Hourglass
Time, Memory, Marriage
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Narrated by:
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Dani Shapiro
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By:
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Dani Shapiro
About this listen
The best-selling novelist and memoirist delivers her most intimate and powerful work: a piercing, life-affirming memoir about marriage and memory, about the frailty and elasticity of our most essential bonds, and about the accretion, over time, of both sorrow and love.
Hourglass is an inquiry into how marriage is transformed by time—abraded, strengthened, shaped in miraculous and sometimes terrifying ways by accident and experience. With courage and relentless honesty, Dani Shapiro opens the door to her house, her marriage, and her heart, and invites us to witness her own marital reckoning--a reckoning in which she confronts both the life she dreamed of and the life she made, and struggles to reconcile the girl she was with the woman she has become.
What are the forces that shape our most elemental bonds? How do we make lifelong commitments in the face of identities that are continuously shifting, and commit ourselves for all time when the self is so often in flux? What happens to love in the face of the unexpected, in the face of disappointment and compromise—how do we wrest beauty from imperfection, find grace in the ordinary, desire what we have rather than what we lack? Drawing on literature, poetry, philosophy, and theology, Shapiro writes gloriously of the joys and challenges of matrimonial life, in a luminous narrative that unfurls with urgent immediacy and sharp intelligence. Artful, intensely emotional work from one of our finest writers.
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Critic reviews
“Compassionate, insightful, and powerfully honest, in Hourglass Dani Shapiro illuminates the deepest mysteries, contradictions, and consolations of so very much—love, memory, the people we used to be and the people we’ve become. In other words: life. I was absorbed by Hourglass and consoled by it, too. It’s a beautiful book by a writer of rare talent.”—Cheryl Strayed
“Gorgeous, stunning, extraordinary— life-changing.” —Will Schwalbe
“Rilke reminds us that “There are multitudes of people, but there are many more faces, because each person has several of them.” And how do we, moment after elusive moment, marry then continue to change and grow yet still accommodate these multitudes in one another? This is just one of the piercingly compelling questions Dani Shapiro explores in her masterfully rendered new memoir. Written with erudition, hard-earned wisdom, and sensual grace, Hourglass is a fearless and lovely mosaic of those very fragments that make life worth living, the only one we get. I adore this book.” —Andre Dubus III
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Son's Search for Father Brings on Self-knowledge
- By sheila kehoe on 08-15-13
By: Michael Hainey
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Reading My Father
- A Memoir
- By: Alexandra Styron
- Narrated by: Alexandra Styron
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Alexandra Styron's parents—the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sophie’s Choice and his political activist wife, Rose—were, for half a century, leading players on the world’s cultural stage. Alexandra was raised under both the halo of her father’s brilliance and the long shadow of his troubled mind. Reading My Father portrays the epic sweep of an American artist’s life. It is also a tale of filial love, beautifully written with humor, compassion, and grace.
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William Styron Ranks...
- By Douglas on 12-22-13
By: Alexandra Styron
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10:04
- By: Ben Lerner
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In the last year, the narrator of 10:04 has enjoyed unexpected literary success, has been diagnosed with a potentially fatal heart condition, and has been asked by his best friend to help her conceive a child, despite his dating a rising star in the visual arts. In a New York of increasingly frequent super storms and political unrest, he must reckon with his biological mortality, the possibility of a literary afterlife, and the prospect of (unconventional) fatherhood in a city that might soon be under water.
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A novel worth reading
- By Bradley Paul Valentine on 01-29-15
By: Ben Lerner
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This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Ann Patchett
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Blending literature and memoir, Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder and Bel Canto examines her deepest commitments: to writing, family, friends, dogs, books, and her husband in This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. Together, these essays, previously published in The Atlantic, Harper, Vogue, and The Washington Post, form a resonant portrait of a life lived with loyalty and with love.
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Entertaining, engrossing, and elucidative essays
- By Bonny on 01-07-14
By: Ann Patchett
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Confessions of a Latter-Day Virgin
- A Memoir
- By: Nicole Hardy
- Narrated by: Nicole Hardy
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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When Nicole Hardy’s eye-opening "Modern Love" column appeared in the New York Times, the response from readers was overwhelming. Hardy’s essay, which exposed the conflict between being true to herself as a woman and remaining true to her Mormon faith, struck a chord with women coast-to-coast. Now in her funny, intimate, and thoughtful memoir, Nicole Hardy explores how she came, at the age of 35, to a crossroads regarding her faith and her identity.
