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Freddy and Fredericka
- Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie
- Length: 25 hrs and 29 mins
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Publisher's summary
Freddy is the bright but aloof Prince of Wales. Fredericka is his blonde, beautiful, and beloved wife. When they stumble into a public relations nightmare with no easy solution, they must make amends by serving an unusual penance. Literally dropped from a plane into a mysterious place called Hoboken, New Jersey, Freddy and Fredericka are given one task. They must reconquer America!
A thinly veiled satire of what might have happened if Princess Diana had survived, Freddy and Fredericka is an imaginative gem full of clever wordplay and wicked political jabs.
Critic reviews
"Helprin's entertaining new novel [is] a rollicking picaresque saga that reads as though Evelyn Waugh had put the movies Roman Holiday and Duck Soup into a blender along with some old copies of People magazine and a couple of Mark Twain's travelogues, and seasoned the resulting confection with generous helpings of his own black comedy....Mr. Helprin has constructed a perfect showcase for his heretofore underused gift of humor, and in doing so he has produced a delightful romp of a book." (The New York Times)
"Irresistibly mischievous." (Booklist)
"Wildly imaginative, adventure-filled, clever." (Publishers Weekly)
"[Mark Helprin] frequently astounds with the freshness of voice and the oddly soaring majesty of this...comic call for greatness in a mediocre era." (Kirkus Reviews)
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Story
Salman Rushdie is widely considered one of a handful of truly great living writers. The internationally acclaimed, Booker Prize-winning author's storytelling shines in this epic love story, a modern retelling of the myth of Orpheus.
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Okay, Salmon, We get that you're a genious already
- By Julie A Quinn on 04-23-09
By: Salman Rushdie
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Oz Reimagined
- New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond
- By: Douglas Cohen - editor, John Joseph Adams - editor
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl, Tanya Eby
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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When L. Frank Baum introduced Dorothy and friends to the American public in 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz became an instant, best-selling hit. Today the whimsical tale remains a cultural phenomenon that continues to spawn wildly popular books, movies, and musicals. Now, editors John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen have brought together leading fantasy writers such as Orson Scott Card and Jane Yolen to create the ultimate anthology for Oz fans.
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The Many Faces of Dorothy or Dot
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 07-19-14
By: Douglas Cohen - editor, and others
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A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters
- By: Julian Barnes
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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This is one of the defining novels of English writer Julian Barnes. An entertaining melange of stories starting with a contemporary account of the launch of Noah's Ark takes us into unexpected areas of human foibles, activities, and tendencies.
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Not what I Expected
- By Mark on 02-20-08
By: Julian Barnes
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Shadow Show
- All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury
- By: Sam Weller - editor, Mort Castle - editor
- Narrated by: George Takei, Edward Herrmann, Kate Mulgrew, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Ray Bradbury - peerless storyteller, poet of the impossible, and one of America's most beloved authors - is a literary giant whose remarkable career spanned seven decades. Now 26 of today's most diverse and celebrated authors offer new short works in honor of the master; stories of heart, intelligence, and dark wonder from a remarkable range of creative artists.
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THE MAN WHO FORGOT RAY BRADBURY
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 05-27-17
By: Sam Weller - editor, and others
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Netherland
- By: Joseph O'Neill
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Alone and un-tethered, feeling lost in the country he had come to regard as home, Hans stumbles upon the vibrant New York subculture of cricket, where he revisits his lost childhood and, thanks to a friendship with a charismatic and charming Trinidadian named Chuck Ramkissoon, begins to reconnect with his life and his adopted country. Ramkissoon, a Gatsby-like figure who is part idealist and part operator, introduces Hans to an "other" New York populated by immigrants and strivers of every race and nationality.
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Get Your Post-Colonial Gatsby ON!
- By Darwin8u on 04-13-12
By: Joseph O'Neill
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The Forge of God
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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On September 28th, a geologist working in Death Valley finds a mysterious new cinder cone in very well-mapped area. On October 1, the government of Australia announces the discovery of an enormous granite mountain. Like the cinder cone, it wasn't there six months ago.
Something is happening to planet Earth, and the truth is too terrifying to contemplate
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Great Story, Wonderful Listening, But the Editor?
