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The Sea, the Sea
- Narrated by: Simon Vance, Kimberly Farr
- Length: 21 hrs
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Publisher's summary
Winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction
Charles Arrowby, leading light of England's theatrical set, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor, both professionally and personally, and amuse himself with Lizzie, an actress he has strung along for many years. None of his plans work out, and his memoir evolves into a riveting chronicle of the strange events and unexpected visitors—some real, some spectral—that disrupt his world and shake his oversized ego to its very core.
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Critic reviews
"Profound and delicious for many reasons . . . a multilayered working out of her feelings about the intensity of romantic experience. . . [it] also happens to be intelligently and sympathetically concerned with four of my favorite things: swimming, eating, drinking and talking . . . it is an ideal beach book—especially if you enjoy the cooler and pebblier and spookier northern sort of beach."—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
"A joy to read: a rollicking story that seems endlessly to be building towards some awful, hilarious, frightening conclusion."—Harper’s Bazaar
"Sublime [and] profound . . . She takes great care to imbue the house, the sea, the surroundings—everything—with depth and significance . . . exhilarating."—Sam Jordison, The Guardian, "Booker club"
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- By: Jessie Burton
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Maria Elena Infantino
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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England, 1967. Odelle Bastien is a Caribbean émigré trying to make her way in London. When she starts working at the prestigious Skelton Institute of Art, she discovers a painting rumored to be the work of Isaac Robles, a young artist of immense talent and vision whose mysterious death has confounded the art world for decades. The excitement over the painting is matched by the intrigue around the conflicting stories of its discovery.
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Mixed narration
- By Amy Fleury on 08-05-16
By: Jessie Burton
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Galilee
- By: Clive Barker
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 23 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The Barbarossa family’s roots are far more ancient and ethereal, but they are bound to the Gearys by a shared history of murder, insanity, and adultery. When Rachel Geary and Galilee, the seductive prince of the Barbarossa clan, fall in love, they unleash powerful enmities that could destroy both dynasties. Shorter and more conventional than some of Barker’s other work, this novel is especially rich with complex, passionate, three-dimensional characters, lush settings, and elegant language.
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An Audiophile's Dream
- By Joseph on 09-01-11
By: Clive Barker
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The Golden Notebook
- By: Doris Lessing
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 27 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Author Anna Wulf attempts to overcome writer’s block by writing a comprehensive "golden notebook" that draws together the preoccupations of her life, each of which is examined in a different notebook. Anna’s struggle to unify the various strands of her life – emotional, political, and professional – amasses into a fascinating encyclopaedia of female experience in the ‘50s.
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Transcendent narration of a masterpiece.
- By @vmarinelli on 07-03-12
By: Doris Lessing
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The Heart of the Matter
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Michael Kitchen
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Scobie, a police officer in a West African colony, is a good and honest man. But when he falls in love, he is forced into a betrayal of everything that he has ever believed in, and his struggle to maintain the happiness of two women destroys him.
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Starts Very Slowly then Boom!
- By Michael on 05-21-17
By: Graham Greene
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Cold Hand in Mine
- By: Robert Aickman
- Narrated by: Reece Shearsmith
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Cold Hand in Mine stands as one of Aickman's best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a 'strange story' writer to the full. The listener is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul. There is also a nod to the conventional vampire story ("Pages from a Young Girl's Journal") but all the stories remain unconventional and inconclusive, which perhaps makes them all the more startling and intriguing.
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Aickman is unique
- By Stark on 08-19-23
By: Robert Aickman
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Secrets of the Lighthouse
- By: Santa Montefiore
- Narrated by: Susan Riddell
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Ellen Trawton is running away from it all. She hates her job, she doesn't love the aristocratic man to whom she is engaged, and her relationship with her controlling mother is becoming increasingly strained. So Ellen leaves London, fleeing to her aunt's cottage in Connemara. Cutting ties with London society, Ellen gives in to Ireland's charm and warmth, thinking her future may lie where so much of her past has been hidden.
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Secrets of the Lighthouse-not so secret
- By brandiejean on 10-15-15
By: Santa Montefiore
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The Stranger House
- By: Reginald Hill
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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For years, the Stranger House has stood in the village of Illthwaite, offering refuge to travellers. People like Sam, a brilliant young mathematician, who believes that anything that can't be explained by maths isn't worth explaining. And Miguel, a historian running from a priests' seminary, who sees ghosts. Sam is an experienced young woman, Miguel a 26-year-old virgin.
