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Straight Man
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Sam Freed
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
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Publisher's summary
William Henry Devereaux, Jr., spiritually suited to playing left field but forced by a bad hamstring to try first base, is the unlikely chairman of the English department at West Central Pennsylvania University. Over the course of a single convoluted week, he threatens to execute a duck, has his nose slashed by a feminist poet, discovers that his secretary writes better fiction than he does, suspects his wife of having an affair with his dean, and finally confronts his philandering elderly father, the one-time king of American Literary Theory, at an abandoned amusement park.
Such is the canvas of Richard Russo's Straight Man, a novel of surpassing wit, poignancy, and insight. As he established in his previous books—Mohawk, The Risk Pool, and Nobody's Fool—Russo is unique among contemporary authors for his ability to flawlessly capture the soul of the wise guy and the heart of a difficult parent. In Hank Devereaux, Russo has created a hero whose humor and identification with the absurd are mitigated only by his love for his family, friends, and, ultimately, knowledge itself.
Unforgettable, compassionate, and laugh-out-loud funny, Straight Man cements Richard Russo's reputation as one of the master storytellers of our time.
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Critic reviews
"The funniest serious novel I have read since—well, maybe since Portnoy's Complaint." —The New York Times Book Review
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- By Jean on 04-21-11
By: J. A. Jance
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The Wrong Sister
- By: T. E. Woods
- Narrated by: Angela Dawe
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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From behind the wheel of her car, Tess Kincaid glimpses a woman walking down a Madison, Wisconsin, street. They've never met, but Tess sees the same features every time she looks in the mirror. Tess introduces herself and discovers that she and her doppelganger, Mimi, have more than appearance in common. They even share the same birthday. Mimi - confident and outgoing where Tess is understated and shy - is convinced they're twins, separated shortly after birth. When a body is discovered in a local marsh, Tess is entangled in a search for the truth....
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Nothing like anything T E Woods has written B4!!!
- By shelley on 03-01-18
By: T. E. Woods
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The Other Side of the Bridge
- By: Cameron Wright
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Katie Connelly has lived in San Francisco all her life. Her late father made his career as an ironworker on the Golden Gate Bridge, and the many stories of him trying to save jumpers still haunt her. When she's asked to write a history about the bridge, her research uncovers a secret journal hidden in her father's desk, pages of familiar advice penned by the hand of a stranger. The scribbled words tell of a promise ring and a distant love, clues that Katie hopes may answer her own unresolved sorrow.
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Enjoyable enough story, terrible female narrator
- By Rebecca on 04-02-20
By: Cameron Wright
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Baltimore Blues
- Tess Monaghan, Book 1
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Deborah Hazlett
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Unemployed at 29, Tess Monaghan is willing to take any freelance job to pay the rent—including a bit of unorthodox snooping for her rowing buddy, Darryl "Rock" Paxton. In a city where someone is murdered almost every day, attorney Michael Abramowitz's death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer's notoriety—and his noontime trysts with Rock's fiancée—make the case front page news...and point to Rock as the likely murderer. But trying to prove her friend's innocence could prove costly to Tess.
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I'm on #8 - This series is almost unique
- By connie on 02-19-12
By: Laura Lippman
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Babylon Sisters
- By: Pearl Cleage
- Narrated by: Pearl Cleage
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Catherine, busy working with refugee and immigrant women through her small firm, Babylon Sisters, has taken on a powerful new client. She doesn't have much time for Phoebe's complicated questions of paternity - that is, until Phoebe's real father, B. J., a renowned investigative reporter, shows up in town to work on a story connected to Catherine.
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Sister Love
- By Florence Graydon on 03-26-21
By: Pearl Cleage
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The Accidental Bestseller
- By: Wendy Wax
- Narrated by: Khristine Hvam
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Once upon a time four aspiring authors met at their very first writers' conference. Ten years later they're still friends, survivors of the ultra-competitive New York publishing world. Mallory St. James is a workaholic whose best sellers support a lavish lifestyle. Tanya Mason is a single mother juggling two jobs, two kids, and too many deadlines. Faye Truett is the wife of a famous televangelist and the author of inspirational romances: No one would ever guess her explosive secret.
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Meh....just okay.
- By S on 02-19-13
By: Wendy Wax
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A Killing in the Hills
- A Novel (Bell Elkins, Book 1)
- By: Julia Keller
- Narrated by: Shannon McManus
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
What’s happening in Acker’s Gap, West Virginia? Three elderly men are gunned down over their coffee at a local diner, and seemingly half the town is there to witness the act. Still, it happened so fast, and no one seems to have gotten a good look at the shooter. Was it random? Was it connected to the spate of drug violence plaguing poor areas of the country just like Acker’s Gap? Or were Dean Streeter, Shorty McClurg, and Lee Rader targeted somehow?