- By George Knight on 07-14-13
By: Greg Bear
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Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories
- By: Kelly Link - editor, Gavin J. Grant - editor
- Narrated by: Sarah Coomes, Nico Evers-Swindell, Shannon McManus, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Imagine an alternate universe where romance and technology reign. Where tinkerers and dreamers craft and recraft a world of automatons, ornate clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that. Where scientists and schoolgirls, fair folk and Romans, intergalactic bandits, and intrepid orphans - decked out in corsets, clockwerk suits, and tall black boots - solve dastardly crimes, escape from monstrous predicaments, consult oracles, and hover over volcanoes in steam-powered airships.
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MMMM, Orca Bacon
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 09-14-13
By: Kelly Link - editor, and others
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The Book of Magic
- By: Gardner Dozois - editor, Scott Lynch, Elizabeth Bear, and others
- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker, Sile Bermingham, Maxwell Caulfield, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Hot on the heels of Gardner Dozois's acclaimed anthology The Book of Swords comes this companion volume devoted to magic. How could it be otherwise? For every Frodo, there is a Gandalf... and a Saruman. For every Dorothy, a Glinda... and a Wicked Witch of the West. What would Harry Potter be without Albus Dumbledore... and Severus Snape? Figures of wisdom and power, possessing arcane, often forbidden knowledge, wizards and sorcerers are shaped - or misshaped - by the potent magic they seek to wield.
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Very Good, With One Objection
- By Kindle Customer on 05-05-20
By: Gardner Dozois - editor, and others
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White Noise
- By: Don DeLillo
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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When an industrial accident unleashes an "airborne toxic event", a lethal black chemical cloud floats over the Gladneys' lives. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the "white noise" engulfing the Gladneys - radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmurings - pulsing with life yet suggesting something ominous.
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Designed to be analyzed by an English class
- By RI in Canada on 10-15-16
By: Don DeLillo
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Priestdaddy
- A Memoir
- By: Patricia Lockwood
- Narrated by: Patricia Lockwood
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Father Greg Lockwood is unlike any Catholic priest you have ever met - a man who lounges in boxer shorts, who loves action movies, and whose constant jamming on the guitar reverberates "like a whole band dying in a plane crash in 1972". His daughter is an irreverent poet who long ago left the church's country. When an unexpected crisis leads her and her husband to move back into her parents' rectory, their two worlds collide.
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Terrible narration--read, don't listen
- By Penelope on 08-06-17
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Falconer
- By: John Cheever
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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A convict named Farragut struggles to remain a man while inside a nightmarish prison. Cheever crafted his most powerful work of fiction out of Farragut's suffering and astonishing salvation.
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Unsettling and beautiful
- By Darwin8u on 01-21-13
By: John Cheever
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Trigger Warning
- Short Fictions and Disturbances
- By: Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Neil Gaiman
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In this new anthology, Neil Gaiman pierces the veil of reality to reveal the enigmatic, shadowy world that lies beneath. Trigger Warning includes previously published pieces of short fiction--stories, verse, and a very special Doctor Who story that was written for the fiftieth anniversary of the beloved series in 2013--as well as "Black Dog", a new tale that revisits the world of American Gods, exclusive to this collection.
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It Triggered Me to Stay Up Late and Listen
- By Jan on 02-10-15
By: Neil Gaiman
What listeners say about Freddy and Fredericka
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Annette
- 09-06-05
Can't rate it high enough (and I'm a tough grader)
I admit it, I?m easier on audio books than printed ones because I tend to use them while occupying myself ?doing something else? but I?ve never listened to one twice before. This is fabulous. I highly recommend it for humor, fun and plain old smart stupid wit. It?s a romp and a pun and a mockery of everything dull. As an aside, if you haven?t listened to ?dr. strange and mister norrel? I also recommend that. These are two books I have gone out and bought in print after the audio. That (for me, the cheapest of the cheap) is a rarity.Get it, listen to it, lighten up and enjoy a fairy tale of america.
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18 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Chris
- 08-15-05
God save Craig-Vyvyan! I liked it.
It was weird, beautiful, and funny. I listened to much of it hiking alone through the Sierra Nevada, which is strangely appropriate. (Why I might think it strangely appropriate to listen to a comic novel about a mythical Prince and Princess of Wales while hiking through a pristine American forest will only become apparent after reading the book.) I finished it a week ago, and it still hangs on. There were times it seemed overly repetitive, overly long, overly repetitive, and overly long but that is part of what makes it so hypnotic. It feels more like a dream that I've woken from rather than something I've just listened to. Then again, maybe that was the forest. Anyway, Its really worth a try, because however overlong you may find it, it is still beautiful and strange and funny, or so says Mr. Neil (who you may look up if you have a 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica) Yes, now that I think about it, I liked it quite a bit. How often do you get to dream that you are the Prince (or Princess) of Wales? God save Mark Helprin!
