Dreaming of Babylon

A Private Eye Novel 1942

By: Richard Brautigan

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 3 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

It is early 1942. You are in San Francisco, and you need a private eye. Sam Spade is rumored to be in Istanbul. The Continental Op has been drafted and is a sergeant in the Aleutians. Philip Marlowe is up at Little Fawn Lake investigating the disappearance of Mrs. Derace Kingsley. Lew Archer is in the army. Who's left? Nobody but C. Card. You haven't heard of C. Card? That's all right. Nobody has.

When you hire C. Card, the hero of Richard Brautigan's eighth novel, you have scraped the bottom of the private-eye barrel. But you won't be bored. No, indeed. Because when C. Card finds some bullets for his gun, you will be in for some fast, funny, slam-bang private eye adventures. Unless, of course, C. Card starts dreaming of Babylon. If C. Card starts dreaming of Babylon, all bets are off. Not since Trout Fishing in America has Brautigan so successfully combined his wild sense of humor with the incredible poetic imagination he is rightfully famous for around the world. The adventures of seedy, not-too-bright C. Card, as he carefully wends his way between fantasy and reality, Babylon and San Francisco, are a delight to both the mind and the heart.

©1977 Richard Brautigan (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Bronson Pinochot is the best!

Mr Pinchot could read a grocery list and make it sound good-He almost does just that when he reads advertisements in another book called Horrorstor which I didn't care for, but not due to Mr. Pinchot-he made it bearable.
In a book called Ambergris, he reads "footnotes" in an extremely hysterical way-It gets funnier as he goes.
As for this book, I love all the old school silly det movies & books so I loved it. Not a long and realistic novel here but it did pass the time & had me laughing. If you dislike silly slightly dark humor mixed with an old school film Noir feel this one isn't for you. But if you like hearing ridiculous antics & daydreams of a mediocre to inept detective mixed with Walter Mitty then you will love this. Longer than a short story but much shorter than a full novel it will have some shaking their heads and some laughing. I just want to know what happened with "Smith Smith & the Shadow People"
*Spoiler Alert-it is disappointing that readers don't find out. I guess we have to use our imagination for that one!
Happy Reading to you😆

Serviceable time killer

Very familiar scene of the down-and-out detective, dames and hoods. Yeah, it's okay. Some witty banter, some annoying screaming. Included in the free Plus catalog, I don't feel cheated for the price.

good story, jarring performance

i loved the story and book overall but the narrator was very jarring with certain voices

captivating performance 👏

The only thing that could make the experience of this audible fiction more enjoyable would be more of it. Brilliant casting. Captivating, unequivocally versatile, no-holes-barred performance. Unmatched. Like it's predecessor "Trout Fishing in America" , "Babylon" insists that we suspend narrative convention to allow for safe and absolute passage through the narrator's journey, right down his white rabbit hole. it's like if Louden Wainright and They Might be Giants hooked up with Tom Robbins and Kurt Vonnegutt and had a love child in the form of a novel, it might roll something like this.

Ridiculous and amazing

I’m not sure how I would’ve felt after closing the physical book, but this narrator made the book come to life, and he has surpassed my expectations. I don’t often stray from my genre of choice, or in this case, authors that have meant a great deal to me in the past, but I am going to seek out whatever books I can get my hands on, that are narrated by Mr. Pinchot

what a story thsi was

what a good story. very "Big Lebowski" feeling to it, and very well performed b th narator. props to him!

Inane

There’s not much point to the story; it’s just following a clueless detective as he daydreams.
Even for free, this was annoying and dull.