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an OK read
- By Jen Terry on 01-18-08
By: Reginald Hill
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The Unsettled Dust
- By: Robert Aickman
- Narrated by: Reece Shearsmith
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert Aickman, the supreme master of the supernatural, brings together eight stories in which strange things happen that the reader is unable to predict. His characters are often lonely and middle-aged, but all have the same thing in common: they are brought to the brink of an abyss that shows how terrifyingly fragile our piece of mind actually is. 'The Unsettled Dust', 'The House of the Russians', 'No Stronger Than a Flower', 'The Cicerones' and 'Ravissante' first appeared in the Sub Rosa collection in 1968, but the stories were published together as The Unsettled Dust in 1990.
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Perfectly read, sheds new light on this work
- By James Townsend on 04-10-17
By: Robert Aickman
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The Woman from Paris
- By: Santa Montefiore
- Narrated by: Tara Ward
- Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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When Lord Frampton dies in a skiing accident, a beautiful young woman named Phaedra appears at his funeral - claiming to be the Lord’s illegitimate daughter. In his will, Lord Frampton has left the priceless Frampton suite of sapphires to this interloper, confirming her claim and outraging his three adult sons and widow. Eventually, however, Phaedra’s sweet nature thaws the frosty relationships. She becomes the daughter that Antoinette Frampton never had and a wise and compassionate granddaughter to the formidable Dowager Lady Frampton.
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Worth the time...
- By Esther Cunningham on 09-28-16
By: Santa Montefiore
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A Trip Down a philosophical Lane
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THIS RECORDING IS A CRIME
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Time of the Angels
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Father Carel Fisher’s London rectory - like his faith - is a shell. The rectory remains hollowed and broken from bombs dropped in the Second World War, while his religious passion abandoned him long ago. As Carel becomes a shut-in, his brother Marcus sets out to save him before it’s too late. Rich and complex, The Time of the Angels is a powerful story of a man’s descent into madness, and the destruction he wreaks along the way
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Stranger than fiction
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Stuart Cuno has decided to become good. Not believing in God, he invents his own methods, which include celibacy, chastity, and the abandonment of a promising academic career. Interfering friends and relations question his sincerity, his sanity, and his motives.
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A Squabble of Smartypants
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In Thomas Mann's novella Death in Venice, a distinguished writer's holiday from the burdens of his work turns out very differently from what he expected. By means of the story, Mann explores the relationships between disciplined intellect and ungoverned passion, and between decaying age and youthful beauty, against a background that resonates today in a time of pandemics. It was first published in German (as Der Tod in Venedig) in 1912.
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When George McCaffrey’s car plunges into a canal with his wife still inside, nobody knows whether George is to blame. Nobody, that is, except an Anglican priest who happened to witness the whole thing. And when George’s former teacher, the charismatic philosopher Rozanov, returns to town, George’s life begins to spin wildly out of control.
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A Trip Down a philosophical Lane
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Iris Murdoch once observed: 'philosophy is often a matter of finding occasions on which to say the obvious'. What was obvious to Murdoch, and to all those who read her work, is that Good transcends everything—even God. Throughout her distinguished and prolific writing career, she explored questions of Good and Bad, myth and morality. The framework for Murdoch's questions—and her own conclusions—can be found here.
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THIS RECORDING IS A CRIME
- By Andrew M Flynn on 07-14-24
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Father Carel Fisher’s London rectory - like his faith - is a shell. The rectory remains hollowed and broken from bombs dropped in the Second World War, while his religious passion abandoned him long ago. As Carel becomes a shut-in, his brother Marcus sets out to save him before it’s too late. Rich and complex, The Time of the Angels is a powerful story of a man’s descent into madness, and the destruction he wreaks along the way
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Stranger than fiction
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A Squabble of Smartypants
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Jackson's Dilemma
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Edward Lannion is to marry the lovely Marian Fox. But on the eve of the wedding, Marian's note leaves everyone in a tizzy and full of questions: Where is Marian? And who is Jackson? In this intricately plotted novel, a mysterious, charismatic English butler derails the marriage of his master, a young aristocrat, and his fiancé, sending them both off on strange, dark, and amusing paths.
