Raising Raffi
The First Five Years
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Narrated by:
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Keith Gessen
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By:
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Keith Gessen
About this listen
“A wise, mild and enviably lucid book about a chaotic scene.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“Memoirs of fatherhood are rarely so honest or so blunt.”—Daniel Engber, The Atlantic
“An instant classic.”—M. C. Mah, Romper
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2022 BY LIT HUB & THE MILLIONS
An unsparing, loving account of fatherhood and the surprising, magical, and maddening first five years of a son’s life
“I was not prepared to be a father—this much I knew.”
Keith Gessen was nearing forty and hadn’t given much thought to the idea of being a father. He assumed he would have kids, but couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be a parent, or what kind of parent he would be. Then, one Tuesday night in early June, the distant idea of fatherhood came careening into view: Raffi was born, a child as real and complex and demanding of his parents’ energy as he was singularly magical.
Fatherhood is another country: a place where the old concerns are swept away, where the ordering of time is reconstituted, where days unfold according to a child’s needs. Whatever rulebooks once existed for this sort of thing seem irrelevant or outdated. Overnight, Gessen’s perception of his neighborhood changes: suddenly there are flocks of other parents and babies, playgrounds, and schools that span entire blocks. Raffi is enchanting, as well as terrifying, and like all parents, Gessen wants to do what is best for his child. But he has no idea what that is.
Written over the first five years of Raffi’s life, Raising Raffi examines the profound, overwhelming, often maddening experience of being a dad. Gessen traces how the practical decisions one must make each day intersect with some of the weightiest concerns of our age: What does it mean to choose a school in a segregated city? How do you instill in your child a sense of his heritage without passing on that history’s darker sides? Is parental anger normal, possibly useful, or is it inevitably authoritarian and destructive? How do you get your kid to play sports? And what do you do, in a pandemic, when the whole world seems to fall apart? By turns hilarious and poignant, Raising Raffi is a story of what it means to invent the world anew.
©2022 Keith Gessen (P)2022 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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- By: Meghan Daum
- Narrated by: Meghan Daum
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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It's a report tempered by hard times. In "Matricide", Daum unflinchingly describes a parent's death and the uncomfortable emotions it provokes; and in "Diary of a Coma" she relates her own journey to the twilight of the mind. But Daum also operates in a comic register. With perfect precision, she reveals the absurdities of the marriage-industrial complex, of the New Age dating market, and of the peculiar habits of the young and digital.
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Complaining about her dead mom.
- By Erik Hermansen on 11-23-14
By: Meghan Daum
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Carly's Voice
- Breaking Through Autism
- By: Arthur Fleischmann, Carly Fleischmann
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor, Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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At the age of two, Carly Fleischmann was diagnosed with severe autism and an oral motor condition that prevented her from speaking. Doctors predicted that she would never intellectually develop beyond the abilities of a small child. Although she made some progress after years of intensive behavioral and communication therapy, Carly remained largely unreachable. Then, at age 10, Carly had a breakthrough....
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A peek inside...
- By Yolanda on 08-09-13
By: Arthur Fleischmann, and others
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Parenting Your Powerful Child
- Bringing an End to the Everyday Battles
- By: Dr. Kevin Leman
- Narrated by: Maurice England
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Don’t let those cherubic faces fool you. Your smart kids have an agenda - and they’re workin’ ya. Powerful kids don’t just happen. They’re created, and their power comes in different packages. Whether loud and temperamental, quiet and sensitive, or stubborn and manipulative, powerful children can make living with them a challenge. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In Parenting Your Powerful Child, New York Times best-selling author Dr. Kevin Leman offers a practical action plan to redirect your child’s power surges into positive traits that will prepare your child for a successful, happy, and productive adult life.
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A MUST read for every parent
- By Elena F. Novak on 11-17-13
By: Dr. Kevin Leman
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Mother Daughter Me
- A Memoir
- By: Katie Hafner
- Narrated by: Katie Hafner
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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The complex, deeply binding relationship between mothers and daughters is brought vividly to life in Katie Hafner's remarkable memoir, an exploration of the year she and her mother, Helen, spent working through, and triumphing over, a lifetime of unresolved emotions. Dreaming of a "year in Provence" with her mother, Katie urges Helen to move to San Francisco to live with her and Zoe, Katie's teenage daughter. Katie and Zoe had become a mother-daughter team, strong enough, Katie thought, to absorb the arrival of a 77-year-old woman set in her ways....
