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The Discomfort Zone
- A Personal History
- Narrated by: Jonathan Franzen
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
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Publisher's summary
The story Franzen tells here draws on elements as varied as the explosive dynamics of a Christian youth fellowship in the 1970s; the effects of Kafka's fiction on his protracted quest to lose his virginity; the elaborate pranks that he and his friends orchestrated from the roof of his high school; his self-inflicted travails in selling his mother's house after her death; and the web of connections between his all-consuming marriage, the problem of global warming, and the life lessons to be learned from watching birds.
These chapters of a Midwestern youth and a New York adulthood are warmed by the same combination of comic scrutiny and unqualified affection that characterize Franzen's fiction, but here the main character is the author himself. Sparkling, daring, arrestingly honest, The Discomfort Zone narrates the formation of a unique mind and heart in the crucible of an everyday American family.
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Simply spoken - poetic
- By CarolynneRHarris on 04-27-15
By: Tracy K. Smith
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Learning to Die in Miami
- Confessions of a Refugee Boy
- By: Carlos Eire
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Carlos Eire's story of a boyhood uprooted by the Cuban Revolution quickly lures us in, as eleven-year-old Carlos and his older brother Tony touch down in the sun-dappled Miami of 1962 - a place of daunting abundance where his old Cuban self must die to make way for a new, American self waiting to be born. In this enchanting new work, narrated in Eire's inimitable and lyrical voice, young Carlos adjusts to life in his new country.
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Excellent memoir of a forgotten time in history
- By BRB on 03-23-15
By: Carlos Eire
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Reading My Father
- A Memoir
- By: Alexandra Styron
- Narrated by: Alexandra Styron
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Alexandra Styron's parents—the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sophie’s Choice and his political activist wife, Rose—were, for half a century, leading players on the world’s cultural stage. Alexandra was raised under both the halo of her father’s brilliance and the long shadow of his troubled mind. Reading My Father portrays the epic sweep of an American artist’s life. It is also a tale of filial love, beautifully written with humor, compassion, and grace.
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William Styron Ranks...
- By Douglas on 12-22-13
By: Alexandra Styron
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Wilde Lake
- A Novel
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney, Nicole Poole
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Luisa "Lu" Brant is the newly elected - and first female - state's attorney of Howard County, Maryland, a job in which her widower father famously served. Fiercely intelligent and ambitious, she sees an opportunity to make her name by trying a mentally disturbed drifter accused of beating a woman to death in her home. It's not the kind of case that makes headlines, but peaceful Howard County doesn't see many homicides.
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In a word saccharine and boring
- By Rena on 05-12-16
By: Laura Lippman
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A Prayer for Owen Meany
- By: John Irving
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 27 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Of all of John Irving's books, this is the one that lends itself best to audio. In print, Owen Meany's dialogue is set in capital letters; for this production, Irving himself selected Joe Barrett to deliver Meany's difficult voice as intended. In the summer of 1953, two 11-year-old boys – best friends – are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is extraordinary and terrifying.
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Outstanding
- By Alan on 03-28-11
By: John Irving
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Tango: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels
- By: Justin Vivian Bond
- Narrated by: Justin Vivian Bond
- Length: 2 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Recently hailed as "the greatest cabaret artist of [V's] generation" in The New Yorker, Mx. Justin Vivian Bond makes a brilliant literary debut with this staggeringly candid and hilarious novella-length memoir. With a recent diagnosis of attention deficit disorder, and news that V's first lover from childhood has been imprisoned for impersonating an undercover police officer, Bond recalls in vivid detail coming of age as a trans kid. Always haunted by the knowledge of being "different," Bond was further confused when the bully next door wanted to meet secretly. Their trysts went on for years, and made Bond acutely aware of sexual power and vulnerability. With inimitable style, Bond raises issues about LGBTQ adolescence, homophobia, parenting, and sexuality, while being utterly entertaining.
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Justin Vivian Bond Knocks It Out of the Park
- By Susie on 01-15-14
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Strong Motion
- By: Jonathan Franzen
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 20 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Louis Holland arrives in Boston in a spring of ecological upheaval (a rash of earthquakes on the North Shore) and odd luck: the first one kills his grandmother. Louis tries to maintain his independence, but falls in love with a Harvard seismologist whose discoveries about the earthquakes' cause complicate everything.
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Compelling Story, Ridiculous Narrator
- By DianeReads on 02-28-16
By: Jonathan Franzen
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Finding Fish
- A Memoir
- By: Antwone Q. Fisher
- Narrated by: Thomas Penny
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Baby Boy Fisher was raised in institutions from the moment of his birth in prison to a single mother. He ultimately came to live with a foster family, where he endured near-constant verbal and physical abuse. In his midteens he escaped and enlisted in the navy, where he became a man of the world, raised by the family he created for himself. Finding Fish shows how, out of this unlikely mix of deprivation and hope, an artist was born.