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A wonderful treat!
- By Joanne on 09-11-12
By: Julia Keller
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A Pedigree to Die For
- A Melanie Travis Mystery
- By: Laurien Berenson
- Narrated by: Jessica Almasy
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
The apparent heart attack that killed kennel owner Max Turnbull has left seven pups in mourning, and his wife Peg suspecting foul play. But the only evidence is their missing prize pooch - a pedigreed poodle named Beau.
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Could not get beyond first chapters
- By DamselflyStudio on 11-07-20
By: Laurien Berenson
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The Night Listener
- By: Armistead Maupin
- Narrated by: Armistead Maupin
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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This unprecedented audio project is as thought-provoking as it is mesmeric. The Night Listener is a meditation on the power of voices and the faith we place in them, and an extraordinary audio experience from an American literary icon.
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Wheels within wheels
- By Naomi on 07-06-03
By: Armistead Maupin
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Charley's Web
- By: Joy Fielding
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Charley Webb is a beautiful single mother who writes a successful and controversial column for the Palm Beach Post. She's spent years building an emotional wall against scathing critics, snooty neighbors, and her disapproving family. But when she receives a letter from Jill Rohmer, a young woman serving time on death row for the murders of three small children, her boundaries slowly begin to fade. Jill wants Charley to write her biography so that she can share the many hidden truths about the case that failed to surface during her trial.
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not the norm
- By D. Mains on 02-04-09
By: Joy Fielding
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Desert Heat
- By: J. A. Jance
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A cop lies dying beneath the blistering Arizona sun - a local lawman who may well have become the next sheriff of Cochise County. The police brass claim that Andy Brady was dirty, and that his shooting was a suicide attempt. Joanna Brady, his devoted wife and mother of their nine-year-old daughter, knows a cover-up when she hears one...and murder when she sees it.
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How happy was that??!!
- By karen on 03-09-15
By: J. A. Jance
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Too Close to Home
- By: Linwood Barclay
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In a quiet suburban neighborhood, in the house next door, a family is brutally murdered for no apparent reason. You can't help thinking, "That could have been us". And you start to wonder, "What if we're next?" That's the question Jim and Ellen Cutter are asking, and the answers aren't reassuring.
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Plots and subplots galore
- By shelley on 04-10-14
By: Linwood Barclay
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Hush Money
- Hush Money Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: T. E. Woods
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Madison is booming with dreamers and drifters, visionaries and entrepreneurs. Among them is Sydney Richardson, the daughter of a cop who died on these streets and now the proud, stressed-out owner of Hush Money, one of the city's top new restaurants. Like everyone else in town, Sydney is shocked when Madison's popular mayor - a crusty, charismatic man of the people - is shot to death in his own home. But the news hits especially close to home for Sydney because one of her own stands accused of the brutal crime. Sydney's the one person that Wanda Fields, a quiet, hardworking waitress and single mother, can think to call after her arrest.
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T E Woods sure know how to write 'em!
- By shelley on 02-14-18
By: T. E. Woods
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Bright Lights, Big City
- By: Jay McInerney
- Narrated by: Daniel Passer
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The tragicomedy of a young man in New York City, a writer, never named, who works as a fact-checker for a prestigious magazine. He struggles with the reality of his mother's death, alienation, and the seductive pull of drugs and a vibrant nightlife.
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Curiously, mundanely real
- By Amber on 01-07-12
By: Jay McInerney
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Narrator sounds like a computer
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Incredibly Disappointing
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Narrator sounds like a computer
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It's all Greek to me!
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Jason Fitger is a beleaguered professor of creative writing and literature at Payne University, a small and not very distinguished liberal arts college in the midwest. His department is facing draconian cuts and squalid quarters, while one floor above them the Economics Department is getting lavishly remodeled offices. His once-promising writing career is in the doldrums, as is his romantic life, in part as the result of his unwise use of his private affairs for his novels.
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Hysterically funny and poignant
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Sh*tshow
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David and Ellie didn’t realize how much they have missed their friends, two other couples who had moved out of their modest neighborhood in a desert city for the comforts of the suburbs, until the day of Donald Trump’s election. Separated also from their daughter who lived hours away in California, they were in a funk. But, when Ellie discovers a repellent offering floating in the small Jacuzzi in their backyard, David is blindsided. Little does he know this is but the first in a chain of grisly events that would play out in their lives with devastating consequences.
