A Special Providence
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Narrated by:
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Jeff Woodman
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Suzanne Toren
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By:
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Richard Yates
About this listen
Robert Prentice has spent all his life attempting to escape his mother's stifling presence. His mother, Alice, for her part, struggles with her own demons as she attempts to realize her dreams of prosperity and success as a sculptor.
As Robert goes off to fight in Europe, hoping to become his own man, Richard Yates portrays a soldier in the depths of war striving to live up to his heroic ideals. With haunting clarity, Yates crafts an unforgettable portrait of two people who cannot help but hope for more, even as life challenges them both.
As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of Richard Yates' book, you'll also receive an exclusive Jim Atlas interview. This interview – where James Atlas interviews Blake Bailey about the life and work of Richard Yates – begins as soon as the audiobook ends.
This production is part of our Audible Modern Vanguard line, a collection of important works from groundbreaking authors.©1969 Richard Yates (P)2010 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Editorial reviews
Richard Yates’s 1969 novel A Special Providence gets a contemporary update in this version, part of Audible’s Modern Vanguard Series, with narration by Suzanne Toren and Jeff Woodman. Yates, who may be best known for his first novel, Revolutionary Road, and the Leo-and-Kate film version it spawned, looks at a very different kind of male-female relationship in Providence: here, he highlights the connection between a mother and son before, during, and after WWII.
The mother is Alice Prentice, a single parent and aspiring artist who believes the world holds more for her than financial struggles and unreliable men; her son, Robert, is a solider struggling to survive the fighting in Europe. As the story shifts back and forth between the characters and to and from different times in their lives, Woodman anchors the story with an understated narration that’s rich and emotional. From Robert’s facing the front lines of battle to his navigating a conflict with the other enlisted men, Woodman brings a realistic mix of ambition, fear, and youth to the character. Toren chimes in on the women’s voices — primarily Alice, but also her friends and her sister — and brings the right mix of real confidence and false bravado to luckless Alice, whether she’s trying to start her own art school or convince herself that Robert will come home.
Much of A Special Providence is reportedly based on Yates’ own life — Robert’s war time mimics Yates’ service, and Alice Prentice is said to be a thinly-disguised take on Yates’ own mother, Ruth — and the sincere narration combined with Yates’ honest prose makes this an essential listen for fans of the author. —Blythe Copeland
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This Side of the Sky
- By: Elyse Singleton
- Narrated by: Myra Taylor, Sharon Washington, Richard Ferrone
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning journalist Elyse Singleton delivers what Essence calls “a gem - the perfect book to curl up with.”
Best friends Lilian and Myraleen, two African American women from rural Mississippi, travel to Europe during World War II to act as members of the Women’s Army Corps. During this time of segregation and destruction, both women discover love and heartbreak, triumph and defeat.
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A Breath of Fresh Air
- By Adina Andreu on 07-19-12
By: Elyse Singleton
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Disturbing the Peace
- By: Richard Yates
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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To all appearances, John Wilder has all the trappings of success, circa 1960: a promising career in advertising, a loving family, a beautiful apartment, even a country home. John's evenings are spent with associates at quiet Manhattan lounges and his weekends with friends at glittering cocktail parties. But something deep within this seemingly perfect life has long since gone wrong.
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7 hours and 27 minutes pure blisd
- By Mia on 01-05-13
By: Richard Yates
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Now and in the Hour of Our Death
- By: Patrick Taylor
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 17 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Patrick Taylor’s first novel of the Irish Troubles, Pray for Us Sinners, introduced us to Provisional IRA bombmaker Davy MacCutcheon and the love of his life, Fiona Kavanagh. Davy planned to leave the Provos after one final mission. But the deadly mission backfired, and Davy ended up in prison. Six years later, in Now and in the Hour of Our Death, Fiona Kavanagh has found sanctuary in Vancouver, Canada. But news of a breakout at the Maze prison brings back memories she thought she’d left behind.
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The Perfect End of a Great Epic
- By J. Lindsey on 03-01-15
By: Patrick Taylor
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The Quiet American
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Joseph Porter
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Alden Pyle, an idealistic young American, is sent to Vietnam to promote democracy amidst the intrigue and violence of the French war with the Vietminh, while his friend, Fowler, a cynical foreign correspondent, looks on.
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Terrible narrator nearly derails Greene novel.
- By Richard on 07-12-12
By: Graham Greene
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Midnight Cowboy
- By: James Leo Herlihy
- Narrated by: Michael Urie
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Midnight Cowboy is considered by many to be one of the best American novels published since World War II. The main story centers around Joe Buck, a naive but eager and ambitious young Texan, who decides to leave his dead-end job in search of a grand and glamorous life he believes he will find in New York City. But the city turns out to be a much more difficult place to negotiate than Joe could ever have imagined. He soon finds himself and his dreams compromised. Buck's fall from innocence and his relationship with the crippled street hustler Ratso Rizzo form the novel's emotional nucleus.
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Superb
- By Macala Shon on 01-26-21
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The Stand
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 47 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides - or are chosen.
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My First Completed Stephen King Novel
- By Meaghan Bynum on 02-20-12
By: Stephen King
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The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
- By: Sloan Wilson
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is the story of Tom and Betsy Rath, a young couple with everything going for them: three healthy children, a nice home, a steady income. They have every reason to be happy, but for some reason they are not. Like so many young men of the day, Tom finds himself caught up in the corporate rat race - what he encounters there propels him on a voyage of self-discovery that will turn his world inside out.
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great read/listen
- By BBJ on 09-26-16
By: Sloan Wilson
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Player Piano
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Kurt Vonnegut's first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. Paul's rebellion is vintage Vonnegut – wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality.
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A Genuine 5-Stars
- By R.A. on 06-07-19
By: Kurt Vonnegut
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A Flag for Sunrise
- By: Robert Stone
- Narrated by: Stephen Lang
- Length: 17 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Possessed of astonishing dramatic, emotional, and philosophical resonance, A Flag for Sunrise is a novel in the grand tradition about Americans drawn into the maelstrom of a small Central American country on the brink of revolution. From the book's inception, listeners will be seized by the dangers and nightmare suspense of life lived on the rim of a political volcano.
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A towering achievement
- By Skeptical on 04-24-11
By: Robert Stone
What listeners say about A Special Providence
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Barbara or Jerold Gendler
- 11-30-22
Dark
Brilliantly written & narrated & a must read for this pre war , 2nd world war , post experience that is easily forgotten . The characters r well developed although not loved to emulate . Yates is not a happy camper but u must read on to some conclusion .