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Bruno's Dream
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Bruno, dying, obsessed with spiders and preoccupied with death and reconciliation, lies at the center of an intricate spider's web of relationships and passions: Bruno's estranged and grieving son Miles; Danby, Bruno's widowed son-in-law, consoling himself with the Adelaide the maid, one of Murdoch's finest comic creations; creepy Nigel the nurse and his besotted twin Will, fighter of duels. The flooding Thames brings about the climax, and all are left changed by love and forgiveness before the old man's death.
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got lost
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The narrator is Max Morden, a middle-aged Irishman who, soon after his wife’s death, has gone back to the seaside town where he spent his summer holidays as a child—a retreat from the grief, anger, and numbness of his life without her. But it is also a return to the place where he met the Graces, the well-heeled vacationing family with whom he experienced the strange suddenness of both love and death for the first time.
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OVERWHELMINGLY FINE
- By Karen on 07-20-07
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Offshore
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On Battersea Reach, a mixed bag of the temporarily lost and the patently eccentric live on houseboats, rising and falling with the tide of the Thames. There is good-natured Maurice, by occupation a male prostitute, by chance a receiver of stolen goods. And Richard, an ex-navy man whose boat, much like its owner, dominates the Reach.
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S.O.S
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Possession
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As a pair of young scholars research the lives of two Victorian poets, they uncover their letters, journals, and poems and track their movements from London to Yorkshire - from spiritualist seances to the fairy-haunted far west of Brittany. What emerges is an extraordinary counterpoint of passion and ideas.
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Absolutely Excellent
- By Loujujoe on 05-12-09
By: A. S. Byatt
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The Red and the Green
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Performance
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Story
On the eve of the Easter Rising, a divided Irish family is pushed to the brink of destruction. In the dark days of the First World War, tensions between Catholic Pat Dumay and his Protestant cousin Andrew Chase-White threaten to tear their family apart along political and religious lines. As Ireland moves ever closer to the deadly Easter rebellion, the family is engulfed in an epic drama of love, loyalty, and loss that will change their lives forever.
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Great
- By Montcalm on 09-10-16
By: Iris Murdoch
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Death in Venice
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- By: Thomas Mann
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Published on the eve of World War I, a decade after Buddenbrooks had established Thomas Mann as a literary celebrity, Death in Venice tells the story of Gustave von Aschenbach, a successful but aging writer who follows his wanderlust to Venice in search of spiritual fulfillment that instead leads to his erotic doom.
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Brilliant gem
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By: Thomas Mann
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Heat and Dust
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In 1923 the beautiful, spoiled, and bored Olivia, married to Douglas and his career in the Indian Civil Service, outrages the English and Indian communities by eloping with an Indian prince. Fifty years later, Douglas’s granddaughter, armed with Olivia’s letters, goes back to the heat and dust and squalor of the bazaars to find out for herself how Olivia could have been so affected by India that she turned her back on her own country.
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Short, Rich Novel
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The Death of the Heart
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In this piercing story of innocence betrayed set in the 30s, the orphaned Portia is stranded in the sophisticated and politely treacherous world of her wealthy half-brother's home in London. There she encounters the attractive, carefree cad Eddie. To him, Portia is at once child and woman, and her fears her gushing love. To her, Eddie is the only reason to be alive. But when Eddie follows Portia to a sea-side resort, the flash of a cigarette lighter in a darkened cinema illuminates a stunning romantic betrayal.
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Beautifully Crafted Story
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The Bone People
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With narration and original taonga puoro music by Ruby Solly, this powerful and mesmerising book tracks the complicated relationships between three outcasts: Kerewin, an artist estranged from her family and art; a mute boy called Simon, who tries to steal from her; and his tender but brutal foster father Joe.
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The Message to the Planet
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For years, Alfred Ludens has pursued mathematician and philosopher Marcus Vallar in the belief that he possesses a profound metaphysical formula, a missing link of great significance to mankind. Luden's friends are more sceptical. Jack Sheerwater, painter, thinks Marcus is crazy. Gildas herne, ex-preist, thinks he is evil. Patrick Fenman, poet, is dying because he thinks Marcus has cursed him. Marcus has disappeared and must be found.
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an Iris Murdoch novel
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By: Iris Murdoch
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Moon Tiger
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Elderly, uncompromising Claudia Hampton lies in a London hospital bed with memories of life fluttering through her fading consciousness. An author of popular history, Claudia proclaims she's carrying out her last project: a history of the world. This history turns out to be a mosaic of her life, her own story tangled with those of her brother, her lover and father of her daughter, and the center of her life, Tom, her one great love found and lost in war-torn Egypt.