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Listen and be swept away!
- By Barbara Quick on 06-02-22
By: Katie Hafner
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Have a New Teenager by Friday
- From Mouthy and Moody to Respectful and Responsible in 5 Days
- By: Kevin Leman
- Narrated by: Kirby Heybourne
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Congratulations! You have a teenager in your home. Life will never quite be the same again (of course, you already know that). But it can be better than you’ve ever dreamed. In fact, you’re just five days away from your teenager asking, “What can I do to help?” Guaranteed! With his signature wit and commonsense psychology, internationally recognized family expert and New York Times best-selling author Dr. Kevin Leman will help you. your teenager’s life. With Dr. Leman’s instinct and insight, plus an index with gutsy advice on 75 hot-button issues that keep parents up at night.
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Listen with a Critical Mind
- By Stephanie on 03-25-13
By: Kevin Leman
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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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My Lobotomy
- A Memoir
- By: Howard Dully, Charles Fleming
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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"In 1960 I was given a transorbital, or 'ice pick' lobotomy. My stepmother arranged it. My father agreed to it. Dr. Walter Freeman, the father of the American lobotomy, told me he was going to do some 'tests'. It took 10 minutes and cost 200 dollars." Assisted by journalist/novelist Charles Fleming, Howard Dully recounts a family tragedy of Sophoclean proportions.
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Freeman's Folly
- By James Gordon on 10-28-07
By: Howard Dully, and others
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Love That Boy
- What Two Presidents, Eight Road Trips, and My Son Taught Me About a Parent's Expectations
- By: Ron Fournier
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Love That Boy is a uniquely personal story about the causes and costs of outsized parental expectations. What we want for our children - popularity, normalcy, achievement, genius - and what they truly need - grit, empathy, character - are explored by National Journal's Ron Fournier, who weaves his extraordinary journey to acceptance around the latest research on childhood development and stories of other loving-but-struggling parents.
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Very enjoyable. Listened to it twice.
- By howharryisharry on 09-05-17
By: Ron Fournier
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My Life with Bob
- Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues
- By: Pamela Paul
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens, Pamela Paul
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Pamela Paul has kept a single book by her side for 28 years - carried throughout high school and college, hauled from Paris to London to Thailand, from job to job, safely packed away and then carefully removed from apartment to house to its current perch on a shelf over her desk - reliable if frayed, anonymous-looking yet deeply personal. This book has a name: Bob. Bob is Paul's Book of Books, a journal that records every book she's ever read.
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An uncanny mirror and a celebration of book love
- By Cherilyn Parsons on 07-28-19
By: Pamela Paul
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Because I Come from a Crazy Family
- The Making of a Psychiatrist
- By: Edward M. Hallowell
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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When Edward M. Hallowell was 11, a voice out of nowhere told him he should become a psychiatrist. A mental health professional of the time would have called this psychosis. But young Edward (Ned) took it in stride, despite not quite knowing what "psychiatrist" meant. With a psychotic father, an alcoholic mother, an abusive stepfather, and two so-called learning disabilities of his own, Ned was accustomed to unpredictable behaviour from those around him and to a mind he felt he couldn't always control.
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Love and connection permeates through this book!
- By Steve Steinmetz on 06-29-18
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The Wrong End of the Table
- A Mostly Comic Memoir of a Muslim Arab American Woman Just Trying to Fit In
- By: Ayser Salman, Reza Aslan - foreword
- Narrated by: Ayser Salman, Assaf Cohen
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Part memoir and part how-not-to guide, The Wrong End of the Table is everything you wanted to know about Arabs but were afraid to ask, with chapters such as “Tattoos and Other National Security Risks,” “You Can’t Blame Everything on Your Period; Sometimes You’re Going to Be a Crazy Bitch: and Other Advice from Mom,” and even an open letter to Trump. This is the story of every American outsider on a path to find themselves in a country of beautiful diversity.
