-
The Sportswriter
- Frank Bascombe, Book 1
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
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- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The unforgettable voyager of this dark picaresque is I. B. "Berl" Pickett, M.D., whose die was probably cast the moment his mother thought to name him after Irving Berlin. Other insults piled on apace thereafter: the spasms of Pentecostal Sunday worship; the social debilitation of following his parents' itinerant rug-shampooing business; the erotic initiation at the hands of his aunt. It's hard to imagine what would have become of him had he not gone to medical school.
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Delightful
- By Roy on 01-05-11
By: Thomas McGuane
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Liberating Paris
- A Novel
- By: Linda Bloodworth Thomason
- Narrated by: Cynthia Darlow
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
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Woodrow McIlmore, the town's golden boy and local gynecologist, is married to his beautiful high school sweetheart, Milan, and seems by all appearances to be leading the perfect life with his two children and extended family and friends. But when Wood's daughter announces that she is smitten with a college classmate and intends to marry him, her parents are stunned.
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Deeply moving, a great listen
- By Cynthia on 11-27-05
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Boy, Snow, Bird
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
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- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
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In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty - the opposite of the life she' s left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman. A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she' d become, but elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out when the birth of Boy' s daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitmans as light-skinned African Americans passing for white.
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For Literary Lovers
- By M. Shipe on 04-25-14
By: Helen Oyeyemi
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All My Friends are Going to be Strangers
- By: Larry McMurtry
- Narrated by: John Randolph Jones
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Danny Deck - Emma's friend from Terms of Endearment - is a promising young writer losing touch with his talent and drifting from Texas to California because "that's where all the writers are." Set in the early 60s, this is a very funny (and raunchy) satire of life in Texas and California and a true and American portrait of an artist as a young man.
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Favorite audio book ever
- By melanie christner on 06-01-16
By: Larry McMurtry
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The Wednesday Sisters
- By: Meg Waite Clayton
- Narrated by: Julie Dretzin
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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For 35 years, Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett, and Ally have met every Wednesday at the park near their homes in Palo Alto, California. Defined when they first meet by what their husbands do, the young homemakers and mothers are far removed from the Summer of Love that has enveloped most of the Bay Area in 1967.
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Loved it!
- By Denise Wallace on 06-26-09
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Love Walked In
- By: Marisa de los Santos
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
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Award-winning poet Marisa de los Santos crafts an irresistibly touching debut novel. Love Walked In is a contemporary tale, steeped in nostalgic, cinematic charm, of love in all its forms. Unapologetically idealistic about love, Cornelia Brown appears to catch the break of a lifetime when the dashing Martin Grace, her own personal Cary Grant, comes strolling into her life. But it is Martin's connection to 11-year-old Clare Hobbes that touches Cornelia's heart in ways she never imagined.
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Dreadful audio quality
- By Marenghi on 09-16-11
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Baltimore Blues
- Tess Monaghan, Book 1
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Deborah Hazlett
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
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Unemployed at 29, Tess Monaghan is willing to take any freelance job to pay the rent—including a bit of unorthodox snooping for her rowing buddy, Darryl "Rock" Paxton. In a city where someone is murdered almost every day, attorney Michael Abramowitz's death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer's notoriety—and his noontime trysts with Rock's fiancée—make the case front page news...and point to Rock as the likely murderer. But trying to prove her friend's innocence could prove costly to Tess.
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I'm on #8 - This series is almost unique
- By connie on 02-19-12
By: Laura Lippman
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What listeners say about The Sportswriter
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kelly
- 08-30-21
a bit reminiscent of Updike's Rabbit
I enjoyed this book more than I expected, despite the hateful main character, Frank Bascombe. He is an unhappy, unmotivated man. I've seen comparisons to Updike's Rabbit, but I found this character less hateful. But that also meant that I cared less.
