The Razor's Edge
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Narrated by:
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Michael Page
About this listen
A compelling novel of self-discovery and the search for meaning from the author of The Painted Veil.
The Great War changed everything and everyone, and Larry Darrell is no exception. Though his physical wounds from the war heal, his spirit is changed almost beyond recognition. He leaves his betrothed, the beautiful and devoted Isabel; studies philosophy and religion in Paris; lives as a monk, and witnesses the exotic hardships of Spanish life. All of life that he can find - from an Indian Ashrama to labor in a coal mine - becomes Larry's spiritual experiment as he spurns the comfort and privilege of the Roaring 20s.
This novel is part of Brilliance Audio's extensive Classic Collection, bringing you timeless masterpieces that you and your family are sure to love.
©1944 W. Somerset Maugham and renewed in 1971 by Elizabeth Mary, Baroness Glendevon (P)1994 Brilliance AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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This is a love story of great beauty and great tenderness, the kind of love story that entangles the listener in the lives of the characters, so that after the story is over, one continues to live with those characters. And fortunately, the listener will not have to say farewell to these characters, since it is the first in a series that will tell the story of three Californian families over the course of the 20th century.
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Narration style kills the story.
- By Glynis on 11-27-14
By: Howard Fast
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The Good Soldier
- By: Ford Madox Ford
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
On the face of it Captain Edward Ashburnham's life was unimpeachable. But behind the mask where passion seethes, the captain's "good" life was rotting away.
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Treachery in the Troops
- By Mel on 01-08-15
By: Ford Madox Ford
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Howards End
- By: E. M. Forster
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Howards End is a beautifully subtle tale of two very different families brought together by an unusual event. The Schlegels are intellectuals, devotees of art and literature. The Wilcoxes are practical and materialistic, leading lives of "telegrams and anger". When the elder Mrs. Wilcox dies and her family discovers she has left their country home - Howards End - to one of the Schlegel sisters, a crisis between the two families is precipitated that takes years to resolve.
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Fantastic Narration in Delightful Story
- By Wren on 05-05-18
By: E. M. Forster
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The Custom of the Country
- By: Edith Wharton
- Narrated by: Grace Conlin
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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One of Edith Wharton's most acclaimed works, The Custom of the Country is a blistering indictment of materialism, power, and misplaced values. Its heroine, Undine Spragg, is one of the most ruthless characters in all of literature, as selfishly unscrupulous as she is fiercely beautiful. As she climbs the class ladder through a series of marriages and affairs, she shows little concern for who she has to step on.
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Narrator kills the book
- By Mississippi Malka on 05-24-10
By: Edith Wharton
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The Turmoil
- By: Booth Tarkington
- Narrated by: Harry Shaw
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Bigger, newer, faster. Demolish and rebuild, then demolish and rebuild again. Smoke, soot, and noise are the badges of prosperity, and growth is for growth's sake.
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Fast and heartwarming
- By dfjord on 08-06-24
By: Booth Tarkington
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Anna Karenina
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 38 hrs
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Anna Karenina seems to have everything - beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son. But she feels that her life is empty until the moment she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky.
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Beautiful story, amazing narration
- By Marcus Vorwaller on 08-02-08
By: Leo Tolstoy
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Dodsworth
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet Sam Dodsworth, an amiable 50-year-old millionaire and "American Captain of Industry, believing in the Republican Party, high tariffs, and, so long as they did not annoy him personally, in Prohibition and the Episcopal Church". Dodsworth runs an auto manufacturing firm, but his beautiful wife, Fran, obsessed with the notion that she is growing old, persuades him to sell his interest in the company and take her to Europe.
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A Very Good Novel About 1920s America and Europe
- By Frank Donnelly on 08-17-20
By: Sinclair Lewis
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You won't want it to end!
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First published in 1925, The Painted Veil is an affirmation of the human capacity to grow, change, and forgive. Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, it is the story of the beautiful but shallow young Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to a remote region of China ravaged by a cholera epidemic.
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What An Unexpected Delight!
- By Mimi on 10-22-08
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Cakes and Ale
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- By: W. Somerset Maugham
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Of all Somerset Maugham’s novels this is the most entertaining and arguably his best ever. Rosie is a barmaid with a heart of gold and a skeleton in her closet. Maugham’s portrait of her makes his novel fairly glow with witty observations of the contemporary literary scene. Features Willie Ashenden, who resurfaces in Maugham’s Ashenden.
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Great character, a little slow towards the end
- By Thomas on 01-03-19
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The Moon And Sixpence
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Charles Strickland, a conventional stockbroker, abandons his wife and children for Paris and Tahiti, to live his life as a painter. While his betrayal of family, duty and honour gives him the freedom to achieve greatness, his decision leads to an obsession which carries severe implications.
