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Unless
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Joan Allen
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
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Publisher's summary
Warmth, passion, and wisdom come together in Carol Shields' remarkably supple prose. Unless, a harrowing but ultimately consoling story of one family's anguish and healing, proves her mastery of extraordinary fictions about ordinary life.
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Performance
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Growing up in the small town of Boiling Springs, North Carolina, in the 70’s and 80’s, Linda believes that she is profoundly different from everyone else, including the members of her own family. “What I know about you, little girl, would break you in two” are the cruel, mysterious last words that Linda’s grandmother ever says to her.
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"Tasting Words" made this hard to hear!
- By Kate Anderson on 11-06-11
By: Monique Truong
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One True Thing
- By: Anna Quindlen
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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A young woman sits in jail, accused of the mercy killing of her dying mother. She didn't do it, but she thinks she knows who did. In the last months of her life, Ellen Gulden's mother revealed startling secrets that challenged everything Ellen believed about her family. Now, in jail, Ellen believes those secrets will tell her who had the courage to end her mother's suffering.
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Quindlen's writing skills shine in One True Thing.
- By Bonny on 08-26-13
By: Anna Quindlen
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The Night Ocean
- By: Paul La Farge
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Marina Willett, MD, has a problem. Her husband, Charlie, has become obsessed with H. P. Lovecraft, in particular with one episode in the legendary horror writer's life: In the summer of 1934, the "old gent" lived for two months with a gay teenage fan named Robert Barlow, at Barlow's family home in central Florida. What were the two of them up to? Were they friends - or something more? Just when Charlie thinks he's solved the puzzle, a new scandal erupts, and he disappears.
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Frustratingly Uneven Due to Clumsy Plot Structure
- By Adam on 06-15-17
By: Paul La Farge
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One Amazing Thing
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Purva Bedi, Soneela Nankani, Neil Shah
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Winner of a Pushcart Prize for poetry and an American Book Award for her short stories, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni explores themes of women, immigration, and her vibrant Indian culture to great effect. Divakaruni expands on these ideas in One Amazing Thing, a project long in the making and full of electric prose.
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An ok way to kill some time
- By R.Reader on 11-07-12
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Property
- Stories Between Two Novellas
- By: Lionel Shriver
- Narrated by: Lionel Shriver
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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A striking new collection of ten short stories and two novellas that explores the idea of property in every meaning of the word, from the acclaimed New York Times best-selling author of the National Book Award finalist So Much for That and the international best seller We Need to Talk About Kevin.
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Painful and drawn out
- By JR on 06-27-18
By: Lionel Shriver
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What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours
- Stories
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon, Piter Marek, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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In "Books and Roses", one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers' fates. In "Is Your Blood as Red as This?", an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. "'Sorry' Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea" involves a "house of locks", where doors can be closed only with a key - with surprising unobservable developments. And in "If a Book Is Locked There's Probably a Good Reason for That Don't You Think", a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason).
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clever
- By jared rogerson on 03-15-18
By: Helen Oyeyemi
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Wicked Autumn
- Booktrack Edition
- By: G. M. Malliet
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Max Tudor has adapted well to his post as vicar of St. Edwold's in the idyllic village of Nether Monkslip. The quiet village seems the perfect home for Max, who has fled a harrowing past as an MI5 agent. But this new-found serenity is quickly shattered when the highly vocal and unpopular president of the Women's Institute turns up dead at the Harvest Fayre. The death looks like an accident, but Max's training as a former agent kicks in, and before long he suspects foul play.
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Just OK
- By Jeanne on 08-05-21
By: G. M. Malliet
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Saints for All Occasions
- A Novel
- By: J. Courtney Sullivan
- Narrated by: Susan Denaker
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Nora and Theresa Flynn are 21 and 17 when they leave their small village in Ireland and journey to America. Nora is the responsible sister; she's shy and serious and engaged to a man she isn't sure that she loves. Theresa is gregarious; she is thrilled by their new life in Boston and besotted with the fashionable dresses and dance halls on Dudley Street. But when Theresa ends up pregnant, Nora is forced to come up with a plan - a decision with repercussions they are both far too young to understand.