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Not what I was looking for
- By Amazon Customer on 09-01-22
By: Ayser Salman, and others
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Gummi Bears Should Not Be Organic
- And Other Opinions I Can't Back Up with Facts
- By: Stefanie Wilder-Taylor
- Narrated by: Stefanie Wilder-Taylor
- Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In this latest mommy audiobook from the popular blogger, author, and TV personality, Stefanie will share her secrets for achieving a balance in motherhood between being protective and caring and downright bats--t crazy. She'll debunk some of the looniest parenting myths and reinforce others; she'll describe how, through as simple a process as good old trial and error, she's learned to pick and choose what works for her and her family, and tune out the rest.
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You’re A Parent Now...Don't Mess It Up
- By Tim on 04-16-15
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Life, Animated
- A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism
- By: Ron Suskind
- Narrated by: Ron Suskind
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the real-life story of Owen Suskind, the son of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind and his wife, Cornelia. An autistic boy who couldn't speak for years, Owen memorized dozens of Disney movies, turned them into a language to express love and loss, kinship, brotherhood. The family was forced to become animated characters, communicating with him in Disney dialogue and song; until they all emerge, together, revealing how, in darkness, we all literally need stories to survive.
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Life, Animated ... is Love, Animated *****
- By Tom T. Rumble on 04-12-14
By: Ron Suskind
What listeners say about Raising Raffi
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Katarina
- 06-18-22
Lovely!
Gem for any parent of a small kid. Relatable, honest, and kind. Great gift for a Father’s Day :)
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- David
- 06-18-22
A Good Dad
Keith Gessen comes across as a good Dad in “Raising Raffi.” He describes with deadpan humor his frustrations with his son Raffi’s anger and misbehavior. Overall, both father and son are affable. The book is filled with insights into raising kids today, with thoughtful chapters on home birth, bilingual kids, picture books, school choice, sports and the pandemic. Little Raffi isn't really the terror his father sometimes claims. He's just a New York kid trying to understand his world. I picked this book because I liked “A Terrible Country,” Gessen’s novel about his year caring for his grandmother in Moscow. This new book shows how autobiographical that novel was. Gessen is an amiable narrator.
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- Mary Garcia
- 06-29-22
Great for non parents too
Im not a parent but it was interesting to hear about raising a family in Brooklyn.
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-10-23
On Being a Dad
If you’re a thinking-person dad or a fan of Keith Gessen, there’s so much to love here.
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- Lisa Ryan
- 02-24-24
Painful Story of Ambivalent Parenting
I love books narrated by the author and Gessen did not disappoint. He has a great voice and inflections which naturally express exactly what he felt when he wrote his essays. There’s something about hearing a story in the writer’s own voice. I hate performance-reading. It’s grating.
Gessen’s son presented obviously with some kind of a behavioral disorder from a young age. I kept thinking, “ get that child to a Child Study team!” Every caring parent, which Gessen is, can relate to searching for effective parenting strategies that don’t jeopardize the precious connection with their beloved child. Gessen describes many resources he used. As a reader though, it was painful to witness Gessen and his wife’s ambivalence about setting and holding boundaries. I couldn’t help cringing at their apologizing, giving in, and refusal to accept their power as parents. A power to do good. How secure could their scratching, punching, throwing, demanding child feel with all the guilt his parents felt about setting basic boundaries?
I kept thinking, “ your kid won’t enrage you so much if you set clear limits and enforce them.”
Perhaps it’s Gessen and his wife’s generation that is terrified of victimizing any one, afraid to exercise authority, or acknowledge that though their children are precious that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be pointedly taught that everyone deserves basic consideration, most especially the people who do everything for you.
Even if dear Raffi had a diagnosis, he would need decisive, unapologetic parenting.
I didn’t appreciate the politics woven through Gessen’s story telling but he is entitled to his views of course.
I couldnt help but connect though, his ridiculous and needless white guilt with his parenting struggles. I’m still cringing.
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- ilona
- 04-21-23
Loved it
I can relate to so many different aspects of this book. Recommend it to every parent.
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