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Mermaids
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Evans
- Length: 4 hrs and 6 mins
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Publisher's summary
"Mrs. Flax was happiest when she was leaving a place, but I wanted to stay put long enough to fall down crazy and hear the Word of God. I always called my mother Mrs. Flax."
So begins this extraordinary first novel about one wild year in the life of 14-year-old Charlotte Flax, when she and her sister Kate move with Mrs. Flax into a sleepy 1960's Massachusetts town. Mrs. Flax is a woman who wears polka-dot dresses and serves hors d'oeuvres for dinner every night, and Kate is a child who basically wants to be a fish.
And then there's Charlotte, who in Patty Dann's hands, is transformed into a young woman of infinite whim and variety. Charlotte's main ambition in life is to become a saint, preferably martyred, though she's Jewish. She's smitten with the shy young caretaker at the convent at the top of the hill. Dann has created a young girl who accepts the unkindness of the mad universe in which she's whirling and takes it on with a savage glee.
Charlotte Flax is like no one you have ever met - and someone you know very well.
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I sure tried.
- By A.C. CALLOWAY on 01-28-24
By: Joy Williams
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Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
- Stories
- By: Raymond Carver
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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With this, his first collection of stories, Raymond Carver breathed new life into the American short story and instantly became both the recognized master of the form and one of our best-loved fiction writers. Carver shows us the humor and tragedy that dwell in the hearts of ordinary people; his stories are the classics of our time.
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Humanity at the Breaking Point
- By Darwin8u on 03-31-19
By: Raymond Carver
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A Girl Named Zippy
- Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana
- By: Haven Kimmel
- Narrated by: Haven Kimmel
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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When Haven Kimmel was born in 1965, Mooreland, Indiana, was a sleepy little hamlet of 300 people. Nicknamed "Zippy" for the way she would bolt around the house, this small girl was possessed of big eyes and even bigger ears. In this witty and lovingly told memoir, Kimmel takes readers back to a time when small-town America was caught in the amber of the innocent postwar period - people helped their neighbors, went to church on Sunday, and kept barnyard animals in their backyards.
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Beautifully written, beautifully read.
- By shopgirl on 03-06-08
By: Haven Kimmel
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The Shadow Year
- A Novel
- By: Jeffrey Ford
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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On New York's Long Island, in the unpredictable decade of the 1960s, a young boy spends much of his free time in the basement of his family's modest home, where he and his brother, Jim, have created Botch Town, a detailed cardboard replica of their community, complete with figurines representing friends and neighbors. Their little sister, Mary, smokes cigarettes, speaks in other voices, inhabits alternate personas... and, unbeknownst to her siblings, moves around the inanimate clay residents.
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Couldn't stop listening!!!
- By Marjory on 12-12-10
By: Jeffrey Ford
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Too Close to the Falls
- A Memoir
- By: Catherine Gildiner
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Welcome to the childhood of Catherine McClure Gildiner. It is the middle of the 1950s in Lewiston, New York, a small and sleepy American town very near Niagara Falls. No one is divorced. Mothers wear high heels to the beauty salon and children pop Pez candy and swing from vines over a local gorge. But at the tender age of four, it becomes clear to her Cathy's parents that their rambunctious daughter is no ordinary child and they soon put her "to work" at her father's pharmacy.
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Brilliant and funny and touching.
- By Kindle Customer on 11-07-19
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Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
- By: Rebecca Wells
- Narrated by: Judith Ivey
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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When Vivi and Siddalee Walker, an unforgettable mother-daughter team, get into a savage fight over a New York Times article that refers to Vivi as a "tap-dancing child abuser", the fallout is felt from Louisiana to New York to Seattle. Siddalee, a successful theater director with a huge hit on her hands, panics and postpones her upcoming wedding to her lover and friend, Connor McGill. Vivi's intrepid gang of lifelong girlfriends, the Ya-Yas, sashay in and conspire to bring everyone back together.
