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Narrated by:
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Becket Royce
About this listen
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Critic reviews
"So precise, so distilled, so beautiful that one doesn't want to miss any pleasure it might yield." (The New York Times Book Review)
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- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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This exquisite, resonant novel by PEN/Faulkner winner James Salter is a brilliant portrait of a marriage by a contemporary American master. It is the story of Nedra and Viri, whose favored life is centered around dinners, ingenious games with their children, enviable friends, and near-perfect days passed skating on a frozen river or sunning on the beach.
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Unfathomable Font of Blue: Life's Serial Goodbyes
- By W Perry Hall on 04-18-19
By: James Salter
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Other Voices, Other Rooms
- By: Truman Capote
- Narrated by: Cody Roberts
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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At the age of 12, Joel Knox is summoned to meet the father who abandoned him at birth. But when Joel arrives at the decaying mansion in Skully's Landing, his father is nowhere in sight. What he finds instead is a sullen stepmother who delights in killing birds; an uncle with the face - and heart - of a debauched child; and a fearsome little girl named Idabel who may offer him the closest thing he has ever known to love.
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Capote’s coming of age story
- By Daniel Diffin on 11-08-23
By: Truman Capote
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The Promise
- By: Ann Weisgarber
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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1900. Young pianist Catherine Wainwright flees the fashionable town of Dayton, Ohio in the wake of a terrible scandal. Heartbroken and facing destitution, she finds herself striking up correspondence with a childhood admirer, the recently widowed Oscar Williams. In desperation she agrees to marry him, but when Catherine travels to Oscar's farm on Galveston Island, Texas—a thousand miles from home—she finds she is little prepared for the life that awaits her.
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Beautifully written and read
- By RueRue on 04-21-14
By: Ann Weisgarber
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Egg & Spoon
- By: Gregory Maguire
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Elena Rudina lives in the impoverished Russian countryside. Her father has been dead for years. Her brothers have been conscripted into the Tsar's army and taken as servants in the house of the local wealthy landowner. Her mother is dying, slowly, in their tiny cabin. And there is no food. But then a train arrives in the village, a train carrying untold wealth, a cornucopia of food, and a noble family destined to visit the Tsar in St. Petersburg - a family that includes Ekaterina, a girl of Elena's age.
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Best Book Ever!!!
- By Kindle Customer2 on 10-15-14
By: Gregory Maguire
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The Essex Serpent
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Perry
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
When Cora Seaborne's brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was not a happy one. Wed at 19, this woman of exceptional intelligence and curiosity was ill-suited for the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space in the wake of the funeral, Cora leaves London for a visit to coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive 11-year old son, Francis, and the boy's nanny, Martha.
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Unbearable Narrator
- By ACB on 06-08-17
By: Sarah Perry
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The Optimist's Daughter
- By: Eudora Welty
- Narrated by: Eudora Welty
- Length: 3 hrs and 59 mins
- Abridged
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This story of a young woman's confrontation with death and her past is a poetic study of human relations.
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Beautiful writing
- By Teresa on 07-15-13
By: Eudora Welty
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The Ballad of the Sad Café
- By: Carson McCullers
- Narrated by: David Ledoux, Joe Barrett, Therese Plummer, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers' best stories, including her beloved novella The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose cafe serves as the town's gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes "Wunderkind", McCullers' first published story, written when she was only 17, about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist.
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Literate short stories
- By RueRue on 02-23-16
By: Carson McCullers
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Owls Do Cry
- By: Janet Frame
- Narrated by: Heather Bolton
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Owls Do Cry is Janet Frame's first novel. She describes her idea behind it in the second volume of her autobiography: 'Pictures of great treasure in the midst of sadness and waste haunted me and I began to think, in fiction, of a childhood, home life, hospital life, using people known to me as a base for main characters, and inventing minor characters.'
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well told but a wee bit depressing.
- By Muzza on 11-03-19
By: Janet Frame
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Arcadia
- By: Lauren Groff
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Lauren Groff’s acclaimed debut novel The Monsters of Templeton was short-listed for the Orange Prize. Her second novel, Arcadia opens in the late 1960s with a group of young idealists forming a commune in western New York State. Into this group is born Bit, who grows into a quiet, distant man. Over the course of 50 years, Bit witnesses the utopia crumble and the world change in unimaginable ways.
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Luscious prose, intimate and realistic
- By Kathleen on 03-22-12
By: Lauren Groff
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What listeners say about Housekeeping
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Paula
- 11-25-12
Haunting Story of Sisters and Abandonment
The prose in this book is like pure poetry. . . and I learned to love it after the first 10-15 minutes of listening. It was unexpected, but captivating. For me, the narration was superb, although others find fault. It is difficult to dissect this book, because it is a story of memories and relationships and human idiosyncrasy in the raw. Enjoyable and relatively short in duration.
