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What I Lived For
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 28 hrs
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Publisher's summary
The stunning, classic portrait of a powerful man's downward spiral to moral ruin
Jerome "Corky" Corcorn. A money-juggling wheeler dealer, rising politico, popular man's man, and successful womanizer. It is a Memorial Day weekend, and we are about to live with him, breathe with him, and sweat with him in a nonstop marathon of mounting desperation as he tries to keep his financial empire from unraveling, his love life from shredding, and his rebellious daughter from destroying both herself and him. Seldom in fiction has a man been brought so vividly to life in all his strength and weakness, hunger and ambition, carnality and corruption. Rarely has the complex web of American society been revealed so rivetingly. And never has one of today's supreme writers, Joyce Carol Oates, written a bolder and better novel than this mesmerizing masterpiece.
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- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Constance Towers
- Length: 3 hrs
- Abridged
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Lonely Iris Courtney learns about life in the small town of Hammond, New York, where blacks and whites live separate lives. She learns of love from her parents—hard-drinking, hard-living Duke Courtney and his stormy marriage with the lovely but troubled Persia Courtney. But Iris learns most from Verlyn "Jinx" Fairchild, star of the basketball courts, his hopes for a way out of Hammond pinned to a college scholarship.
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My Life as a Rat
- A Novel
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Sadie Alexandru
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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My Life as a Rat follows Violet Rue Kerrigan, a young woman who looks back upon her life in exile from her family following her testimony, at age 12, concerning what she knew to be the racist murder of an African American boy by her older brothers. In a succession of vividly recalled episodes, Violet contemplates the circumstances of her life as the initially beloved youngest child of seven Kerrigan children who inadvertently “informs” on her brothers, setting into motion their arrests and convictions and her own long estrangement.
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Heavy Topics & Satisfying Story
- By Oscar on 06-30-19
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Little Bird of Heaven
- A Novel
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
- Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When young wife and mother Zoe Kruller is found brutally murdered, the police target two suspects: her estranged husband, Delray Kruller, and her longtime lover, Eddy Diehl. In turn, the Krullers' son, Aaron, and Diehl's daughter, Krista, become obsessed with each other, each believing the other's father guilty. By novel's end, the fated lovers are at last ready to exorcise the ghosts of the past and come to terms with their legacy of guilt, misplaced love, and redemptive yearning.
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Thought it would never end
- By grayna on 09-27-21
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Cardiff, by the Sea
- Four Novellas of Suspense
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
In these psychologically daring, chillingly suspenseful pieces, the author of We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde writes about women facing threats past and present, once again cementing her reputation for "great intelligence and dead-on imaginative powers" (Los Angeles Times Book Review).
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All stories in collection
- By Betsy Ross on 12-10-22
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Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars.
- A Novel
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Cheryl Smith
- Length: 30 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. is a gripping examination of contemporary America through the prism of a family tragedy: When a powerful parent dies, each of his adult children reacts in startling and unexpected ways, and his grieving widow in the most surprising way of all. Stark and penetrating, Joyce Carol Oates’s latest novel is a vivid exploration of race, psychological trauma, class warfare, grief, and eventual healing, as well as an intimate family novel in the tradition of the author’s best-selling We Were the Mulvaneys.
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A New All Time Favorite
- By Meg on 06-22-20
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Bellefleur
- Gothic Saga Series, Book 1
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 27 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
A wealthy and notorious clan, the Bellefleurs live in a region not unlike the Adirondacks, in an enormous mansion on the shores of mythic Lake Noir. They own vast lands and profitable businesses, they employ their neighbors, and they influence the government. A prolific and eccentric group, they include several millionaires, a mass murderer, a spiritual seeker who climbs into the mountains looking for God, a wealthy noctambulist who dies of a chicken scratch.
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Old School Gothic Literature (Not a beach read)
- By Keijon ford on 05-01-20
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Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Constance Towers
- Length: 3 hrs
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Lonely Iris Courtney learns about life in the small town of Hammond, New York, where blacks and whites live separate lives. She learns of love from her parents—hard-drinking, hard-living Duke Courtney and his stormy marriage with the lovely but troubled Persia Courtney. But Iris learns most from Verlyn "Jinx" Fairchild, star of the basketball courts, his hopes for a way out of Hammond pinned to a college scholarship.
-
My Life as a Rat
- A Novel
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Sadie Alexandru
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
My Life as a Rat follows Violet Rue Kerrigan, a young woman who looks back upon her life in exile from her family following her testimony, at age 12, concerning what she knew to be the racist murder of an African American boy by her older brothers. In a succession of vividly recalled episodes, Violet contemplates the circumstances of her life as the initially beloved youngest child of seven Kerrigan children who inadvertently “informs” on her brothers, setting into motion their arrests and convictions and her own long estrangement.
-
-
Heavy Topics & Satisfying Story
- By Oscar on 06-30-19
-
Little Bird of Heaven
- A Novel
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
- Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When young wife and mother Zoe Kruller is found brutally murdered, the police target two suspects: her estranged husband, Delray Kruller, and her longtime lover, Eddy Diehl. In turn, the Krullers' son, Aaron, and Diehl's daughter, Krista, become obsessed with each other, each believing the other's father guilty. By novel's end, the fated lovers are at last ready to exorcise the ghosts of the past and come to terms with their legacy of guilt, misplaced love, and redemptive yearning.
-
-
Thought it would never end
- By grayna on 09-27-21
-
Cardiff, by the Sea
- Four Novellas of Suspense
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In these psychologically daring, chillingly suspenseful pieces, the author of We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde writes about women facing threats past and present, once again cementing her reputation for "great intelligence and dead-on imaginative powers" (Los Angeles Times Book Review).
-
-
All stories in collection
- By Betsy Ross on 12-10-22
-
Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars.
- A Novel
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Cheryl Smith
- Length: 30 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. is a gripping examination of contemporary America through the prism of a family tragedy: When a powerful parent dies, each of his adult children reacts in startling and unexpected ways, and his grieving widow in the most surprising way of all. Stark and penetrating, Joyce Carol Oates’s latest novel is a vivid exploration of race, psychological trauma, class warfare, grief, and eventual healing, as well as an intimate family novel in the tradition of the author’s best-selling We Were the Mulvaneys.
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A New All Time Favorite
- By Meg on 06-22-20
What listeners say about What I Lived For
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-03-20
Brilliant Portrait of a man in full
As usual Joyce Carol Oates fascinates by creating deep understanding for a man whom I would call a jerk if I would not have gotten to know him deeply and personally thru her exquisite writing
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1 person found this helpful
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- Cecilia
- 03-22-21
Stream-of-consciousness peak into someone's head
A reflective almost real-time account of a few days' thought processes and culmination of events in the life of narrator. Flawless narration!
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- Kathleen
- 07-18-24
misogynistic first page to last.
if you're a woman or a man you're going to feel worse about yourself and men after reading this. I failed both abused and judgmental.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Notsokeen
- 04-13-20
A challenge to get through..
I hated this book. The beginning and end held my attention. Everything in between was a struggle. Many times I wanted to stop listening to the book but for some reason, I hoped there would be a reward for powering through. I had hoped to see some redeeming qualities to Corky. I could not stand him. He is a survivor, not intelligent, making decisions based on his wit. He was an alcoholic and disgustingly vulgar character. However, the unexpected ending did provide some of the reward I was looking for in “sticking with it”. I would never recommend this book to anyone and unfortunately, will be the last book I read by Joyce Carol Oates. I read “We are the Mulvaneys” and enjoyed it. So much so that I decided to try another book of Ms.Oates. Poor choice on my part.
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3 people found this helpful