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The Love of My Youth
- Narrated by: Alice Rosengard
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
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High school sweethearts Miranda and Adam haven’t seen each other for more than 30 years — ever since Adam painfully betrayed Miranda. Having both lived full lives since that time, the two end up in Rome together at the same time, and are re-introduced by a mutual friend. Meeting for daily outings in the historic city, they get to know the adult versions of each other — the unrealized dreams and the realities of life in sharper focus than when they were teenagers. An interesting concept, the novel leads listeners to wonder — What would my first love think of me, now?
Alice Rosengard has one strength as the narrator of this novel — her Italian is beautiful and melodic. But when speaking English, her voice is warbly, sounding many years older than the protagonist’s age of 50-something. Her pace is staccato in strange places — it sounds more as if she’s reciting poetry than a novel, and she infuses each sentence with drama, rather than letting the subtlety of the words wash over the listener. The difference in tone when she’s portraying Adam is so slight, that conversations between Miranda and Adam are confusing at times; it’s hard to tell who is speaking. Her tone in the flashback portions of the book is even more off-putting. The girlish, heady affections of teenage love are in disconnect with the quavering, elderly voice conveying them.
The narration often distracts from the carefully selected words and beautiful story-telling of author Mary Gordon, rather than enhancing them. But lovers of Rome, and those who have always wondered “what if?”, will still enjoy the premise of this slow-to-blossom novel. —Colleen Oakley
Publisher's summary
From the acclaimed author of Pearl and Final Payments comes a beautifully choreographed novel about first lovers meeting again after more than 30 years and reimmersing themselves in their shared past.
Miranda and Adam, high-school sweethearts now in their late 50s, arrive by chance at the same time in Rome, a city where they once spent a summer deeply in love, living together blissfully. At an awkward reunion, the two who parted in an atmosphere of passionate betrayal in the 1960s and haven't seen each other since are surprised to discover that they may have something to talk about. Both have their own guilt, their sense of who betrayed whom, and their long-held interpretation of the events that caused them not to marry and to split apart into the lives they've led since. Both are married to others, with grown children.
For the few weeks they are in Rome, Adam suggests that they meet for daily walks and get to know each other again. Gradually, as they take in the pleasures of the city and the drama of its streets, they discover not only what matters to them now but also more about what happened to them long ago.
Miranda and Adam are masterfully portrayed characters, intent upon understanding who they are in relation to who they were. A story about what first love means and how it is shattered, and the lessons old lovers may still have to share with each other many years later, The Love of My Youth is also a poignant look back at the hopes and dreams of a generation and what became of them.
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Story
Alexandr and Christine and Zachary and Lydia have been friends since they first met in their 20s. Thirty years later, Alex and Christine are spending a leisurely summer’s evening at home when they receive a call from a distraught Lydia: She is at the hospital. Zach is dead. In the wake of this profound loss, the three friends find themselves unmoored; all agree that Zach, with his generous, grounded spirit, was the irreplaceable one they couldn’t afford to lose. Inconsolable, Lydia moves in with Alex and Christine. The loss warps their relationships.
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It's all in the performance
- By RueRue on 02-08-19
By: Tessa Hadley
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I'm Supposed to Protect You from All This
- A Memoir
- By: Nadja Spiegelman
- Narrated by: Nadja Spiegelman
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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For a long time, Nadja Spiegelman believed her mother was a fairy. More than her famous father, Maus creator Art Spiegelman, and even more than most mothers, hers - French-born New Yorker art director Françoise Mouly - exerted a force over reality that was both dazzling and daunting. As Nadja's body changed and "began to whisper to the adults around me in a language I did not understand", their relationship grew tense.
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Aweful
- By Haley Abreu on 07-05-17
By: Nadja Spiegelman
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Bitter in the Mouth
- By: Monique Truong
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Growing up in the small town of Boiling Springs, North Carolina, in the 70’s and 80’s, Linda believes that she is profoundly different from everyone else, including the members of her own family. “What I know about you, little girl, would break you in two” are the cruel, mysterious last words that Linda’s grandmother ever says to her.