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2 people found this helpful
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- borgyborgy
- 01-15-15
Profound writer but flat reader
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
The book, yes but not the audible version.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Housekeeping?
All moments sounded the same.
How did the narrator detract from the book?
So much so that I plan to re-read it to apprehend the authors depth.
Was Housekeeping worth the listening time?
Barely
Any additional comments?
The reader reads with inflection but the same for each paragraph in a kind of cheery manner that made me wonder if she'd read the book before our if so, did she get it. I've been deeply moved by Marylin Robinson's other books but this narrator did not seem to be and sucked the richness out of it. It was hard to differentiate the characters as they were all told with the same chirpy voice. I hate to criticize someone's livelihood but this reader is just too light for this author. Maybe for children's books.
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2 people found this helpful
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- ked
- 11-20-15
Wonderful story marred by terrible narration
This is an audible production I will now READ in order to savor the words as they were meant to be experienced. The narrator reads too quickly and in an infuriating sort of sing-song, both of which rob this imaginative story of its lyricism and gravitas. I felt as though I were listening to an adolescent with no life experience read a story with which she really couldn't resonate. Very frustrating! I kept going only in deference to the writer. New narrator please.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Ruth
- 02-20-18
Wanted more!
Would you consider the audio edition of Housekeeping to be better than the print version?
Yes, it was a great book for listening while doing chores, driving, etc. No heavy lifting, and I could get other stuff done.
What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
Disappointed. The storytelling right up to the end made sense, but the ending left me wondering if it was just a set-up for a sequel.
Have you listened to any of Becket Royce’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No, but I'll look for her now.
If you could take any character from Housekeeping out to dinner, who would it be and why?
Sylvie. I want to know more about her back story.
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- Cordelia Becker
- 03-19-15
enjoyed
simple story, beautiful prose, well read. will definitely read more by this author. well done.
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- Deedra
- 09-17-20
Housekeeping
I absolutely loved this book! It is a story of nature vs nurture.What is inherited.Is suicide?Is mental confusion and vagrancy? A family loses a father/grandfather to a train accident,then a mother to suicide.The girls are raised by an aunt that was disowned,but why?A family destined to be torn asunder.A fabulous story told wonderfully by Becket Royce.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.'
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Overall
- Deborah
- 12-07-06
Brilliant
This was a brilliant book, well written, narrated superbly. It is not the type of book a casual reader would enjoy however. The vocabulary was excellent and the pace was fast. I think I would have preferred to read this, but I was not disappointed in the listen.
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18 people found this helpful
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- Sarah C
- 09-26-11
Into the mystic
I agree with Emily's review below--this is a fascinating novel of abandonment, loss, mental illness, and mystically merging with nature. I was so moved by the descriptions of the area where the girls lived with their grandmother, the huge lake, the mountains, the woods, the cold and snow. It took me a while to figure out it was in Idaho somewhere. Sylvie and Ruthie spend so much time outside, in all kinds of weather, even spending the night on the lake's edge and then in a small boat in the middle of the lake in the middle of winter. They seemed to want to merge with nature, like the drowned grandfather and mother. There were comical scenes among the tragic, like when the ladies drop by to counsel Sylvie on how to keep house and raise Ruthie. That advice was not going to be taken, not by these two birds of a feather. Their outsiderness was sad, but at least they had each other. Unlike some others, I thought the narrator did a great job with this very literary novel. The language is beautiful, dense and flowing, full of mystery and allusion. I have also listened to Gilead by this author but did not like it anywhere near as much as Housekeeping, though Gilead won awards. Marilynne Robinson writes masterfully of troubled families through generations. She is one of my favorite authors.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Kelly
- 08-28-14
Strange title for a strange story, but necessary
What did you love best about Housekeeping?
How deceiving it is with its haunting message and surprise ending
What other book might you compare Housekeeping to and why?
I can't think of anything off hand as it's so unique
Which character – as performed by Becket Royce – was your favorite?
Sylvie
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Life wasn't meant to be straight
Any additional comments?
Some say the narrator was distracting - and I can understand why, as she is rather 'sing song' and very happy, probably too happy. But that's the point, I think. Even though it's a haunting story, Sylvie is a transient but happy with her lot and although the circumstances for the girls might be grim, there is a solution! Being happy go lucky and not weighed down with responsibilities might seem careless to some, but the very fact that there are choices in life is the point of the story. To have narrated this story with a more grave or solemn voice would have taken away the light heartedness intended, in my opinion. Maybe a more 'wistful' reading, without so much 'sing song' would've made it better?
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Overall
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- D. Slater
- 04-16-12
Unlike anything I've read before.
Beautifully written -- lyrical, one might say -- with a story that unfolds as quietly and unexpectedly as a flower. It's suddenly there, and you know so much about the characters' lives without being aware of that unfolding. The reader has an exceptionally pleasant voice, and a style of delivery perfectly suited to the material. A great experience overall.
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