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The narration ruined it
- By Janis Reynolds on 06-12-17
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The Sunday Philosophy Club
- An Isabel Dalhousie Mystery
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith, winner of the first-ever Saga Award for Wit, has entertained millions with his beloved No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency mysteries. Now this phenomenally popular author introduces a fresh series, brimming with the charm and humor his stable of dedicated fans can't get enough of.
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Advice For Prospective Listeners
- By DCinMI on 02-18-13
What listeners say about Unless
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kathleen McDonald
- 07-10-12
Very enjoyable
This was a very gentle book with an underlying sadness over the choices of the oldest daughter. The unfailing love of her parents and sisters allows her to return in the end.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Pamela Harvey
- 10-05-07
Production issues
Decidedly, I am a fan of Carol Shields. This novel even has a bonus layer, a view into the protagonist's life as a writer and her process which I found illuminating.
But unfortunately I can only give three stars because of production issues. While Shields' precise and descriptive grasp of the moment and development of images never fail to deliver, the narration in "Unless" is uneven, starting out crisp and clear at each chapter's beginning and then fading away as the section progresses. I found myself having to constantly adjust the volume on long commutes. Additionally the narrator's voice seemed occluded, as though she'd swallowed a frog.
And then there is the issue of the background music which I thought was intrusive. I sometimes fall asleep during a listen - no, not while driving, although I did take a wrong exit once - and the too-loud piano interludes kept jolting me awake and ruining my nap!
So, to conclude, excellent book, mediocre listen.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Pamela Paisley
- 02-01-24
Really bad
Very disjointed and hard to follow. The prior sentence is all I wanted to say. I’m being required to write 15 words here.
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Overall
- A. Compton
- 04-14-08
MONOTONOUS & BORING!
If I could give this book minus stars, or better yet, give it back I would in a heartbeat.
I'm 2:49 into it and as far as I can tell, there is no actual plot to this 'story,' it is the droning monotony of this mother's daily life as she goes about it with her eldest daughter in the background having become some sort of transient.
She hangs out with her friends, and this is what she thinks about it. She makes love to her husband and this is what she thinks about it (never has sex been so unromantic), she goes shopping and this is what she thinks about it. She has lunch and this is what she thinks about it.... You get the idea.
It is literally the minutia of her daily life and what she thinks about it.
While the readers voice is quite nice, and her reading very agreeable, and I found none of the production quirks the other reviewer spoke of, the material is at best a sleep aid.
I'm not sure how or why I, or WHAT for that matter, I'm supposed to care about. It just goes on and on about NOTHING. Not in a good Seinfeld way, but in the way a lonely co-worker might corner you and tell you all about how they rearranged their figurines for the entire weekend.
That is exactly how 'page-turning' this novel is.
Seriously, I can't think of a good thing to say about this novel. I can't finish it. Whatever may happen, I just don't care.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Cynthia Bazinet
- 08-08-22
Missed opportunity--and too many "toes" in Toronto
I know that there has been a recent effort to have Canadians read Canadian literature, so each time Joan Allen says "ToronTOE" (and even "Noo-fin-lin") I was able to resist the impulse to throw something.
That aside, the novel is a miss--meandering, digressive, self-indulgent, and ultimately pointless. Norah's journey from troubled teen to "goodness" self-exile is unconvincing, Reta seems to be an unreliable narrator, either by design or by error. I found myself annoyed with her much of the time since she has much to say about everybody else, everybody else's appearance, everybody's possessions, etc., and pretty much nothing to say about her own shortcomings, her marriage, or her other children. And there's the misandry rumbling beneath it all.
Another point: I'm mildly offended by the prop that is Danielle Westerman, whose presence seems to both trivialize the Holocaust experience and embody the "wise old woman" trope.
Lastly, the musical intros are laughable and merely reinforce the sense that I was listening to a soap opera.
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