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Roman a clef-abominable french artist Paul Gauguin
- By W Perry Hall on 01-22-14
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The Somerset Maugham BBC Radio Collection
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A collection of the BBC’s dramatisations and readings of W. Somerset Maugham’s fiction, with star casts including Alex Jennings, Dirk Bogarde, and Janet Maw.
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Entertaining radio adaptations
- By scout86 on 08-23-21
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The Complete Short Stories, Volume One
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There have been few masters of the short story as popular as W. S. Maugham. His dry wit, worldweary loftiness, pungent cynicism, and penetrating powers of observation have contributed to the creation of some of the greatest short stories ever written.
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A masterful production of Maugham's short stories.
- By J. J. Kuzma on 09-07-13
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Of Human Bondage
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
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- Length: 25 hrs and 53 mins
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Philip Carey, a sensitive orphan born with a clubfoot, finds himself in desperate need of passion and inspiration. He abandons his studies to travel, first to Heidelberg and then to Paris, where he nurses ambitions of becoming a great artist. Philip's youthful idealism erodes, however, as he comes face-to-face with his own mediocrity and lack of impact on the world. After returning to London to study medicine, he becomes wildly infatuated with Mildred, a vulgar, tawdry waitress, and begins a doomed love affair.
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You won't want it to end!
- By Rbjurnee on 04-18-11
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First published in 1925, The Painted Veil is an affirmation of the human capacity to grow, change, and forgive. Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, it is the story of the beautiful but shallow young Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to a remote region of China ravaged by a cholera epidemic.
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What An Unexpected Delight!
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Cakes and Ale
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Of all Somerset Maugham’s novels this is the most entertaining and arguably his best ever. Rosie is a barmaid with a heart of gold and a skeleton in her closet. Maugham’s portrait of her makes his novel fairly glow with witty observations of the contemporary literary scene. Features Willie Ashenden, who resurfaces in Maugham’s Ashenden.
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Great character, a little slow towards the end
- By Thomas on 01-03-19
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The Moon And Sixpence
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Entertaining radio adaptations
- By scout86 on 08-23-21
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A masterful production of Maugham's short stories.
- By J. J. Kuzma on 09-07-13
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Of Human Bondage
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: David McCallion
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First published in 1915, Of Human Bondage is widely considered to be Somerset Maugham’s masterpiece and is believed to have been at least partially based on Maugham’s own life. This is the tale of Philip Carey, who is orphaned at a young age and raised by his uncle. Of Human Bondage follows Philip on his travels to Paris, London, and Germany, taking the listener on an adventure of discovery as his travels brings him new discoveries and emotional growth.
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Nearly Perfect
- By SusieCreamCheese on 08-04-19
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The Moon and Sixpence
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This is the story of an artist who was willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of art. In much of its general outline, this famous novel follows the life of Paul Gauguin, famous French post-impressionist painter, but it is not a novelized biography of Gauguin. Rather it is a sharply-delineated, carefully wrought "private life", written by one of the most vivid and penetrating contemporary literary masters.
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great, simply great
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Cakes and Ale
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When Cakes and Ale was first published in 1930 it roused a storm of controversy, since many people imagined they recognised portraits of literary figures now no more. It is the novel for which Maugham wished to be remembered.
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Delightful
- By RueRue on 04-22-16
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Complete Short Stories, Volume 3
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In 1938 Maugham wrote, "Fact and fiction are so intermingled in my work that now, looking back on it, I can hardly distinguish one from the other." Maugham also wrote that most of his short stories were inspired by accounts he heard firsthand during his travels to the lonely outposts of the British Empire. In volume three of this series, we present all of the remaining short stories which Maugham published after World War I and which he subsequently caused to be republished in various collections.
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Complete list of Short Stories
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Ashenden
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A celebrated writer by the time the war broke out in 1914, Maugham had the perfect cover for living in Switzerland. Multilingual and knowledgeable about many European countries, he was dispatched by the Secret Service to Lucerne - under the guise of completing a play. An assignment whose danger and drama appealed both to his sense of romance and of the ridiculous. Ashenden is a collection of stories rooted in Maugham's own experiences as an agent, reflecting the ruthlessness and brutality of espionage, its intrigue and treachery, as well as its absurdity.
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Complete Short Stories, Volume Two
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Story
In June 1917, W. S. Maugham was asked by the British Secret Intelligence Service, to undertake a special mission in Russia to support Kerensky's government. The mission failed, and two and a half months later, the Bolsheviks took control. Maugham subsequently said that if he had been able to get there six months earlier, he might have succeeded. Quiet and observant, Maugham had a good temperament for intelligence work. The writer used his spying experiences as the basis for his collection of short stories called Ashenden: Or the British Agent. They became the prototype for the modern espionage novel.
