• All Over But the Shoutin'

  • By: Rick Bragg
  • Narrated by: Rick Bragg
  • Length: 2 hrs and 41 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (912 ratings)

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All Over But the Shoutin'  By  cover art

All Over But the Shoutin'

By: Rick Bragg
Narrated by: Rick Bragg
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Publisher's summary

This haunting, harrowing, gloriously moving recollection of a life on the American margin is the story of Rick Bragg, who grew up dirt-poor in northeastern Alabama, seemingly destined for either the cotton mills or the penitentiary, and instead became a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. It is the story of Bragg's father, a hard-drinking man with a murderous temper and the habit of running out on the people who needed him most.

But at the center of this soaring memoir is Bragg's mother, who went eighteen years without a new dress so that her sons could have school clothes and picked other people's cotton so that her children wouldn't have to live on welfare alone. Evoking these lives - and the country that shaped and nourished them - with artistry, honesty, and compassion, Rick Bragg brings hone the love and suffering that lie at the heart of every family.

The result is unforgettable.

©1998 Rick Bragg (P)2008 Random House Audio

What listeners say about All Over But the Shoutin'

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ABRIDGED

Any additional comments?

It was my fault for not noticing but I was very disappointed to discover that this audio is an abridged version.

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35 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Inaccurate to the book!

I am so pissed off to discover that the audio book is completely inaccurate to the book. He skips entire sentences in every paragraph. This is completely useless.

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24 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

This is not the right book!

What disappointed you about All Over But the Shoutin'?

This is not even the novel. It is 1/5 the length of the novel. I don't understand.

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14 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

WOW! What a pleasure.

If you are a listener looking for something good and perhaps a little different, spend your money on this one.

I downloaded this little book really not sure about it, not being much of a fan of memoirs. I am so glad I did. Rick Bragg in his own voice, his actual voice, the one that shines through all his writing. His voice is genuine (my father grew up in the same circumstances only 30 years earlier and not much had changed in the interim), he is firmly rooted in rural Alabama, but his story is universal, his experiences unique and yet eternal.

Thank you for sharing this story, Rick, and I feel I know you enough to call your first name. You have made me proud of a heritage I have, to my shame, sometimes disparaged or embroidered. You have had the courage to reveal yourself and given your readers and listeners a real treat.

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7 people found this helpful

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Beautiful words.....

Rick Bragg's writing is absolutely beautiful,and his narration of the book matches. I wish it wasn't abridged, as it takes so much from the original book, which I read many years ago. This book tells of his life growing up and the challenges his family was up against, with an alcoholic and mostly absent father.

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5 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Too hard to follow with book

Was so excited to purchase the audiobook because I purchased the book .... completely disappointed when the author skipped entire sentences and paragraphs. Waste of money!!!

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Never been so lonesome and a long way from home

My first date with Lisa Tripi back in 89 was to see Steel Magnolias. It had to be her worst as I reckon I cried for eight hours after that scene in the cemetery. Seems I go decades without crying then it all sort of comes at once. This time is different though. As good as these southern boys write I ain’t never witnessed nothin as lonesome sad and such a long way from right as a child preparing for a surgery meant for a 70 year-old Camel smoking junky. I haven’t stopped crying for months. This makes me terrible glad to live in the country now so as I listen to these good old boys write like a modern day Samuel Clemens while I'm walking the hounds, no one sees tears. After all I️ have a rep to protect.

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Don't start this unles you have time to finish it!

Would you listen to All Over But the Shoutin' again? Why?

Absolutely! Perfectly written and read by the author in his embraceable southern accent. I read this book a few years ago and as it is a favorite I was so happy to find it on audible. Rick Bragg reading it lent another delightful element to the beautiful story.

What other book might you compare All Over But the Shoutin' to and why?

Any top drawer southern writer.

What does Rick Bragg bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Rick Bragg brings a warmth and sincerity through his reading.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Be prepared to laugh and cry...but mostly laugh.

Any additional comments?

Listen to this brilliant work! Oh, and read it too!

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Abridged

...and the omissions made the book very incomplete. At times it was a little hard to understand the author's accent.

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2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Good story...poor production

I get authors reading their books...I prefer pros. I missed so much from his trailing off and reading too fast.

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2 people found this helpful