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13 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Julie
- 08-16-05
Freddy and Fredericka
After listening to the first forty-five minutes, I thought it was just going to be subtle, boring, and looong. I gave it a bit more of a chance though, and am so glad that I did! I love the narrator and definitely think that he brings out the many nuances of the story. Albeit a bit of a fluff ending, but the body of the story switches between hilarious dialogue and nice descriptions of the surroundings and background story. All in all a great buy.
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11 people found this helpful
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Overall
- A
- 08-04-05
Disappointing
I think the killer of this audiobook is the narrator, who cannot do a simple American accent let alone the variety of regional accents needed to do justice to the cast of characters. Members of New Jersey motorcycle 'clubs' do not speak with British/Cockney accents. A good narrator can make --or break-- a book. The story itself is funny, clever in places, absurd even -- but just too long for one joke.
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10 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Casey Keller
- 08-24-05
Somebody Abridge This Book
Normally I hate abridged books, but Mark Helprin's Freddy and Fredericka could have used a lot of cutting, preferably with a machete.
I chose this title because the New York Times gave it an ecstatic review and because I enjoy fiction with humor. Instead of a comic novel, I listened to what sounded like a first draft manuscript. It rambled off in all directions and made side trips that had nothing to do with the story or the characters. The book was 25 1/2 hours long!
Much of the comedy in this book came from hopelessly contrived, heavy handed situations. For example, Prince Frederick goes through a village calling for his wife's dog, Far Q. These silly verbal misunderstandings cropped up every few pages. Instead of making me laugh, they frustrated me because the characters should have been intelligent enough to reason their way out of them.
This brings me to another complaint. Were Freddy and Fredericka intelligent or not? Instead of giving them believable intellects, the author yanked them around like marionettes. One moment Freddy stupidly sets up shop as a dentist despite the fact that he knows nothing about dentistry. The next moment's he's on Night Line, dazzling Ted Koppel with his brilliance. One moment Fredericka has never read a book, the next she?s spouting Shakespeare.
To be fair, Mr. Helprin?s a gifted writer and there were wonderful moments. When Craig-Vyvyan took flight, the book soared with him. The Prince and Princess? escape from the forest fire was memorable. But these passages were too few and the un-funny comedy set pieces were too frequent.
This is one book I would not recommend to my friends.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Jonathan Hoffman
- 06-03-06
SIX (On a scale of 1-5)!
I've read other Halprin books, and he's always shown a lot of potential, and some terrific writing in places. But in this book he really put it all together: wit, satire, tenderness. My wife and I loved it. Be patient: he takes his time, but it's worth the wait. Listen to the UNabridged. Despite its length, Helprin isn't trying to get you there quickly. Rather, he's letting you savor the details of each event, so you have to be patient. But if you are, you'll be amply rewarded.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall
- David
- 08-09-05
Great Farce
This is a wonderful book and I could not stop laughing out loud as I listened (which is a first for me). While the narrator's inability to even try an American accent is jarring, you can get used to it eventually and he does do an excellent job with the English characters. His high class "twit" (think Monty Python- the Graham Chapman and John Cleese characters) voice for the absurdist "Who's on first?" colloquys between the title characters are right on point. In fact I'm not sure they would be so humorous if I read them as opposed to listening to this narrator.
The overall themes of the novel are somewhat forgettable (hard work and bravery are the spice of life....) but cannot overshadow the essential humor. Prepare to be entertained not edified.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Christopher
- 11-06-05
Argh - Can I have my credit back please?!?!?
After listening to another british comedy fiction (In Your Dreams) which was very funny and enjoyable to listen to, I bought Freddy and Fredericka. Okay, now imagine Monty Python only the actors aren't funny and they think they're being serious dramatic actors.
Inane banter over ear-size, estate names, and other worthless topics dominate the story. I've got a pretty good tolerance for silly humor (I do like Monty Python) but this was just dumb...
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7 people found this helpful
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- Janice
- 01-01-06
Laugh out loud
I listened to this walking through the supermarket and I was laughing so hard tears ran down my cheeks. People stared. I was helpless...
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- P. Giorgio
- 12-18-10
Couldn't finish it
I loved Winters Tale by Helprin and was willing to take on another 20+ hours with him. Perhaps it is my state of mind, but Freddy, Fredericka and I just didn't click. After a many minutes long exchange on the word "bosom," I had to bail. Maybe another time and place, but for now, whew, it was too much work.
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5 people found this helpful