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stunning beauty
- By philip carr harris on 03-31-19
By: Penelope Lively
What listeners say about The Sea, the Sea
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Michael L. Seeger
- 08-29-23
Brilliant Narration
Skip the prologue. It’s a load of
unnecessary gibberish. The story
moves well overall but there are periods where it mires. There are
few narrators that could work this
as well.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Terry Pirate
- 07-04-22
Entrancing
A great and profound novel. And frequently hilarious. Simon Vance is brilliant , helping immeasurably to bring the whole thing to life.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Oral Sinclair
- 12-06-18
Again!
Lost in Iris Murdoch's story and language from the beginning. So much here that after I pull up the boat, make camp, and get a good night's sleep, I will do it again.
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4 people found this helpful
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Story
- Suzanne H
- 09-20-23
Way too long
I refused to give up on this novel because I wanted to finish it, thinking it’s going to pick up. It never did. The middle 2/3 could be cut. Plot doesn’t move along. I wouldn’t have minded so much if the interior thoughts of the protagonist actually carried some philosophical insight or were even entertaining but the character is just self absorbed and full of nonsensical ponderings. However, at least now I am very familiar with British food!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kristina
- 02-12-24
It’s the Narrator
The story is magnificently told. The characters are so much fun. The plot is twisty and clever. This a story made for audio. Love. It.
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- J. L. Andrist
- 10-31-22
Simon Vance performance excellent
I've, more often than not, been a content person. I care what is actually being said. Yet for the texture created in this story Vance does a heroic effort. Playing characters - even the timing of dialogue sounds exceptional, like you were at the movies. Both writer and performer really impressed me.
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1 person found this helpful
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- kathy brady
- 07-12-24
Brilliant!
What a surprising, absurd, and delightful treasure. This book was candy for my brain. Skip the horrifying long intro and get right to novel. Delicious.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Nancy K. Tamarisk
- 05-07-20
Complex psychology of a narcicist
Initial slow going on its setup with meticulous descriptions of scene and daily routine. Hang in there. The first person narrator slowly and inadvertently eveals himself as a vain, self-deluding, self-serving bastard who shamelessly uses friends and lovers for his own psychological needs. This novel has rich spiritual musings, and tells a complex and moving story. And, actually, quite a lot of sardonically funny scenes. Excellent narration.
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- Dale C.
- 03-19-24
One of My Favorite Books
I have read over 600 books and this is one of my favorites! I have listened to the audible version twice and Simon Vance's performance is perfectly amazing and Iris Murdoch delivers her finest work!
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- Rosemary Laberee
- 11-24-18
Dark, tense, a gentle almost magical bludgeoning...
What a miraculous book. I have only just now finished it, and I already know that I will begin the re-listening of it tonight. I cannot wait. Without a doubt, it is on that shelf of one of the very best.
You are wondering what it is about? Heavy sigh. It is about everything, of course, as the greatest books are. But, Murdoch focuses with frightening clarity on marriages, relationships, lost love, delusions, the darkness we hide from, and the darkness we hide away.
It is a stormy, psychological journey into the hearts of many different characters whose paths are all intertwined. It begins with a famous actor/director (Charles Arrowby) retiring to a little run-down house by the sea where he swims, cooks wonderful meals, collects rocks, thinks, and writes about his life. Lord, it sounded like heaven to me. Of course, it was not.
There are tiny little shadows cast upon the reader from the start, and we slowly grow uneasy with the knowledge that so much is hooded, masked, and cloaked in falseness and danger, but we cannot quite put our finger on what it is. The zig-zagging trajectory of the tangled lives cannot be forecasted by the reader. Although we long for a predictable outcome to so many of the extraordinary events, this is not what we get. Murdoch is a realist. She puts a little dash of beast in everyone and the effect is a gentle bludgeoning which (sickeningly) we do understand, and from which (appallingly) we cannot tear our ears away.
I felt slightly shackled to this story. Even when I took a break from the listening, her words followed me. Everywhere. It is haunting. It is very powerful. Murdoch was an amazing talent. How many authors can conjure the perfect words to describe "eyes that are determined to lose hope"? She does this and other breathtaking word-feats. Aren't you curious?
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8 people found this helpful