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As usual the book is better than the movie
- By Denzil and Judy's Account on 03-25-10
By: Rebecca Wells
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Walk Two Moons
- By: Sharon Creech
- Narrated by: Hope Davis
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In her own award-winning style, Sharon Creech intricately weaves together two tales, one funny, one bittersweet, to create a heartwarming, compelling, and utterly moving story of love, loss, and the complexity of human emotion.
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Such a great story wonderfully told
- By Susan on 02-06-12
By: Sharon Creech
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The Other Side of Paradise
- A Memoir
- By: Staceyann Chin
- Narrated by: Staceyann Chin
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Stacyann Chin has appeared on television and radio, including The Oprah Winfrey Show , CNN, and PBS, discussing issues of race and sexuality. But it is her extraordinary voice that launched her career as a performer, poet, and activist. Here, she shares her unforgettable story of triumph against all odds in this brave and fiercely candid memoir.
No one knew Staceyann's mother was pregnant until a dangerously small baby was born on the floor of her grandmother's house in Jamaica, on Christmas Day.
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Incredible life, incredible performer
- By RyRy on 10-21-19
By: Staceyann Chin
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The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove
- A Novel
- By: Susan Gregg Gilmore
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Bezellia Grove was born into the most prominent of Nashville families, but that didn’t stop her from having an alcoholic mother and a distant, adulterous father. Her nanny, Maizelle, and Nathaniel, the handyman, are the people who have taken care of her since she can remember. She considers them family, but her parents just consider them servants because they are Black. When Bezellia has a clandestine romance with Nathaniel's son, Whites and Blacks unite in fury at the young couple.
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light southern fiction
- By suzanne on 02-08-13
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Fruit of the Drunken Tree
- A Novel
- By: Ingrid Rojas Contreras
- Narrated by: Marisol Ramirez, Almarie Guerra, Ingrid Rojas Contreras
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Seven-year-old Chula and her older sister, Cassandra, enjoy carefree lives thanks to their gated community in Bogotá, but the threat of kidnappings, car bombs, and assassinations hover just outside the neighborhood walls, where the godlike drug lord Pablo Escobar continues to elude authorities and capture the attention of the nation. When their mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city's guerrilla-occupied slum, Chula makes it her mission to understand Petrona's mysterious ways.
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Maybe better to read this book than listen???
- By Amazon Customer on 12-12-18
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The Magician's Assistant
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Karen Ziemba
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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When a gay Los Angeles magician named Parsifal dies suddenly, he leaves behind his heartbroken assistant, Sabine, and a secret past that leads her to Nebraska and a father she never knew he had.
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Patchett Has It
- By Pamela Harvey on 06-10-08
By: Ann Patchett
What listeners say about Mermaids
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Daryl
- 05-07-13
Finally!
Oh gosh. I got so unbelievably excited when I saw that this was finally going to be available from Audible. When I was a teenager I was in LOVE with this movie. Who didn't secretly want a mom like Cher? But I was still pretty hesitant going into this - 80s cheesiness is one thing. The idea of "seeing" this in print was kind of scary. After all, what if the movie were better, or worse yet, what if the book hadn't held up over the years?
I'm here to tell you that the book and the movie are both equally good. This is a horse of a different color to be sure, but after listening to it I can honestly say that one doesn't eclipse the other. They're both basically their own thing. And as far as I'm concerned Charlotte's coming of age story is just as funny and touching now as it was when it was first written.
I can honestly say I wasn't expecting this book to be as fun as it was. There were moments when I was laughing out loud on my commute to work, and there were moments where I just wanted to sit and be still for a moment because Patty Dann made me remember what it was like to be young, when you felt so much and the world seemed so big. Charlotte is unique in the world of teen fiction. She's the type of character you can see evolving right before your eyes. I loved seeing how she learned to navigate the world around her
Over all this was a great listen. I got everything I wanted from it and then some. Recommended!
A big Thank You to the staff at Audible for making this happen!