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"Tasting Words" made this hard to hear!
- By Kate Anderson on 11-06-11
By: Monique Truong
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The Wife
- A Novel
- By: Meg Wolitzer
- Narrated by: Dawn Harvey
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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The moment Joan Castleman decides to leave her husband, they are 35,000 feet above the ocean on a flight to Helsinki. Joan's husband, Joseph, is one of America's preeminent novelists, about to receive a prestigious international award, and Joan, who has spent 40 years subjugating her own literary talents to fan the flames of his career, has finally decided to stop.
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A bit of a downer
- By Jody Cox on 08-01-18
By: Meg Wolitzer
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Speak
- A Novel
- By: Louisa Hall
- Narrated by: Suzan Crowley, Christopher Ashman, Adrienne Rusk, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In a narrative that spans geography and time, from the Atlantic Ocean in the 17th century to a correctional institute in Texas in the near future, and told from the perspectives of five very different characters, Speak considers what it means to be human and what it means to be less than fully alive.
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Like nothing else
- By Anonymous User on 06-22-17
By: Louisa Hall
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Gathering Blossoms Under Fire
- The Journals of Alice Walker
- By: Alice Walker, Valerie Boyd - editor
- Narrated by: Aunjanue Ellis, Alice Walker, Janina Edwards
- Length: 22 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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From National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Alice Walker and edited by critic and writer Valerie Boyd, comes an unprecedented compilation of Walker’s fifty years of journals drawing an intimate portrait of her development over five decades as an artist, human rights and women’s activist, and intellectual.
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A must-read for any creative artist!!
- By amazonluver on 04-30-22
By: Alice Walker, and others
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The Golden Notebook
- By: Doris Lessing
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 27 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Author Anna Wulf attempts to overcome writer’s block by writing a comprehensive "golden notebook" that draws together the preoccupations of her life, each of which is examined in a different notebook. Anna’s struggle to unify the various strands of her life – emotional, political, and professional – amasses into a fascinating encyclopaedia of female experience in the ‘50s.
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Transcendent narration of a masterpiece.
- By @vmarinelli on 07-03-12
By: Doris Lessing
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More Die of Heartbreak
- By: Saul Bellow
- Narrated by: Ramiz Monsef
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Kenneth Trachtenberg, an eccentric and witty native of Paris, travels to the Midwest to spend time with his famous American uncle, a world-renowned botanist and self-described "plant visionary". After numerous affairs and failed relationships, the restless Uncle Benn seeks a settled existence in the form of marriage - but tying the knot again opens the door to a host of new torments.
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A great book
- By John A. on 03-16-22
By: Saul Bellow
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The Schooldays of Jesus
- By: J. M. Coetzee
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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David is the small boy who is always asking questions. Simon and Ines take care of him in their new town, Estrella. He is learning the language; he has begun to make friends. He has the big dog, Bolivar, to watch over him. But he'll be seven soon, and he should be at school. And so, with the guidance of the three sisters who own the farm where Simon and Ines work, David is enrolled in the Academy of Dance. It's here, in his new golden dancing slippers, that he learns how to call down the numbers from the sky.
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SEXUAL PERVERSION PRESENTED AS BRILLIANT
- By Amazon Customer on 09-29-18
By: J. M. Coetzee
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The Red-Haired Woman
- A Novel
- By: Orhan Pamuk
- Narrated by: John Lee, Katharine Lee McEwan
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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On the outskirts of a town 30 miles from Istanbul, a master well digger and his young apprentice are hired to find water on a barren plain. As they struggle in the summer heat, excavating without luck meter by meter, the two will develop a filial bond neither has known before - not the poor middle-aged bachelor nor the middle-class boy whose father disappeared after being arrested for politically subversive activities. The pair will come to depend on each other and exchange stories reflecting disparate views of the world.
