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Cleaning Nabokov's House  By  cover art

Cleaning Nabokov's House

By: Leslie Daniels
Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
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Publisher's summary

Blending bittersweet humor and defiant originality, this stunning debut about a woman rediscovering herself after a divorce explores the heartbreaking and sometimes funny aspects of the mess called love.

Barb Barrett has inadequate skills for relationships. In particular, she cannot follow her husband’s instructions. Because of this character “flaw,” she falls through the safety net of her lousy marriage, losing custody of her children and her home as she plummets. Guided only by her intense inner life, and a questionable business plan, Barb is determined to reinvent herself. She moves into a house once occupied by the literary genius Vladimir Nabokov, author of the notorious Lolita. She discovers what could be Nabokov’s last unpublished manuscript and from there begins a painful yet joyous journey that is deliciously romantic, both darkly comic and wise.

Introducing a dazzling new voice in fiction, Cleaning Nabokov’s House will enchant women’s fiction lovers with an accessible and engaging voice they will come to cherish.

©2011 Leslie Daniels (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

Cleaning Nabokov’s House is original and compelling, the sort of book that keeps a reader on her toes—wildly funny one minute and profoundly sober the next. The protagonist is delightful, the plot a marvelous weave of sex, food, money, and motherhood. Every page a joy.” (Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club)

What listeners say about Cleaning Nabokov's House

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Slow start, but worth it

This story really drew me in despite a slow, odd start. It was well narrated, gave honest flashes of life after divorce from a woman's perspective with plenty of opportunity to laugh at the more ridiculous aspects of life. Just all around memorable.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Intriguing title, uninteresting story

I was mislead by the title. I don't read romances, and I consider this book to be a romance---and an unrealistic one at that. A woman in a conservative town opens a successful reverse-gender "cat house"? I don't think so.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Spare yourself and save your money/credits

Trite, inane and whiny. Poorly written. I kept waiting for this tripe to develop a plot. I kept waiting to develop sympathy for the character. Never happened. It was the result of a bad creative writing assignment: pick three subjects (finding oneself, found novel by famous writer and ?) from a hat and try to string them together in a story. Audible, you let me down!

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