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This Book Spoke to Me
- By Allison on 04-08-14
By: Nicole Hardy
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Bettyville
- By: George Hodgman
- Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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When George Hodgman leaves Manhattan for his hometown of Paris, Missouri, he finds himself - an unlikely caretaker and near-lethal cook - in a head-on collision with his aging mother, Betty, a woman of wit and will. Will George lure her into assisted living? When hell freezes over. He can't bring himself to force her from the home both treasure - the place where his father's voice lingers, the scene of shared jokes, skirmishes, and, behind the dusty antiques, a rarely acknowledged conflict...
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Title Should Be Georgeville-It's All About George
- By Sara on 10-08-15
By: George Hodgman
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Language Arts
- By: Stephanie Kallos
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Charles Marlow is a Seattle English teacher who instructs his students to expand their worlds through language. Lately, however, with one child off to college and the pressure from his ex-wife to make plans for their severely autistic son who's about to age out of the system, he prefers the company of the ghosts he turns up in the storage boxes in his crawl space.
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The beauty of the broken
- By SJ Evans on 04-27-18
By: Stephanie Kallos
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The Great Failure
- A Bartender, a Monk, and My Unlikely Path to Truth
- By: Natalie Goldberg
- Narrated by: Natalie Goldberg
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
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"The Great Failure is a boundless embrace, leaving nothing out. I wanted to learn the truth, to become whole. If I could touch the dark nature in someone else, I could know it in myself." So begins Natalie Goldberg in this candid exploration of her life. Here, Goldberg makes sense of primary relationships between father and daughter, teacher and student, and exemplifies the accomplishment available when creating daily writing practices.
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If you have been let down by anyone. Listen
- By Mia on 04-19-18
By: Natalie Goldberg
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Whirligig
- By: Paul Fleischman
- Narrated by: Robert Field, Lily Christian, Alex Hauk, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Newbery Medal winner Paul Fleischman writes a profoundly moving story of connectedness and the journey of a young soul to self-discovery. Told through the voices of five characters and narrated by age-appropriate actors, Whirligig compels the listener with its lesson on how our actions can impact the lives of others - even years later. A stunningly authentic listening experience.
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Fabulous
- By Tim on 03-21-17
By: Paul Fleischman
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Everywhere I Look
- By: Helen Garner
- Narrated by: Helen Garner
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Spanning 15 years of work, Everywhere I Look is an audiobook full of unexpected moments, sudden shafts of light, piercing intuition, flashes of anger and incidental humour. It takes us from backstage at the ballet to the trial of a woman for the murder of her newborn baby. It moves effortlessly from the significance of moving house to the pleasure of rereading Pride and Prejudice.
By: Helen Garner
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A Chance in the World
- An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home
- By: Steve Pemberton
- Narrated by: Steve Pemberton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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A Chance in the World is the unbelievably true story of a wounded and broken boy destined to become a man of resilience, determination, and vision. Through it all, Steve's story teaches us that no matter how broken our past, no matter how great our misfortunes, we have it in us to create a new beginning and to build a place where love awaits.
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Good Book
- By Amazon Customer on 08-19-20
By: Steve Pemberton
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Shadow Show
- All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury
- By: Sam Weller - editor, Mort Castle - editor
- Narrated by: George Takei, Edward Herrmann, Kate Mulgrew, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Ray Bradbury - peerless storyteller, poet of the impossible, and one of America's most beloved authors - is a literary giant whose remarkable career spanned seven decades. Now 26 of today's most diverse and celebrated authors offer new short works in honor of the master; stories of heart, intelligence, and dark wonder from a remarkable range of creative artists.
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THE MAN WHO FORGOT RAY BRADBURY
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 05-27-17
By: Sam Weller - editor, and others
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The Wednesday Sisters
- By: Meg Waite Clayton
- Narrated by: Julie Dretzin
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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For 35 years, Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett, and Ally have met every Wednesday at the park near their homes in Palo Alto, California. Defined when they first meet by what their husbands do, the young homemakers and mothers are far removed from the Summer of Love that has enveloped most of the Bay Area in 1967.
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Loved it!
- By Denise Wallace on 06-26-09
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Inheritance is an audiobook about secrets - secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is the story of a woman's urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that has been scrupulously hidden from her for more than 50 years, years she had spent writing brilliantly, and compulsively, on themes of identity and family history.
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Author makes too much out of too little...
