Apple, Tree
Writers on Their Parents
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Apple, Tree
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Narrated by:
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Robin Miles
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full cast
About this listen
It happens to us all: We think we’ve settled into an identity, a self, and then out of nowhere and with great force, the traces of our parents appear to us, in us - in mirrors, in gestures, in reaction and reactivity, at weddings and funerals, and in troubled thoughts that crouch in dark corners of our minds.
In this masterful collection of new essays, the apple looks at the tree. Twenty-five writers deftly explore a trait they’ve inherited from a parent, reflecting on how it affects the lives they lead today - how it shifts their relationship to that parent (sometimes posthumously) and to their sense of self.
Apple, Tree’s all-star lineup of writers brings eloquence, integrity, and humor to topics such as arrogance, obsession, psychics, grudges, table manners, luck, and laundry. Contributors include Laura van den Berg, S. Bear Bergman, John Freeman, Jane Hamilton, Mat Johnson, Daniel Mendelsohn, Kyoko Mori, Ann Patchett, and Sallie Tisdale, among others. Together, their pieces form a prismatic meditation on how we make fresh sense of ourselves and our parents when we see the pieces of them that live on in us.
The full list of narrators includes Elisabeth Rodgers, Kevin Kenerly, Kyla Garcia, Steven Jay Cohen, Dara Rosenberg, Janet Song, Feodor Chin, Bronson Pinchot, and Robin Miles.
©2019 Lise Funderburg. Introduction © 2019 by Lise Funderburg. Copyright for individual essays remains with the contributors (P)2019 Blackstone PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful book!
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 113
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 97
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 98
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1 out of 5 stars
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Boring
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- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 87
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 74
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Story4 out of 5 stars 73
Kat Chow has always been unusually fixated on death. She worried constantly about her parents dying---especially her mother. A vivacious and mischievous woman, Kat's mother made a morbid joke that would haunt her for years to come: when she died, she'd like to be stuffed and displayed in Kat's future apartment in order to always watch over her. After her mother dies unexpectedly from cancer, Kat, her sisters, and their father are plunged into a debilitating, lonely grief.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Real
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What listeners say about Apple, Tree
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Kim
- 04-14-22
Ok.
The stories were pretty good and enlightening but some of the narration was painfully dull.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Ronald B Larson
- 02-29-20
Tedious
While there was a bit of drama in one or two of the stories, I expected to hear at least one "Mommie Dearest".
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