Review

Interesting idea for a story. The narrator does a good job except she makes the main male voice too old. He is only on his 60s in the book but she makes him sound like he’s in his 80s. So a bit off putting. But other than that well read.

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Unfortunately a listening experience of two halves

This is a strange one as the female voice Serenata is just fabulous, liquid honey toned, as her husband said, you could listen to her reading the tax codes and still love it. She makes her living doing voice overs etc which her husband Remington introduced her to, as a career, an encouraging, generous direction. He could be a lovely man if you just read the words in the book. But! The narrator had made him sound ridiculous from the start. He comes across as a croaky, querulous David Sedaris, each time he speaks, it grates, jars and irritates. I hated the way it made me feel he was a ridiculous person whereas he could be quite the opposite, I'd like to make up my own mind.

The story unrolls slowly, I have read every Lionel Shriver and know she can be overly US in her references but here I felt a real connection with her heroine who was 'ahead of her time'. Just wish Audible had got a man to speak the male part...

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1 person found this helpful

Enjoyably apposite

Felt reader should have been directed not to try to feign gruff male personas.... this grated

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Philosophical, terrifying and funny all at once

Razor sharp social commentary on maintaining a long term relationship through ageing, a husband's iron man obsession and the wife's loss of her own fitness. It's bleak but oh so funny. Full of moments of recognition where she perfectly expresses a thought I had not put into words in my own, less incisive, head. Biteingly realistic and shot through with a kindof forgiveness for the frailties of all her characters whilst firmly remaining from the woman's perspective. Marvellous!

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Very relatable!

I loved this book. It made me laugh so often. Great themes, great characters and the politics and antics were all too real! I highly recommend this book.

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Interesting story line, annoying narration parts

The storyline was interesting, the quality of writing is good. The narration of the female characters was fine, but the male voices were butchered by a put on voice. It was difficult to listen to. It's a shame because the female characters were fine, the story line had a lot of potential.

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3 people found this helpful

Good as it gets

From the point of view of healthy OAP this was a very fine read. Funny, sardonic and wise.

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Audio

I like Lionel Shriver’s books but I didn’t enjoy the audio of this book. The voices of the characters by one person putting on strange voices sounded cartoonish and was irritating. I think the audio version made this book’s characters feel quite shallow. Maybe the point but I won’t choose an audio fiction book again

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7 people found this helpful

Loved it!

This book really resonated with me (I'm a 56 year old woman). It's whip smart and very emotional.

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Funny, insightful, and occasionally uncomfortable.

Shriver treads that delicate line which creates characters just flawed enough, and just likeable enough, that you want to know what happens to them. She tackles a broad range of topics in modern morality, and neatly lays out The logical fallacies and dilemmas which they create.

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4 people found this helpful