The Big Rock Candy Mountain Audiobook By Wallace Stegner cover art

The Big Rock Candy Mountain

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The Big Rock Candy Mountain

By: Wallace Stegner
Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
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Bo Mason, his wife, and his two boys live a transient life of poverty and despair. Drifting from town to town and from state to state, the violent, ruthless Bo seeks his fortune in the hotel business, in new farmland, and, eventually, in illegal rum-running throughout the treacherous back roads of the American Northwest.

Based largely on his own childhood, Stegner has created a masterful, harrowing saga of a family trying to survive during the lean years of the early 20th century. It is the conflict between the hardscrabble existence and Bo's pursuit of the frontier myth and of the American dream that gives the book such resonance and power.

©1938 1940, 1942, 1943 by Wallace Stegner (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Classics Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Westerns Heartfelt

Critic reviews

"Stegner has felt the spell of mountain and prairie, of drought, flood, and blizzard....a harrowing saga." - ( New York Times)
"Stands out beautifully and unforgettably." ( New Yorker)
Beautiful Prose • Complex Characters • Rich Historical Setting • Emotional Depth • Compelling Family Saga • Perfect Tone
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You have to be patient and in for the long ride. But in the end it was a very good listen. I recommend it. The Narrator was great !

Very enjoyable

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If you have ever lived with someone with a hair-trigger temper, this book may be hard for you to listen to. Several times I had to just turn it off for a while. There was "impending doom" through much of the book. Still, it was interesting and a good, well-written story.

Sometimes hard to keep listening

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Had to stop and start. Emotionally overwhelming. Bare. Glad I pushed through. The last 20 minutes …

Raw and powerful

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Outstanding story telling. Promoted deep reflection on the intensity of the “common man” at the dawn of the 20th Century. The American work ethic and free enterprise with moral limits underlie the fabric within the story. The growth of this “freedom” and “independence” from one’s offspring finalizes the story.

The Slow Meandering Road ‘til Death

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So absorbing. Emotional. Stunning writing. Stegner is a gift. This is a true classic. Pure oxygen.

Exceptional

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Stegner is a great storyteller and keeps your interest chapter after chapter with flowery descriptions of common events and things. I recommend The Big Rock Candy Mountain.

An imperfect man

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The characters in this man's family are different and well described. Their interactions with the father take them through a roller coaster life of hopes, dreams, a few successes, but mostly failures and disappointments. I hoped along with them and looked forward to better results...but alas, to no avail.

Hard headed man and his family story.

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This is a truly memorable audiobook particularly for listeners who appreciate and want excellence both in writing and in narration. For many of us who have parents and grandparents (60+) who grew up in these times and have heard the stories of the Great Depression, homesteading, and wanderlust this story adds a deep dimension to our understanding of those times and comes very close to home on many occasions. For younger listerners, there is much to be gained by listening to this story. It is both historical and contemporary in its perspective family, responsibility, and true unselfishness.

An exceptional audiobook experience!

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The beauty, the lessons, the observations, the adventure and the tragedy told in a novel are built into the story and characters. It is hard to review a novel without revealing the story. This story is worth reading from beginning to end. It is tightly woven, expansively described, and set in a raw and compelling life of imperatives in the hardscrabble towns of the Great Plains at the turn-of-the-century. I was ready for Wallace Stagner's rich and compelling stories and characters and similes, his development of themes out of a simple story, and the sheer beauty of his writing. I read Angle of Repose 25 years ago, and never forgot it. I had a chance to spend the time to read another Wallace Stagner, and it was more than worth it.

Wallace Stegner is one of the great American writers

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Stegner’s gift for depicting characters and their speech is very strong. The length of the story is a bit too much, but its episodic quality, and the depth of characters revealed through that is worthwhile, and moving. The stories are as hard as Hemingway’s really, but the emotional depth is much more present and satisfying. The narrator is very, very good.

Getting better understandings of the culture

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