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Entirely great
- By William E. Hendry on 05-26-16
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Of Human Bondage
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Of Human Bondage is one of the greatest novels of modern times, and it is certainly Maugham's greatest achievement. It was published in 1914, when Maugham was at the height of his creative powers. The story concerns Philip Carey, afflicted at birth with a club foot, and his passionate search for truth in a cruel world. We follow his growth to manhood, his educational progress, his first loves, and the wrenching tragedies and disappointments that life has in store for him. In some of the finest prose of the 20th century, Maugham has presented us with the timeless story of one man's search for the meaning of life.
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Greatly Unsettling
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Short Stories of William Somerset Maugham, Volume 1
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Winner of the 2001 Audie Award for Classic Fiction, this is an unparalleled presentation of Maugham's stories, complete with sound effects and music.
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Jewels!
- By Jacko45 on 07-05-04
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Short Stories of William Somerset Maugham, Volume 2
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Winner of the 2003 Audie Award for Classic Fiction, this is an unparalleled presentation of Maugham's stories, complete with sound effects and music.
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Excellent performance
- By Roy on 04-22-05
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The Moon and Sixpence
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In The Moon and Sixpence, Charles Strickland is a respectable London stockbroker who decides in middle age to abandon his wife and children and devote himself to his true passion: art. Strickland's destructive desire for self-expression takes him first to Paris to learn the craft of painting, and finally to Tahiti in the South Pacific. The Moon and Sixpence remains a complex and engaging novel echoing Maugham's own struggles between artistic expression and public respectability.
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Enjoyable novel, well narrated
- By Everett Leiter on 08-06-10
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The Magician
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Performance
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Renowned English surgeon Arthur Burdon is engaged to the beautiful Margaret Dauncey, who is studying art in Paris. The match is met with approval from all sides, and everyone is happy - until the mysterious Oliver Haddo enters the picture. Both Arthur and his fiancée dislike the enormously fat and eccentric Oliver but are fascinated by his stories of black magic, by his demonstrations of a power that seems inhuman. And while they scoff at his boasts, their dislike turns to loathing.
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WSM Architypes Against Occultism Backdrop
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The Most Secret Memory of Men
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Overall
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Story
In 2018, Diegane Latyr Faye, a young Senegalese writer in Paris, discovers a legendary book from the 1930s, The Labyrinth of Inhumanity. No one knows what became of its author, once hailed as the "Black Rimbaud," after the book caused a scandal. Enthralled by this mystery, Diegane decides to search for T.C. Elimane, going down a path that will force him to confront the great tragedies of history, from colonialism to the Holocaust.
By: Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, and others
What listeners say about The Razor's Edge
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Winnie
- 08-04-16
Brilliant and easy to read
I enjoyed listening to this book. Both the story and the performance are brilliant. Lovely experience.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Michael
- 03-01-17
Great story
I have always liked this story, having seen and enjoying both film versions. the book paints the the scenes as eloquently as I had hoped.
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- Jonathan Glass
- 12-23-21
Beautiful Book
This is a wonderful book, one that stays with you. Nuanced, deep perception of characters. Excellent narration.
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- Amazon Customer 3
- 05-15-22
Maugham at 70 and still amazing
Always a pleasure to read a book with a beggining, middle, and end, timeless themes, and none of the ax grinding, and propagandizung that are the hallmarks of modern authors.
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- CDTX
- 11-09-24
Rethink your life
A dedicated classics reader, I avoided Maugham for far too long. What a shame to have denied myself the pleasure and thoughtfulness of this story for decades. Listen or read. Today. Michael Page is an excellent narrator as always.
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- cccdyle
- 01-29-17
FAITHFUL RENDERING OF A CLASSIC
Maugham's classic about a man's search for spiritual understanding is worth revisiting, even if the social setting and characters seem dated. And it's hard to see how Michael Page's reading could be any better, as he faithfully channel's the narrator's (i.e. Maugham's) prejudices, attitudes and values.
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6 people found this helpful
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- George Sheppard
- 06-18-18
A very thought provoking work!
How many of us desire to lead a life of detachment and to evolve to that point as Larry. It is a very interesting study of the human consciousness vs social consciousnesses. It is no wonder that Paul Twitchell and Sri Harold Klemp mentioned this book in their spiritual studies of Eckankar.
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- Jim Braunstein
- 01-19-22
A ripping good yarn
This was a fascinating story about people in search of what they themselves are looking for.
It was brilliantly written and once you get into the cadence of it it’s almost lyrical.
And by the way, that was an outstanding reading by the narrator.
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- Susan J. Schau
- 09-09-22
Excellent
An excellent, excellent reading of a fascinating character study by one of my favorite authors.
Timeless.
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- Laura G. Marcantoni
- 01-25-23
A pitiless and amusing social portrait / critique
It is a very entertaining book.
The irony and the venomous jabs of the author are directed to everyone, even to himself. The subtle irony and the detatchment with which the story is narrated make of this book a pleasant read.
Only one of the protagonists is spared by the author's merciless pen, possibly to juxtapose his wholeness to the comparative emptiness of the other characters.
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