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Should have paid more attention to the title
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Lucky Jim
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
This is the story of Jim Dixon, a hapless lecturer in medieval history at a provincial university who knows better than most that “there was no end to the ways in which nice things are nicer than nasty ones.” Kingsley Amis’s scabrous debut leads the audience through a gallery of emphatically English bores, cranks, frauds, and neurotics with whom Dixon must contend in one way or another in order to hold on to his cushy academic perch and win the girl of his fancy.
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An old favorite!
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By: Kingsley Amis
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That Old Cape Magic
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Griffin has been tooling around for nearly a year with his father’s ashes in the trunk, but his mother is very much alive and not shy about calling on his cell phone. She does so as he drives down to Cape Cod, where he and his wife, Joy, will celebrate the marriage of their daughter Laura’s best friend. For Griffin this is akin to driving into the past, since he took his childhood summer vacations here, his parents’ respite from the hated Midwest.
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Instantly-recognizable Richard Russo book
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By: Richard Russo
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Moo
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Overall
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Performance
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Everyone at the large agricultural college dubbed Moo U. has an agenda. Whether it's massaging data, running secret experiments, or seducing the powerful, each person is dedicated to a plan. Meet Dr. Lionel Gift, who feels that his economic principles come directly from God. Visit with "Earl Butz", who is being groomed to be the biggest hog in history. Mull over The Common Wisdom, what every secretary knows. As these agendas begin to collide, Moo trots toward a deliciously loony climax.
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Totally hilarious and too true
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By: Jane Smiley
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The Whore's Child and Other Stories
- By: Richard Russo
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A cynical Hollywood moviemaker confronts his dead wife’s lover and abruptly realizes the depth of his own passion. As his parents’ marriage disintegrates, a precocious fifth-grader distracts himself with meditations on baseball, spaghetti, and his place in the universe. And in the title story, an elderly nun enters a college creative writing class and plays havoc with its tidy notions of fact and fiction. The Whore’s Child is further proof that Russo is one of the finest writers we have.
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Worth the Download
- By Delah on 10-31-11
By: Richard Russo
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Trajectory
- Stories
- By: Richard Russo
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- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Russo's characters in these four expansive stories bear little similarity to the blue-collar citizens we're familiar with from many of his novels. In "Horseman", a professor confronts a young plagiarist as well as her own weaknesses as the Thanksgiving holiday looms closer and closer: "And after that, who knew?" In "Intervention", a realtor facing an ominous medical prognosis finds himself in his father's shadow while he presses forward - or not.
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Melancholy but Rewarding
- By David on 07-08-17
By: Richard Russo
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Elsewhere
- A memoir
- By: Richard Russo
- Narrated by: Richard Russo
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Anyone familiar with Richard Russo's acclaimed novels will recognize Gloversville, once famous for producing that eponymous product and anything else made of leather. This is where the author grew up, the only son of an aspirant mother and a charming, feckless father who were born into this close-knit community. But by the time of his childhood in the 1950s, prosperity was inexorably being replaced by poverty and illness (often tannery-related), with everyone barely scraping by under a very low horizon.
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Elsewhere---but not far enough
- By William on 12-08-12
By: Richard Russo
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American Rust
- By: Philipp Meyer
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Set in a beautiful but economically devastated Pennsylvania steel town, American Rust is a novel of the lost American dream and the desperation-as well as the acts of friendship, loyalty, and love-that arise from its loss. From local bars to train yards to prison, it is the story of two young men, bound to the town by family, responsibility, inertia, and the beauty around them, who dream of a future beyond the factories and abandoned homes.
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A Web of Despair and Desperation
- By Darwin8u on 07-16-12
By: Philipp Meyer
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Writers & Lovers
- A Novel
- By: Lily King
- Narrated by: Stacey Glemboski
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Blindsided by her mother’s sudden death and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, moldy room at the side of a garage where she works on the novel she has been writing for six years. At 31, Casey is still clutching onto something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life.
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An absorbing listen
- By Barbara S on 03-08-20
By: Lily King
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A Man in Full
- By: Tom Wolfe
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 35 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The setting is Atlanta, Georgia - a racially mixed, late-century boomtown full of fresh wealth and wily politicians. The protagonist is Charles Croker, once a college football star, now a late-middle-aged Atlanta conglomerate king whose outsize ego has at last hit up against reality. Charlie has a 29,000-acre quail-shooting plantation, a young and demanding second wife, and a half-empty office complex with a staggering load of debt. Meanwhile, Conrad Hensley, idealistic young father of two, is laid off from his job at the Croker Global Foods warehouse near Oakland.
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What a pity!
