith
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The Permanent Coup
- How Enemies Foreign and Domestic Targeted the American President
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From the phony Russia collusion narrative to the coordinated riots laying waste to US cities, it's the same ongoing operation orchestrated by the left and targeting not just President Trump but hundreds of millions of Americans who revere their country and what it stands for. For the first time, crusading investigative journalist Lee Smith reveals who was responsible and the never before known involvement of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and senior military officials who engineered a coup against a sitting president.
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Frightening but accurate
- By Buyin Guy on 09-05-20
By: Lee Smith
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Family Linen
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- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Lee Smith is one of today's most critically acclaimed authors writing about contemporary life in the South. In Family Linen, with a remarkable economy of description and dialogue, Smith sketches eccentric, yet familiar characters moving through a family drama that resonates with both tension and humor.
By: Lee Smith
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The Last Girls
- By: Lee Smith
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- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
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This national best seller is a breakthrough book for Lee Smith, an author who fills her marvelous novels with humor, pathos, and powerful wisdom. The Last Girls are a group of coeds, inspired by Huck Finn, who traveled the Mississippi on a raft in 1965. Now four of them have reunited on a luxurious steamboat to cruise the river again. As they look back over the past 30 years, each one contemplates their shared past in light of their present lives.
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Not my favorite of her books.
- By tracy smith on 06-11-18
By: Lee Smith
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Gap Creek
- The Story of a Marriage
- By: Robert Morgan
- Narrated by: Kate Forbes
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Young Julie Harmon works "hard as a man", they say, so hard that at times she's not sure she can stop. People depend on her to slaughter the hogs and nurse the dying. People are weak, and there is so much to do. At just 17 she marries and moves down into the valley of Gap Creek, where perhaps life will be better. But Julie and Hank's new life in the valley, in the last years of the 19th century, is more complicated than the couple ever imagined.
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GAP creek Review
- By Naomi Prusi on 06-15-21
By: Robert Morgan
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Black Mountain Breakdown
- By: Lee Smith
- Narrated by: Linda Stephens
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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A consummate storyteller in the Southern tradition, Lee Smith tugs at her listeners' heartstrings with this haunting narrative that reads like a country ballad. Touching, funny, and sad, its down-to-earth characters are somehow familiar and endearing as they do their best to meet the demands of daily life.
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Not Lee Smith's best book - but good narration
- By Leslie Grey on 06-01-05
By: Lee Smith
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Old Crimes
- And Other Stories
- By: Jill McCorkle
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- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Beloved author Jill McCorkle offers an intimate look at the moments when a person’s life changes forever. A woman uses her hearing impairment as a way to guard herself from her husband’s commentary. A telephone lineman strains to communicate with his family even as he feels pushed aside in a digital world. And a young couple buys a confessional booth for fun, only to discover the cost of honesty.
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Read - Don't Listen - To This Collection
- By thejennuinearticle on 05-06-24
By: Jill McCorkle
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The Christmas Letters
- By: Lee Smith
- Narrated by: Cynthia Darlow, Julia Gibson, Christina Moore
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Lee Smith delivers the heartwarming tale of three generations of women who record their lives in Christmas letters to the family.
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classic Lee Smith
- By Tom Goodman on 11-29-17
By: Lee Smith
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The Last Girls
- By: Lee Smith
- Narrated by: Lee Smith
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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On a bright June day in 1965, a dozen girls - classmates at a Blue Ridge women's college - launch a ramshackle raft on a trip down the Mississippi. Their journey, inspired by Huckleberry Finn, is duly reported in the Paducah, Kentucky newspaper. 35 years later, four of the "girls" reunite to cruise the river again. This time, it's on the luxury steamboat The Belle of Natchez. This time, when they reach New Orleans, they'll give the River the ashes of a fifth rafter: Margaret ("Baby") Ballou.
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Ear candy book
- By Carmela on 10-01-03
By: Lee Smith
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Fancy Strut
- By: Lee Smith
- Narrated by: Linda Stephens
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Lee Smith, author of the acclaimed The Last Girls, delights with a tale of dry wit. Smith has won many prizes, including the Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Academy Award in Literature.
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Entertaining and fun!
- By Emily Moss on 12-12-06
By: Lee Smith
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Cakewalk
- By: Lee Smith
- Narrated by: Linda Stephens, Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Lee Smith, one of today's finest writers in the Southern literary tradition, has been compared to Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor. This collection of nine stories, ranging from poignant ballads to delightfully inventive forms, showcases Smith's celebrated talent. The stories will make you chuckle and leave you with a satisfying sense that no matter how unruly or warped life may seem, equilibrium can be found after all.
