What I Lived For Audiobook By Joyce Carol Oates cover art

What I Lived For

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What I Lived For

By: Joyce Carol Oates
Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
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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.

©2019 Joyce Carol Oates (P)2019 HarperAudio Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological World Literature Suspense

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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

Brilliant Portrait of a man in full

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A reflective almost real-time account of a few days' thought processes and culmination of events in the life of narrator. Flawless narration!

Stream-of-consciousness peak into someone's head

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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.

misogynistic first page to last.

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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.

A challenge to get through..

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