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5 people found this helpful
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- Katelyn D. Schultz
- 01-11-24
The flax women are the real deal.
very similar to the movie, but felt more complete. Funny, Honest and real, for anyone who loves quirky families and remembers how hard and fast you love when you're young.
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- Trish
- 05-31-13
Narrator was Perfect!!
Mermaids was a nice little novel—not my favorite of my recent listens, but definitely credit-worthy. It is short and sweet, and full of a lot of funny, laugh-out-loud moments! Plus I thought the narrator was perfect for this particular story, and she did a great job. It was an entertaining way to spend a few hours—
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1 person found this helpful
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- Susie
- 04-29-13
Coming of Age Never Gets Old
Remember "Mermaids" the movie with Winona Ryder as the fierce 14 year old heroine, Christina Ricci in tadpole stage, and— Cher?
Yes, we recall Cher closing her eyes and pinning the map for their next move. Actor Bob Hoskins creating a "magical mermaid bedroom" for the girls. Baby Christina Ricci nearly drowning in a creek because Winona is getting her first kiss! Who can forget the Shoop-shoop song?
Well, this excellent book by Patty Dann gave birth to that movie, and it’s as poignant as ever. Coming-of-age never gets old.
Dann's novel is better than its cinematic counterpart. The characters are so well drawn, so identifiable, it’s like reaching into the past and shaking hands with old friends and neighbors.
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3 people found this helpful
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- jaye
- 04-30-13
GOOD STORY. I WAS ENTERTAINED.
What made the experience of listening to Mermaids the most enjoyable?
I LIKED THE FUNNY IDEAS THAT CHARLOTTE HAD ABOUT SEX AND LOVE. SHE WAS AN ADOLESSENT GIRL WHO WAS KINDA QUIRKY.
I LIKED THE STORY VERY MUCH.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Mermaids?
WHEN CHARLOTTE WAS TALKING TO SISTER SUPERIOR AT THE CONVENT. ALSO SOME OF THE THINGS CHARLOTTE WAS THINKING MADE ME SMILE. KIDS ARE FUNNY AND THIS BOOK DID A GREAT JOB IN JUST TELLING A FUN STORY.
What does Elizabeth Evans bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
IT IS ALWAYS NICE TO HAVE SOME ONE READ TO YOU. SHE HAD A GOOD VOICE FOR THIS JOB!
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
YES I DID. IT WAS A SHORT BOOK AND I READ IT ALL THIS EVENING.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Allie
- 10-02-13
Artful, Confusing
Beautiful writing, abrupt ending, not enough insight into characters, too plot-driven. Memorable, but unfilfilling...I'm still on the fence.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Molly
- 08-28-19
One of the rare times a movie is better than the book...
I recently watched Mermaids the film again after not having seen it for several years, and found I enjoyed it just as much as I had the first time I saw it, with amazing performances from Cher, Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci in the lead roles. I had never known it was an adapted screenplay from a novel until I paid attention to the credits, and was excited to find the original book here on Audible. The story is strong and the movie uses much of the direct dialogue and characters from the book, but I didn’t feel the role of Mrs. Flax was anywhere near as interesting or as well-rounded in the book as it was in the movie. In the book, she seems flighty, irresponsible and removed, and there seems to be no reasons given as to why Mrs Flax believes what she does, why she moves around so much, what her reasoning is or what she’s trying to avoid by doing it. Her unconventionality seems to be solely driven by impulse. Her character and motivations are much more fleshed out in the movie. Plus, I found the vague addition and introduction of Charlotte’s father here - who sort of is a character but then weirdly never is - to be purely extraneous and distracting; I felt they handled it much better in the movie by simply indicating he was gone for good, and this also explained Mrs. Flax’s behaviors and distrust of men as well as Charlotte’s need for a father figure to make much more sense. This has the great “bones” for a story, but if you want to truly enjoy it, I suggest watching the film, where the screenwriters took a good idea and interesting characters and turned them into something much more compelling than the writer did here.
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