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Drags On
- By T. Conrad on 10-25-17
By: Orhan Pamuk
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Three Daughters of Eve
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Set across Istanbul and Oxford, from the 1980s to the present day, Three Daughters of Eve is a sweeping tale of faith and friendship, tradition and modernity, love and an unexpected betrayal. Peri, a wealthy Turkish housewife and mother, is on her way to a dinner party at a seaside mansion in Istanbul when a beggar snatches her handbag. As she wrestles to get it back, a photograph falls to the ground - an old polaroid of three young women and their university professor.
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Review 3 daughters of Eve
- By CA on 04-28-18
By: Elif Shafak
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Vatican Waltz
- A Novel
- By: Roland Merullo
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Cynthia Piantedosi lives a quiet, unassuming life with her elderly father just outside of Boston. When she loses her beloved grandmother as a child, her faith takes a turn for the devout, and she begins experiencing what she describes as "spells" - moments of such intense prayer that she loses herself. Uninterested in boys and a social life, she develops a deep friendship with the parish priest, whose ideas are often seen as too provocative by his congregation but who encourages her to explore her spells.
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I enjoyed it until the last page.
- By Pam on 08-15-16
By: Roland Merullo
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Eleven Minutes
- By: Paulo Coelho
- Narrated by: Emilia Fox, Derek Jacoby
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Abridged
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A chance meeting in Rio takes Maria to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune, yet ends up working the streets as a prostitute. In Geneva, Maria drifts further and further away from love while at the same time developing a fascination with sex. Eventually, Maria's despairing view of love is put to the test when she meets a handsome young painter. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of darkness or risking everything to find her own 'inner light'.
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Beautiful Story & A Good Example Of Determination
- By Apollo Butler on 12-14-11
By: Paulo Coelho
What listeners say about The Love of My Youth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Carol
- 04-16-11
Lovely
It took awhile to get to know these characters, but once there, it all came together beautifully. It helps to have some perspective of age and an appreciation for the relationship between art and life to fully feel this book's soul. I had serious doubts that a conversation between two people could keep me going for the whole book, but it did, and by the end, I was so pleased to have listened in. Nicely narrated, which was a challenge here.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Kathleen
- 04-16-11
narrator
I am a fan of Mary Gordon's and it was satisfying to read a newspaper review, buy the audible version and experience it all in a few days. The prose did not disappoint and I related to the book on many satisfying levels. I found the voice Alice Rosengard uses for Adam increasingly annoying and it seemed a negative judgement on him where I would have preferred a neutral point of view. I would have preferred a male voice for Adam. It's a good, clear and unedited reading of the book, but not an excellent performance.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Kathleen McDonald
- 06-07-11
Excellent!
Mary Gordon has a very facile way of developing dialogue between her characters. They had real and ordinary conversations. I loved all the words! Such beautiful words! The narrator was excellent and portrayed the low keyed emotion that old lovers might exhibit when meeting again for the first time in forty years. And they meet in Rome, morning after morning, for long walks and visits to favorite places. Both are there for a few weeks for different purposes, hers professional and his for his musically gifted daughter. I love Rome and recognized so many of the enchanting places so lovingly described in the novel. I highly recommend this book.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Ana
- 05-22-11
The Love of my youth
Probably the worst narrator ever. The book, shining through the awful narrator, is probably worth reading, but the irritation generated by listening to it is more than anyone should bear.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Lisbeth
- 07-19-11
Terribly Narrated, Insipid Story
This story, written by an author I have always enjoyed in the past, was very insipid and implausable. The "bad" people were so bad (Adam's first wife and adult son) and the "good" were so very good (Adam's mother and Saint Miranda, the star of the story). The seemingly endless dialogue was totally unbelievable and skipped from speaker to speaker with little helpful transition. But the narration was the factor which caused me to despise these self-absorbed, boring characters the most. How incredibly tiresome, whiney, and emotionally overwrought Rosengard made everything. I won't listen to a book again read by this reader.
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2 people found this helpful