- By River Holmes-miller on 01-16-19
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Slow Motion
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Dani Shapiro was a young girl from a deeply religious home who became the girlfriend of a famous and flamboyant married attorney - her best friend's stepfather. The moment Lenny Klein entered her life, everything changed: She dropped out of college, began to drink heavily, and became estranged from her family and friends. But then the phone call came. There had been an accident on a snowy road near her family's home in New Jersey, and both her parents lay hospitalized in critical condition.
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Even in the most mundane moments, this sings
- By Ashley Story on 01-31-21
By: Dani Shapiro
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Devotion
- A Memoir
- By: Dani Shapiro
- Narrated by: Dani Shapiro
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
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In her midforties and settled into the responsibilities and routines of adulthood, Dani Shapiro found herself with more questions than answers. Was this all life was - a hodgepodge of errands, dinner dates, e-mails, meetings, to-do lists? What did it all mean? Having grown up in a deeply religious and traditional family, Shapiro had no personal sense of faith, despite repeated attempts to create a connection to something greater.
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Superb
- By Sara Gottfried MD on 11-09-15
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Black & White
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Clara Brodeur has spent her entire adult life pulling herself away from her famous mother, the renowned and controversial photographer Ruth Dunne, whose towering reputation rests on the unsettling nude portraits she took of her young daughter from the ages of three to 14. As Clara charts a path connecting her childhood with her adult life, Shapiro's novel weaves together past and present in images as stark and intense as the photographs that tore the Dunnes apart.
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It was okay
- By Lucy7 on 02-13-19
By: Dani Shapiro
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Still Writing
- The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life
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From Dani Shapiro, best-selling author of Devotion and Slow Motion, comes a witty, heartfelt, and practical look at the exhilarating and challenging process of storytelling. At once a memoir, a meditation on the artistic process, and advice on craft, Still Writing is an intimate companion to living a creative life. Writers - and anyone with an artistic temperament - will find inspiration and comfort here.
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Inspiring but dark, better to read than listen
- By Raquel on 10-22-21
By: Dani Shapiro
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Signal Fires
- A Novel
- By: Dani Shapiro
- Narrated by: Dani Shapiro
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Division Street is full of secrets. An impulsive lie begets a secret—one which will forever haunt the Wilf family. And the Shenkmans, who move into the neighborhood many years later, bring secrets of their own.. Spanning fifty kaleidoscopic years, on a street—and in a galaxy—where stars collapse and stories collide, these two families become bound in ways they never could have imagined. Urgent and compassionate, Signal Fires is a magical story for our times, a literary tour de force by a masterful storyteller at the height of her powers.
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Depressing, poorly read
- By Arden Mahaffey on 11-02-22
By: Dani Shapiro
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Inheritance
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Inheritance is an audiobook about secrets - secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is the story of a woman's urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that has been scrupulously hidden from her for more than 50 years, years she had spent writing brilliantly, and compulsively, on themes of identity and family history.
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Author makes too much out of too little...
- By River Holmes-miller on 01-16-19
By: Dani Shapiro
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Slow Motion
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- By: Dani Shapiro
- Narrated by: Dani Shapiro
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Dani Shapiro was a young girl from a deeply religious home who became the girlfriend of a famous and flamboyant married attorney - her best friend's stepfather. The moment Lenny Klein entered her life, everything changed: She dropped out of college, began to drink heavily, and became estranged from her family and friends. But then the phone call came. There had been an accident on a snowy road near her family's home in New Jersey, and both her parents lay hospitalized in critical condition.
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Even in the most mundane moments, this sings
- By Ashley Story on 01-31-21
By: Dani Shapiro
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Overall
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Performance
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In her midforties and settled into the responsibilities and routines of adulthood, Dani Shapiro found herself with more questions than answers. Was this all life was - a hodgepodge of errands, dinner dates, e-mails, meetings, to-do lists? What did it all mean? Having grown up in a deeply religious and traditional family, Shapiro had no personal sense of faith, despite repeated attempts to create a connection to something greater.
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Superb
- By Sara Gottfried MD on 11-09-15
By: Dani Shapiro
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Black & White
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- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
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Overall
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Clara Brodeur has spent her entire adult life pulling herself away from her famous mother, the renowned and controversial photographer Ruth Dunne, whose towering reputation rests on the unsettling nude portraits she took of her young daughter from the ages of three to 14. As Clara charts a path connecting her childhood with her adult life, Shapiro's novel weaves together past and present in images as stark and intense as the photographs that tore the Dunnes apart.