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Funny and real life southern ladies of the50’s
- By Benjie on 05-06-24
By: Lee Smith
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The Last Days of Café Leila
- A Novel
- By: Donia Bijan
- Narrated by: Deepti Gupta
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Set against the backdrop of Iran's rich, turbulent history, this exquisite debut novel is a powerful story of food, family, and a bittersweet homecoming. When we first meet Noor, she is living in San Francisco, missing her beloved father, Zod, in Iran. Now, dragging her stubborn teenage daughter, Lily, with her, she returns to Tehran and to Cafe Leila, the restaurant her family has been running for three generations.
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Vile narrator
- By NliPrinceton on 05-17-18
By: Donia Bijan
What listeners say about Guests on Earth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- T. Peppel
- 05-14-15
Lee Smith does it again.
A Lee Smith novel is always a safe bet in the sense that she does not disappoint. I never know what type of tale she will tell, but they are always intriguing and tend to stay with you long after the narrator's voice has faded. Guests on Earth shows us us the up close and personal side of mental illness from the perspective of a young woman who deals with it from within and around her. Mostly set in the beautiful and somewhat isolated Asheville, NC in the first half of the 20th century, we watch the unfolding events in her life and the people around her, and how they help and heal each other as best they are able. A great listen that I would recommend to anyone.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 08-09-18
The story lags,
maybe I will finish it eventually, but I just don't find myself waiting to be able to listen, or thinking about the story. I just moved on...
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- Beverly J. Mashburn
- 07-18-14
Great old southern songs butchered
Where does Guests on Earth rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Somewhere in the middle, good story, wonderful characters
What was one of the most memorable moments of Guests on Earth?
The description of shows performed by patients
Would you listen to another book narrated by Emily Woo Zeller?
Depends on if the story has any old songs
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
When she described having and losing her baby
Any additional comments?
Whenever lyrics were used for old classic southern songs, there was a hiccup in the narration. With just a little research, the narrator could have used the actual tune or at least the proper rhythm of the song. Very disappointing! The songs could have been a big part of the story.
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3 people found this helpful
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Story
- Mary Smiroldo
- 10-22-15
Rather Disjointed
Certainly not my favourite Lee Smith novel. Stories within stories kept me listening, however, there seemed to be no moral to any of them. The narration was passable, but being from the Carolinas myself, I found myself cringing throughout. I would not recommend this book to friends or family. I fear they would be as disappointed as I was.
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- William
- 04-07-15
Typical Lee Smith Excellence
I enjoyed this book very much, in no small part because my great grandmother was at Highland during the period of the novel. Lee Smith gives us her usual rich characters with interesting back-stories. The reader is quite good, but some of her mispronunciations makes one wonder if the editor was out for bagels.
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3 people found this helpful
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- beverley alexander
- 06-23-23
A well told story about mental illness, zelda fitzgerald and Asheville North Carolina
Wonderfully entertaining story well told about Asheville and zelda. The writer included her own interesting experiences. I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in zelda fitzgerald or has had the pleasure of spending time in Asheville north carolina. Loved it
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- Dee Dee
- 04-11-16
Entertaining
The story line & characters held my interest. I thought the narrator did a good job with her voice & characters. This was a book that my bookclub chose. It was enjoyable & thought provoking concerning mental health.
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3 people found this helpful
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- diben59
- 09-18-15
Great story!
Any additional comments?
The story is wonderfully written. However, the narrator has a terrible and distracting Scottish accent for one of the characters. It comes across as this jarring cross between Irish and Russian. Really distracting. Luckily this character does not talk much.
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- Anne M. Allen
- 11-03-21
Great book
it was wonderful to hear the story of Zelda Fitzgerald woven into the heart of Asheville. Lee Smith is a great writer in my opinion
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- wobbly
- 08-12-14
A book I will long remember
Being a live-long western North Carolina resident, the only thing I ever knew about Highland Hospital was that Zelda had died there in a fire - and there is so much more to know. Lee Smith has done the research for me, along with her first hand knowledge of Highland, having had family members who were residents at various times. I don't know when I have enjoyed a book so much. The narrator was terrific in spite of occasional mispronunciations, which could be jarring to a native. But she more than made up for that with her just-right narration of this book.
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4 people found this helpful