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This book will not disappoint you.
- By Joseph on 10-16-16
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Confessions of a Latter-Day Virgin
- A Memoir
- By: Nicole Hardy
- Narrated by: Nicole Hardy
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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When Nicole Hardy’s eye-opening "Modern Love" column appeared in the New York Times, the response from readers was overwhelming. Hardy’s essay, which exposed the conflict between being true to herself as a woman and remaining true to her Mormon faith, struck a chord with women coast-to-coast. Now in her funny, intimate, and thoughtful memoir, Nicole Hardy explores how she came, at the age of 35, to a crossroads regarding her faith and her identity.
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This Book Spoke to Me
- By Allison on 04-08-14
By: Nicole Hardy
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After the Parade
- By: Lori Ostlund
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Sensitive, big-hearted, and achingly self-conscious, 40-year-old Aaron Englund long ago escaped the confines of his Midwestern hometown, but he still feels like an outcast. After 20 years under the Pygmalion-like direction of his older partner, Walter, Aaron at last decides it is time to stop letting life happen to him and to take control of his own fate.
By: Lori Ostlund
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Driving on the Rim
- By: Thomas McGuane
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The unforgettable voyager of this dark picaresque is I. B. "Berl" Pickett, M.D., whose die was probably cast the moment his mother thought to name him after Irving Berlin. Other insults piled on apace thereafter: the spasms of Pentecostal Sunday worship; the social debilitation of following his parents' itinerant rug-shampooing business; the erotic initiation at the hands of his aunt. It's hard to imagine what would have become of him had he not gone to medical school.
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Delightful
- By Roy on 01-05-11
By: Thomas McGuane
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The first story is the best
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Two different readers, two different experiences
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Believe the Hype
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What listeners say about The Discomfort Zone
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Pecky Woodpecker
- 06-27-22
He is such a good narrator.
Maybe it's because it's a memoir, so he's talking about his own life, but his delivery is spot on. As good as any actor that I've heard in my almost 100+ Audible listens. A real gem.
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- Mary Grey
- 05-30-22
Lovely and Evocative
Jonathan Franzen captures (his?) life, savoring each small bite. This is a strange way to applaud someone who reports fear of death! But if we must face our own extinction what a gift from fate to be able to share the poignancy.
And a nice shout out to birds who grace “the ceiling of our day.”
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Overall
- Doggy Bird
- 05-30-08
Good narration, like some essays more than others
Although I did not like every essay as much as I liked the first, I found this audiobook very satisfying and engaging. I didn't expect to want to listen to the whole thing, I just chose it in my ipod as a time filler after finishing another book on my commute home, but it held my attention and invited me back every time I entered the car. After purchasing the audiobook I had read a bad book review and hadn't expected to enjoy the book so much. Jonathan Franzen is an intelligent and thoughtful writer, and a surprisingly good narrator. For those who appreciate biographical essays, this is an enjoyable choice.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Sharon Campbell Knoxs
- 01-06-22
A memoir in themes
I picked this up after devouring Crossroads, wanting to get a sense of its autobiographical roots. The Discomfort Zone starts like a memoir, revisiting childhood (and in this case, delivering the hoped-for backstory of Franzen’s family life, youth group, college years, etc). It was fun learning that as a child and youth he had he was neurotic in many of the same ways I was. Later chapters view life through the lenses of very specific themes: German literature and birding. Because I enjoyed studying comparative literature in college, I delighted in hearing Franzen recount moments in class that led to deeper understanding of himself. But because I have yet to connect with birding, I found that chapter less engaging. But what I love so much about Franzen’s novels is his exploration of complexities of family life, the places of love, faith, guilt, disappointment, being a child, being a parent; and this memoir illuminated his take on all these questions.
I’m partial to memoirs read by the author. I enjoyed hearing Franzen in his own voice, particularly his gorgeous German.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Patsy and William
- 01-09-19
Biography, Intimacy, Insight, and Great Humor
When an author reads his own work/words, the reader can get a much more intimate feel for the emotional investment he has in the material. These are well crafted stories from Jon's life and are read with humor, embarrassment, confession, and celebration. These stories are intimate revelations of friends, family, and cohorts, clumsy romances, great loyalties, dare-devil missions of questionable import, birding expeditions (of course), but mostly beautiful illustrations of the struggle of the heart and mind to find meaning, purpose and intimacy. Where Jon's colossal novels challenge the reader, these stories embrace the reader. This book is a gem of humanity.
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