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Product Details

Sample
Chronicles: Volume One
Abridged
Narrated by
Regular Price:
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Special Offer Price: $7.49

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Program Type
Audiobook
Publisher
Length
5 hrs and 6 mins
Audible Release Date
10-14-04
Audio Formats About Formats
2 3 4 Audible Enhanced Audio
Customer Rating

3.85 based on 225 ratings
 

Audible Editor Reviews

Why we think it's Essential: Sean Penn reading Bob Dylan's memoirs. It doesn't get any better than this. Dylan mixes his life with his music, his thoughts with his lyrics, and Sean Penn puts us right inside his head. Dylan and Penn are a perfect combination, spanning two generations of celebrity, making us feel the weight and breadth of life for Dylan and the people who have hung on his every word and note. —Chris Doheny

Publisher's Summary

Bob Dylan's Chronicles: Volume One explores the critical junctions in his life and career. Through Dylan's eyes and open mind, we see Greenwich Village, circa 1961, when he first arrives in Manhattan. Dylan's New York is a magical city of possibilities: smoky, nightlong parties; literary awakenings; transient loves and unbreakable friendships. Elegiac observations are punctuated by jabs of memories, penetrating and tough. With side trips to New Orleans, Woodstock, Minnesota and points west, Chronicles: Volume One is an intimate and intensely personal recollection of extraordinary times.

Revealing, poetical, passionate and witty, Chronicles: Volume One is a mesmerizing window on Bob Dylan's thoughts and influences. Dylan's voice is distinctively American: generous of spirit, engaged, fanciful, and rhythmic. Utilizing his unparalleled gifts of storytelling and the exquisite expressiveness that are the hallmarks of his music, Bob Dylan turns Chronicles: Volume One into a poignant reflection on life, and the people and places that helped shape the man and the art.

©2004 Bob Dylan; (P)2004 Simon & Schuster Inc. AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster, Inc.

What the Critics Say

  • Audie Award Winner, Biography/Memoir, 2005
  • 2005 Quill Award Nominee
  • Grammy Award Nominee, Best Spoken Word Album, 2005

"Volume 1 of Dylan's memoirs was pretty cool to begin with. But to have it read by Sean Penn on audio takes it to a new level: the most talented songwriter of all time as performed by the most talented actor of his generation. Mr. Penn clearly has a blast inhabiting the role and navigating Dylan's jagged, impressionistic prose." (The New York Times)

From AudioFile

Only in the audiobook world could this comparison be made, but this wonderful production of Bob Dylan's CHRONICLES has some surprising similarities to another Simon & Schuster memoir--Chuck Barris's CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND. Sound blasphemous? Both are riffs on the curse of celebrity, both transcend high and low art, both challenge the memoir format, and both revel in the oddities of post-WWII Americana. (Dylan credits his early inspiration to the TV wrestler Gorgeous George.) Most strikingly, Sean Penn's beat reading shares a rhythm and tone with Barris--his is an ideal voice for a reluctant pop hero desperately trying to put the genie back in the bottle. 2005 Audie Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2005

About AudioFile

Customer Reviews

Showing: 1-5 of 21
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2 of 2 people found this review helpful:
Rating 5.0Rating 5.0Rating 5.0Rating 5.0Rating 5.0 "Best audio book I ever heard"
By: Tonny (Denmark)
November 13, 2008
I have just listen to this book for 5 hours straight, I just wish it was 5 hours longer, best narrator voice I have ever heard, and what an unbelievable story. It felt like when my father would read me my favorite bedtime story, and I wish it would never end.
Thank you Sean Penn and Bob Dylan
0 of 2 people found this review helpful:
Rating 3.0Rating 3.0Rating 3.0Rating 3.0Rating 3.0 "Abridgement ruins it"
By: Justin (USA)
October 09, 2008
Maybe an unabridged version would have been better, but this version skips around a bit. Takes too much thinking to figure out where in his life the current narration is happening.
I also thought Dylan should have given song titles when he was describing how some of his songs came about.
All in all, it was an enjoyable short listening experience.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful:
Rating 3.0Rating 3.0Rating 3.0Rating 3.0Rating 3.0 "OK, but poor prose"
By: Connie (Sydney, Canada)
January 09, 2008
I thought the book provided some good insights into Dylan and the creative process, but I expected better prose from a poet, even in a draft. Perhaps he wrote the book for some of the same reasons he claims to have made some of his mediocre albums - to make a living or get others off his back.

I liked Penn's monotone. Perhaps Dylan's choice of detail would make more sense in the unabridged version in some cases.
Rating 4.0Rating 4.0Rating 4.0Rating 4.0Rating 4.0 "Chronicles: Volume One"
By: Calvin (Spain)
October 02, 2007
Really enjoyed the insight into the life of my hero. The voice of Sean Penn just fits this book perfectly
1 of 1 people found this review helpful:
Rating 4.0Rating 4.0Rating 4.0Rating 4.0Rating 4.0 "Fascinating glimpse"
By: Judith (Louisville, KY, USA)
July 19, 2006
into the mind of a creative artist. Dylan describes the unfolding of his career, as well as his artistic process. If you love Dylan's music, you'll want this book! Sean Penn does a fine job reading. I for one will be waiting eagerly for Volume Two.
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