- By Edgar on 08-01-18
By: Tom Wolfe
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The World According to Garp
- A Novel
- By: John Irving
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, John Irving
- Length: 20 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The opening sentence of John Irving's breakout novel, The World According to Garp, signals the start of sexual violence, which becomes increasingly political. "Garp's mother, Jenny Fields, was arrested in Boston in 1942 for wounding a man in a movie theater." Jenny is an unmarried nurse; she becomes a single mom and a feminist leader, beloved but polarizing. Her son, Garp, is less beloved, but no less polarizing.
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Didn't get past intro
- By Gordon on 01-19-19
By: John Irving
What listeners say about Straight Man
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- JOHN
- 11-25-07
Russo Rocks!
So I gave it only 4 stars. This isn't because Straight Man isn't wonderful. Perhaps when I compare it to the richness of Empire Falls and Nobody's Fool, it just doesn't quite fill those shoes. But don't let this stop you.
In some ways I enjoyed this book more than the other Russo books I have had the pleasure to listen to. This book was funnier. And I could not help but wonder how much of the protagonist, Hank Devereaux, was really Richard Russo himself as an irreverant wise-cracking head of a college English department.
Devereaux's own mother criticized her son telling him "you've become a clever man." To understand how this is considered a fault, you really have to listen to this book.
One hundred percent enjoyable!
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Overall
- Dan
- 04-15-05
Great fun--give this a try!
Hilarious satire combined with warm sympathetic characters. The satire is funny but never cruel--difficult balance to maintain but Russo pulls it off. Delicious send-up of pompous college administrators and members of the college English department. Even when Russo is at his satiric best, almost all of the characters, though flawed, are presented as sympathetic complex human beings. I laughed alot--sometimes so hard that I had to stop listening. All in all, a wonderfully entertaining, intelligent and humane book--highly recommend.
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- nancy campione
- 04-24-10
TEDIOUS
Although I've previously enjoyed Russo's work, this was disappointing. Tedious pace, tired humor, uninspired characters. Overall, I was bored.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Kenneth Powell
- 01-15-23
Absolute brilliance
I’ve loved this book since I spotted it on a store shelf - a plain white cover with a duck on the front … or maybe it’s a goose!
This is Russo at his very best - cutting through the dark and scary passage through middle age and beyond, with an incredible sarcastic wit that makes everything seem less dire.
Sam Freed is PERFECTLY suited for this work’s tone and pace, and you’re left wishing he’d hurry up and take his time! 2023 sees a third book in Russo’s North Bath series - I would LOVE to see him revisit Lucky Hank (as the tv series adaptation comes in 2023 as well). And please have Sam Freed return as well.
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- Holly Squares
- 06-04-23
Love the shenanigans and sarcasm
I really enjoyed all the shenanigans and sarcasm of the main character in the book. Great inner monologue.
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- Todd Mclaughlin
- 03-14-24
Every sentence is masterfully created
I really enjoyed this tale. This is my first read of this author and what a treat. Being a 50 year old male I can’t help but relate to the main character. I laughed out loud so many times throughout. Don’t hesitate and give this a go!
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- Maureen McDaniel
- 08-30-11
Fun, witty, real and entertaining.
Hard to take this one out of my ears. I'm already a Richard Russo fan, and this book made me laugh out loud as well as chuckle quietly. An irreverent and likeable protagonist with beautifully sketched academic characters in outrageous, yet oddly credible, situations. Great read, goes fast, and I missed it when I finished.
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- Terry
- 01-23-10
One of the best novels I've read/heard in years
This novel proves beyond a doubt that being funny while tackling serious subjects works. It works much better than pulling a long face and letting everyone "we're being serious here." I enjoyed this book, as did my husband. We laughed out loud many times. We did not miss the point - a man who feels as though his life is far too comfortable, but can't bring himself to risk what he has in order to be more of a person. It's not uncommon for a middle class person (this is an issue for women as well as men) in this country to wrestle with this issue at some time or another. Since many of the characters are of a similar age, virtually all of them are dealing with the same thing at the same time. So, a universal theme told with a delightful wit. Incidentally, don't take this as common to all Russo's books. The last one started out with a chapter so whiny that I closed it without going further. And it's considerably better put together than the novel he won the Pulitzer for. Too bad that the powers that be don't understand the artistry it takes to combine humor and drama - and that both things are often going on at the same time. This novel gets it, and brings the reader right into it.
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- Bob
- 09-13-18
Witty as Hell...Love it
Told definitely from a man's sense of humor, this is one witty tale. Sam Freed's performance and timing are spot on. Best credit I've spent in a while. Any guy, say 35 and up with children, relationships and dullards for co-workers will completely relate to the story and observations.
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- C. Antonak
- 10-28-22
Very funny, sweet and beautifully written
What an entertaining story! The narrator did a wonderful job of bringing the characters to life. Richard Russo has such a great way of telling a story. This is a masterpiece of humor!
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