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Too Much Happiness
- Stories
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr, Arthur Morey
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
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Publisher's summary
In the first story, a young wife and mother receives release from the unbearable pain of losing her three children from a most surprising source. In another, a young woman, in the aftermath of an unusual and humiliating seduction, reacts in a clever, if less than admirable, fashion.
Other stories uncover the "deep holes" in a marriage, the unsuspected cruelty of children, and how a boy's disfigured face provides both the good things in his life and the bad. And in the long title story, we accompany Sophia Kovalevsky - a late-19th-century Russian émigré and mathematician - on a winter journey that takes her from the Riviera, where she visits her lover, to Paris, Germany, and Denmark, where she has a fateful meeting with a local doctor, and finally to Sweden, where she teaches at the only university in Europe willing to employ a female mathematician.
With clarity and ease, Alice Munro once again renders complex, difficult events and emotions into stories that shed light on the unpredictable ways in which men and women accommodate and often transcend what happens in their lives.
Too Much Happiness is a compelling, provocative - even daring - collection.
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- By Sara on 10-08-15
By: George Hodgman
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To See the Moon Again
- By: Jamie Langston Turner
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The first step to letting go of the past is forgiving it …Every day of her life Julia Rich lives with the memory of a horrible accident she caused long ago. In the years since, she has tried to hide her guilt in the quiet routine of teaching at a small South Carolina college, avoiding close relationships with family and would-be friends. But one day a phone call from Carmen, a niece she has never met, disrupts her carefully controlled world.
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Beautiful Story of Forgiveness and Selfless Love
- By sharon on 09-20-14
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The Visiting Privilege
- New and Collected Stories
- By: Joy Williams
- Narrated by: Richard Powers, Emily Woo Zeller, Elisabeth Rodgers, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Joy Williams has been celebrated as a master of the short story for four decades, her renown passing from one generation to the next even in the shifting landscape of contemporary writing. And at long last the incredible scope of her singular achievement is put on display: 33 stories drawn from three much-lauded collections and another 13 appearing here for the first time in book form.
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I sure tried.
- By A.C. CALLOWAY on 01-28-24
By: Joy Williams
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After the Parade
- By: Lori Ostlund
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Sensitive, big-hearted, and achingly self-conscious, 40-year-old Aaron Englund long ago escaped the confines of his Midwestern hometown, but he still feels like an outcast. After 20 years under the Pygmalion-like direction of his older partner, Walter, Aaron at last decides it is time to stop letting life happen to him and to take control of his own fate.
By: Lori Ostlund
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A Fatal Inversion
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: William Gaminara
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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In the long, hot summer of 1976, a group of young people is camping in Wyvis Hall. Adam, Rufus, Shiva, Vivien and Zosie hardly ask why they are there or how they are to live; they scavenge, steal and sell the family heirlooms. Ten years later, the bodies of a woman and child are discovered in the Hall’s animal cemetery. Which woman? And whose child?
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Oh my!
- By Jill on 06-15-14
By: Barbara Vine
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Mr. Fox
- A Novel
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
- Narrated by: Carol Boyd
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding and the fairy tales don't get complicated. In this book, celebrated writer Mr. Fox can't stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It's not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently....
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A Great Novel, just Poor for Audio
- By James A. Dittes on 08-13-16
By: Helen Oyeyemi
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The Blind Assassin
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Margot Dionne
- Length: 18 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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For the past twenty-five years, Margaret Atwood has written works of striking originality and imagination. In The Blind Assassin, she stretches the limits of her accomplishments as never before, creating a novel that is entertaining and profoundly serious. The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental.
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Good book, TERRIBLE audio!
- By Whitney on 04-27-09
By: Margaret Atwood
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Liberating Paris
- A Novel
- By: Linda Bloodworth Thomason
- Narrated by: Cynthia Darlow
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Woodrow McIlmore, the town's golden boy and local gynecologist, is married to his beautiful high school sweetheart, Milan, and seems by all appearances to be leading the perfect life with his two children and extended family and friends. But when Wood's daughter announces that she is smitten with a college classmate and intends to marry him, her parents are stunned.
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Deeply moving, a great listen
- By Cynthia on 11-27-05
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Enchanted Islands
- A Novel
- By: Allison Amend
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Born in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1882 to immigrant parents, Frances Frankowski covets the life of her best friend, Rosalie Mendel, who has everything Fanny could wish for - money, parents who value education, and an effervescent and winning personality. When, at age 15, Rosalie decides they should run away to Chicago, Fanny jumps at the chance to escape her unexceptional life. But within a year, Rosalie commits an unforgivable betrayal, inciting Frances to strike out on her own.