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It was okay
- By Lucy7 on 02-13-19
By: Dani Shapiro
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Still Writing
- The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life
- By: Dani Shapiro
- Narrated by: Dani Shapiro
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From Dani Shapiro, best-selling author of Devotion and Slow Motion, comes a witty, heartfelt, and practical look at the exhilarating and challenging process of storytelling. At once a memoir, a meditation on the artistic process, and advice on craft, Still Writing is an intimate companion to living a creative life. Writers - and anyone with an artistic temperament - will find inspiration and comfort here.
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Inspiring but dark, better to read than listen
- By Raquel on 10-22-21
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Signal Fires
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Depressing, poorly read
- By Arden Mahaffey on 11-02-22
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What listeners say about Hourglass
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Danielle
- 05-11-17
Visceral & Lovely
Any additional comments?
This book was a great listen. I appreciate the way that the author goes back and forth between the moments in her life.
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4 people found this helpful
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- CameronDHammon
- 08-07-17
Stunning
I found Hourglass, or it found me, at exactly the right moment. Shapiro is a master of the braided memoir. She has a poets heart, is a brave, and necessary artist. I loved this book.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Clarice H.
- 05-10-19
Story ok, but the monotone narration drove me craz
The story was ok, a little too much jumping around and random thought inserts (but I suppose that style has become pretty popular as of late). But the thing that stuck out the most was the author's monotone melancholy voice. I almost couldn't finish the book with how it was read. No voice fluctuations or change of pace or anything, just sad monotone all the way through. I wish I could blame this fault in the narrator, but the fact that the narrator is the author means she wanted it read in this fashion.... Poor choice. Even if I hadn't listened to the book (or if it had a different narrator) I still probably wouldn't recommend it. Not interesting enough for me, and a little too doom and gloom in style (or maybe it was just her voice that made it seem like that).
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- Pamela Donnelly
- 04-21-17
Transience and Permanence
Loved this book and Shapiro's peculiar juxtaposition of the lyrical with the ordinary, wrapping and winding like love itself through this vulnerable narrative.
An author who continues to risk. A book recommended especially for those of us who reject time as a construct.
Brava!
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4 people found this helpful
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- Sandra
- 04-12-17
As always, sharp, intelligent and self aware.
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
This, more than any of her other writing, feels raw and honest. She's succeeded in weaving a story that is profoundly hers and yet universal.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Susan
- 10-14-17
Not too compelling
It was okay, but the sense I got was that the author was writing a memoir for a the sake of publishing another book. I did find one quote from it that I will probably keep around.
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2 people found this helpful
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- FLW
- 07-26-21
Touching and brave, beautifully written
Loved the back & forth manipulation of time, the metaphors that accompany so much of the story bring to life the challenges that time brings to an enduring relationship.
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- Erica R. Svendsen`
- 05-07-17
significance of the overlooked moments revealed
The writer grants the reader access to the weaving room where the fabric of her writing life is spun. The reading itself however, is done without much feeling. This has the benefit of letting the listener ascribe weight to various events but left me wanting the author to allow her emotions to be somewhere other than just or of reach.
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- Carolyn M. Kell
- 05-08-17
Great Synthesis of Memoir meets Philisophy
This book is definitely worth listening to several times or more to catch some of the nuggets of deep thought and self-reflection and analysis of the stages of life as it unfolds. Free will or not, we all are on a certain path for better or worse.
The insights and poignant .descriptions are not to be missed. The only thing that might rub a reader in the wrong way are the rivulets of the upper-middle-class lifestyle among such deep, often bittersweet, if not melancholic, life dramas. While these themes are timeless and class-less, it is sometimes hard to swallow pain and sorrow playing out amidst little descriptive pieces (e.g., a "Patagonia sweater") and then there are the history of what to most Americans would be lavish vacations.
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13 people found this helpful
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- Susan Ring
- 07-31-17
A little disappointed...
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
No, unfortunately. There were a few parts that were okay, but where was the story? I wanted more truth, more reality. I know what it's like to be married, and I think she would have revealed more about her marriage. The reality of the sex, the realness of feeling like shit and having sex anyway, the real feelings. Did she want more kids? Did she not? What else might she have wanted to be in life? I want to hear more about Dani, the woman. I think she would have been more real if she knew her husband wouldn't have read it. IMHO, I think she should have written it in anyway.
Would you ever listen to anything by Dani Shapiro again?
Yes, I like her work. This one didn't do it for me though. When it ended, I thought. What? Is it over?
Would you listen to another book narrated by Dani Shapiro?
Yes
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
No
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8 people found this helpful