The Art of Peeling an Orange

De: Victoria Avilan

Narrado por: Christine Williams

When Carly Rosen is jilted on the eve of her wedding, she embarks on a startling journey of self-discovery. This gender-bending, risque retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in sizzling West Hollywood, echoes the ancient story of the lovers in the Underworld.

What do you do when the love of your life has eloped with another woman on the eve of your wedding? The other woman is a famous beauty named Anna Garibaldi, and their love story is splashed all over the tabloids, making you die inside. To add insult to injury, the one who has abandoned you dies unexpectedly, having left you a cryptic text message suggesting that you were always the one and only. Where do you go from here for solace, for justice?

If you are Carly Rosen, a portrait artist with huge imagination, you use your art to charm your way into the life and inner circle of the alluring Anna Garibaldi, whose seductive and secretive underworld is nothing you could have expected. You say goodbye to life as you know it and take a breathless ride down to the depths of the Land of the Dead, to where passions and dangers await you and nothing is as it seems. Don't forget a coin for the ferryman. Bon Voyage!

©2014 Victoria Pniel (P)2016 Victoria Pniel, Shaggy Dog Stories

Art Conquers All

V. Avilan writes with such finessed words and make my icy heart aches with such finality of how, and with each characters to fall for. Express of words finds me lost of mine. Must read of lost and soul and of Hades.

Excellent dramatization!

The Art of Peeling an orange is a beautifully written literary fiction novel. Having Chris Williams narrate it simply brought the characters to life. I have been a fan of her narration since I heard Chris narrate Jericho. Highly recommended audiobook and novel.

The Art of Peeling a Orange was awesome

Would you listen to The Art of Peeling an Orange again? Why?

Yes I might of missed something

Who was your favorite character and why?

Carly Rosen

Which character – as performed by Christine Williams – was your favorite?

Anna's voice was amazing

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

yes it made me tense in a good way

Sublime moments

Interesting characters and sublime moments kept me involved in this story. I didn't love it as much as I loved A Small Country About To Vanish (also by Victoria Avilan), but scenes like the title event, the peeling of an orange, became trancendental. Descriptions of art, and of places had great depth. The relationships often required more suspension of disbelief than I could afford.
The voices of the characters were not well-differentiated by the reader, whose tones carried more than a modicum of haughtiness - more than the story required in my opinion.
Overall, a good and well-written story.

A Fantastic Experience!

What did you love best about The Art of Peeling an Orange?

I loved everything about this book! I know I will listen to it time and time again.

What other book might you compare The Art of Peeling an Orange to and why?

I'd compare this story to The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and Fingersmith by Sarah Waters in terms of the feel and atmosphere as well as the twists and turns of the plot.

Any additional comments?

I just finished listening to The Art of Peeling an Orange last night--and started it again this morning--and WOW! What a great book. It was exquisitely written, superbly paced, and the characters so well drawn, I feel like they are people in my life.. It truly is one of the best books I've read in a VERY long time. I do have to say, for my sentimental heart, I appreciated the alternate ending, but having said that, I also feel it simply made it a different book, not a better one. The original ending, whereas it was unexpected and left some grieving to be done, was powerful and gave the story the element of a reminder that not all stories in life end happily by conventional standards.

Victoria Avilan is a fantastic writer. She conveys the characters and details of the plot in such beautiful writing and depth that I couldn’t stop once I started. There are so many different experiences that she portrays in ways that make the reader feel the experience rather than simply read about it—art, from the artist’s perspective; the torment of perceived betrayal; heartbreak; the all-consumption of love; the destructive nature of secrets; to name just a few. There is one element in particular that I found so vividly accurate from my own experience, but if I mention it directly, a significant plot point would be revealed. So I won’t. Suffice it to say, Avilan definitely has a gift.

I highly recommend this book to readers who love the rich texture of a deep, well told story. Now, back to my second time through The Art of Peeling an Orange.