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I wonder what Aunt Frances would think
- By Rebekah on 06-10-16
By: Allison Amend
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The Pull of the Moon
- By: Elizabeth Berg
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Berg
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
In the middle of her life, Nan decides to leave her husband at home and begin an impromptu trek across the country, carrying with her a turquoise leather journal she intends to fill. The Pull of the Moon is a novel about a woman coming to terms with issues of importance to all women. In her journal, Nan addresses the thorniness - and the allure - of marriage, the sweet ties to children, and the gifts and lessons that come from random encounters.
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For women over 50
- By Laura on 07-07-15
By: Elizabeth Berg
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What listeners say about Too Much Happiness
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Shyguy123
- 01-04-16
Each story should start on its own track
The substance (performance, writing, etc.) of this audiobook is great, but the tracks are sloppily organized. This is a volume of short stories, so each story should begin at 0:00 on a separate track. For some reason, it's not organized like that. The third story, for example, starts roughly 55 minutes into the second track. Why do that? I remember Runaway, another Alice Munro collection, having the same problem. Please fix this.
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18 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Carol
- 03-10-10
Not Enough Happiness
The narrator does a fine job. She goes on my list of good narrators. I' ve read everything Munro has written, and it seems her plots are in an Arbus-like downward spiral. These stories are grim and depressing. I thought of Flannery O'Connor, but those bizarre stories are cloaked in an amusing demented atmosphere and southern sensibility, and Munro's are addressed as plain reality. Murder, cancer, depravity, on and down. Not fun.
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13 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Alyssa
- 02-07-10
Starts well then disappoints
Alice Munro is a wonderful writer. Even though this is a collection of short stories the character development in each one is thorough. I read the first four of these stories. Each one was interesting to listen to - until the end. Each ending was such a disappointment (they just stop with no satisfying conclusion!) that I cannot bring myself to read the rest.
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11 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Ginette
- 06-11-10
Alice Munro is a must!!
I just loved all of the short stories featured in this book. Every single one of them was entrancing, interesting and plunged the reader in a different universe each time! I listen to audio books while I walk in the forest or in my neighborhood and Alice Munro kept me company for weeks on end!!
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9 people found this helpful
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- Patricia
- 12-09-12
Classic Alice Munro
Would you listen to Too Much Happiness again? Why?
I love Alice Munro but as usual some of the stories are better than others - I mean they are all well written but sometimes the plot or subject have more appeal to me than others. My favorite and the most mesmerizing was the last story "Too Much Happiness" and it was based on a real person - a Russian mathematician. Completely engrossing. I could definitely listen to that one again.
What other book might you compare Too Much Happiness to and why?
Other Alice Munro collections - I have read many of them.
Have you listened to any of Kimberly Farr and Arthur Morey ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I was not crazy about the readers - I like books to be read, not acted. No one (well almost no one) can keep changing voices successfully. The type of reader I like is like Colin Firth or Jeremy Irons - they are believeable when reading both male and female voices. I think that is because they don't try too hard to change the pitch.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Leah
- 12-12-13
Strange collection, and one great story
I bought this one because the description (and the title story) is about a female mathematician's life - of great relevance to my own career. And, as it turns out, it is indeed a part biography of THE Sonia Kovalevskaya, who is well known in mathematics! Not a made-up story but a true story, that Alice Munro tells us, was inspired by her reading of "Little Sparrow".
I liked that part of the book and found it both engrossing, poignant, and moving. How times have changed (thank goodness!)
As for the rest of the collection in this book, I still have to think about what the author is trying to tell us. I "don't get it" yet. But it has gotten me thinking.
The performance is fine, but I don't like the distraction of switching between male and female voices. If the narrator is good enough, we should be carried along no matter what gender.
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3 people found this helpful
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- symya08
- 06-04-21
Deep contemplations
This collection is overall fantastic although I detest several parts because of their break of rules. On the other hand, I stopped thinking about some dialogs and ideas. The story of child’s play was shocking and remained vivid in my mind for several days. The author’s description of feelings and thoughts is convincing and captures empathy.
The sound of the narrator can polish or disrupt the experience, and to me, it was good, unless when trying to mimic the sounds of different persons and accents.
I have already recommended the book to many friends.
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1 person found this helpful
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- DMMP
- 08-16-19
Repeated Stories
If you're an Alice Munro like I am, be aware that many of the stories in this collection, including the title story--Too Much Happiness--are part of Family Furnishings. I wish there'd been a list of the stories included before I bought this.
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- Cynthia Brideson
- 03-17-24
Subtle and thought-provoking
This is the first book by Alice Munro I have read. I think her stories told from the female viewpoint are the strongest; there are two in this collection told from a male point of view that did not quite come off as well. Her stories, for the most part, appear like slices of life. But they are far more. They’re more like the dust on top of lives mostly ignored or forgotten, and Munro is sifting through the debris.
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Overall
- Randy Lopez
- 12-21-22
Great breadth of stories with compelling character
A range of stories from heartwarming to disturbing, but all masterfully written and compellingly performed.
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