The Sportswriter is the tale of a man named Frank Bascombe. He isn't quite miserable, but is certainly unhappy. Frank was working as a novelist, but he quits and becomes a sports writer. He is boring, dull and lifeless. He has also lost everything. His son died, and his wife left him taking the other children with her. Although the book doesn't allude to much introspection on Frank's part, it was still obvious that he was swamped by grief. And, for me, that made him a bit more relatable.
The story is told in a way that makes it feel more intimate and voyeuristic. Frank's internal monologue about all the people he meets up with over one weekend make the book feel like you are a fly on the wall. The book is well-written, but in no way happy or light. Be prepared for a dark, quiet book about a joyless man.
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- chetyarbrough.blog
- 03-07-16
WANDERING THROUGH LIFE
Selecting books from book lists like Random House’s Modern Library is not a full proof method for making good choices. The decision to listen to “The Sportswriter” came from one of those lists.
The initial impression of "The Sportswriter" is that it is a story about wandering through life. But as it progresses, the listener begins to realize that Richard Ford is writing about men and how some view life.
This is not a story that makes one proud to be a man but it offers insight to why the cliché “men are from Mars” has some truth. Ford’s main character is a guy’s guy named Frank Bascombe. He is a traveling sports writer and a divorcée of his own making, a fool that fails to understand what is important in life. After his marriage break up, he is cast adrift to find the next best thing which never turns into anything important.
The irony of a guy’s guy skill to seduce is that it leads to a lonely and empty life. In Ford’s story, “The Sportswriter”, Bascombe drifts through life from relationship to relationship to nowhere. He never comes to grips with what is wrong with his life. He drifts to Retirementville, Florida to think about the next best thing. That is how the story ends. It is a rather depressing exploration of how vacuous life can be.
This is a book that gives a concrete explanation of what some men are looking for in life. When listening to The Sportswriter, you may find someone you know; hopefully not you.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Puddin Tame
- 12-12-18
Perfect Narrator; Imperfect Novel
If this book were half as long, my tolerance for Frank’s incessant musings would increase. He describes and describes to the point that the book feels stagnant, and perhaps that is the point. He is stuck. Unfortunately he is so unlikeable and so truly unaware of himself, I didn’t care what happened ti him.
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- Mark in the Midwest
- 04-09-21
Great Story and Narration
I would highly recommend listening to the entire 'Frank Bascom' series. There are 4 books in total.
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- Ned
- 02-04-15
Listen to the last 15 minutes
Tedious day by day story. Will try another Richard Ford book to see if there is more to them. Only OK.
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3 people found this helpful
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- John
- 11-14-15
Excellent. Spot on narration.
Does a rather average, ho-hum life offer insight and a glimpse of truth? Richard Ford answers that question here.
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- Glenn A. Douglas
- 03-15-22
I'm torn....
I am torn as to whether to continue this series. As a middle aged man trying to figure out how to continue to be happy in a world where everything around him is changing, I searched out books that might include people/characters going through the same thing (you'd be amazed what a search for "mid-life crisis" turns up).
I sympathized with Frank's lack of clarity, direction, etc. I certainly understood his trying to grasp on to clearly dysfunctional things in order to try and find happiness. But, I didn't find him particularly likable or compelling. I found myself wanting him to take bolder steps, to take himself out of bad situations, to take more control of his life.
The book is very well written. I did find the overt racism in the book jarring, a bygone of a worse time in our history. It took me out of the story quite often. The narration is spot on and very compelling.
Still can't decide whether to give the second book a shot......
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2 people found this helpful
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- Cheryl
- 06-25-23
Depressing story
I wanted to like the main character, however, to me he was not a caring good person. The story never got better.
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- IH
- 11-26-23
Great writing but difficult to engage
Good writing but story drags and characters seem distant. Seemed like an introduction to the series.
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- chris
- 03-22-08
wonderful
This is one of the best audiobooks I have purchased. For one, the narration is perfect. My only exposure to Richard Ford was short stories. I liked this book very much and I can say I don't know any other writer who writes like him. He slows down to lay out the history and his philosophy on every character and event. It's like watching someone crack a hardboiled egg and pull off a tiny shell fragment at a time.
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26 people found this helpful