-
The Last Thing He Wanted
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Release date: 05-07-13
- Language: English
- Publisher: Audible Studios
- Whispersync for Voice-ready
Regular price: $17.96
People who bought this also bought...
-
A Book of Common Prayer
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Marisa Vitali
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 12
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 11
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 11
Writing with the telegraphic swiftness and microscopic sensitivity that have made her one of our most distinguished journalists, Joan Didion creates a shimmering novel of innocence and evil. A Book of Common Prayer is the story of two American women in the derelict Central American nation of Boca Grande. Grace Strasser-Mendana controls much of the country's wealth and knows virtually all of its secrets; Charlotte Douglas knows far too little.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Strong tale badly told
- By A reader in Berkeley on 06-04-17
-
Run, River
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Holly Cate
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 15
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 15
Joan Didion's electrifying first novel is a haunting portrait of a marriage whose wrong turns and betrayals are at once absolutely idiosyncratic and a razor-sharp commentary on the history of California. Everett McClellan and his wife, Lily, are the great-grandchildren of pioneers, and what happens to them is a tragic epilogue to the pioneer experience, a story of murder and betrayal that only Didion could tell with such nuance, sympathy, and suspense.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Thought-provoking, riveting, memorable
- By Avalon on 08-23-13
-
The Year of Magical Thinking
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,319
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,322
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,339
"Life changes fast....You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends." These were among the first words Joan Didion wrote in January 2004. Her daughter was lying unconscious in an intensive care unit, a victim of pneumonia and septic shock. Her husband, John Gregory Dunne, was dead. The night before New Year's Eve, while they were sitting down to dinner, he suffered a massive and fatal coronary. The two had lived and worked side by side for nearly 40 years.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book to Read, but I didn’t like it
- By Michael on 05-08-15
-
Play It As It Lays
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 182
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 163
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 161
A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, Play It As It Lays captures the mood of an entire generation, the ennui of contemporary society reflected in spare prose that blisters and haunts the listener.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
a bit existential and good
- By Darryl on 04-28-13
-
The White Album
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Susan Varon
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 254
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 221
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 226
First published in 1979, The White Album records indelibly the upheavals and aftermaths of the 1960s. Examining key events, figures, and trends of the era - including Charles Manson, the Black Panthers, and the shopping mall - through the lens of her own spiritual confusion, Joan Didion helped to define mass culture as we now understand it. Written with a commanding sureness of tone and linguistic precision, The White Album is a central example of American reportage and a classic of American autobiography.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Time Capsule of a Bygone Age
- By Ian C Robertson on 10-21-15
-
Salvador
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 2 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 26
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 22
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 23
The place is El Salvador in 1982, at the ghastly height of its civil war. The writer is Joan Didion, who delivers an anatomy of that country's particular brand of terror - its mechanisms, rationales, and intimate relation to United States foreign policy. As ash travels from battlefields to body dumps, interviews a puppet president, and considers the distinctly Salvadoran grammar of the verb "to disappear," Didion gives us a book that is germane to any country in which bloodshed has become a standard tool of politics.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Didion writes like an orthopedic surgeon cuts
- By Darwin8u on 01-29-14
-
A Book of Common Prayer
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Marisa Vitali
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 12
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 11
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 11
Writing with the telegraphic swiftness and microscopic sensitivity that have made her one of our most distinguished journalists, Joan Didion creates a shimmering novel of innocence and evil. A Book of Common Prayer is the story of two American women in the derelict Central American nation of Boca Grande. Grace Strasser-Mendana controls much of the country's wealth and knows virtually all of its secrets; Charlotte Douglas knows far too little.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Strong tale badly told
- By A reader in Berkeley on 06-04-17
-
Run, River
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Holly Cate
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 15
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 15
Joan Didion's electrifying first novel is a haunting portrait of a marriage whose wrong turns and betrayals are at once absolutely idiosyncratic and a razor-sharp commentary on the history of California. Everett McClellan and his wife, Lily, are the great-grandchildren of pioneers, and what happens to them is a tragic epilogue to the pioneer experience, a story of murder and betrayal that only Didion could tell with such nuance, sympathy, and suspense.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Thought-provoking, riveting, memorable
- By Avalon on 08-23-13
-
The Year of Magical Thinking
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,319
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,322
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,339
"Life changes fast....You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends." These were among the first words Joan Didion wrote in January 2004. Her daughter was lying unconscious in an intensive care unit, a victim of pneumonia and septic shock. Her husband, John Gregory Dunne, was dead. The night before New Year's Eve, while they were sitting down to dinner, he suffered a massive and fatal coronary. The two had lived and worked side by side for nearly 40 years.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book to Read, but I didn’t like it
- By Michael on 05-08-15
-
Play It As It Lays
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 182
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 163
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 161
A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, Play It As It Lays captures the mood of an entire generation, the ennui of contemporary society reflected in spare prose that blisters and haunts the listener.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
a bit existential and good
- By Darryl on 04-28-13
-
The White Album
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Susan Varon
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 254
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 221
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 226
First published in 1979, The White Album records indelibly the upheavals and aftermaths of the 1960s. Examining key events, figures, and trends of the era - including Charles Manson, the Black Panthers, and the shopping mall - through the lens of her own spiritual confusion, Joan Didion helped to define mass culture as we now understand it. Written with a commanding sureness of tone and linguistic precision, The White Album is a central example of American reportage and a classic of American autobiography.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Time Capsule of a Bygone Age
- By Ian C Robertson on 10-21-15
-
Salvador
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 2 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 26
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 22
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 23
The place is El Salvador in 1982, at the ghastly height of its civil war. The writer is Joan Didion, who delivers an anatomy of that country's particular brand of terror - its mechanisms, rationales, and intimate relation to United States foreign policy. As ash travels from battlefields to body dumps, interviews a puppet president, and considers the distinctly Salvadoran grammar of the verb "to disappear," Didion gives us a book that is germane to any country in which bloodshed has become a standard tool of politics.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Didion writes like an orthopedic surgeon cuts
- By Darwin8u on 01-29-14
-
Where I Was From
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Gabrielle De Cuir
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
In her moving and insightful new book, Joan Didion reassesses parts of her life, her work, her history and ours. A native Californian, Didion applies her scalpel-like intelligence to the state’s ethic of ruthless self-sufficiency in order to examine that ethic’s often tenuous relationship to reality. Combining history and reportage, memoir and literary criticism, Where I Was From explores California’s romances with land and water; its unacknowledged debts to railroads, aerospace, and big government; the disjunction between its code of individualism and its fetish for prisons.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
California belongs to Joan Didion.
- By Darwin8u on 11-04-15
-
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Diane Keaton
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 714
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 655
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 645
Universally acclaimed from the time it was first published in 1968, Slouching Towards Bethlehem has been admired for decades as a stylistic masterpiece. Academy Award-winning actress Diane Keaton (Annie Hall, The Family Stone) performs these classic essays, including the title piece, which will transport the listener back to a unique time and place: the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco during the neighborhood’s heyday as a countercultural center.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Didion deserves better.
- By Victoria Wright on 01-21-13
-
Democracy
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Denise Poirier
- Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 10
Inez Victor knows that the major casualty of the political life is memory. But the people around Inez have made careers out of losing track. Her senator husband wants to forget the failure of his last bid for the presidency. Her husband's handler would like the press to forget that Inez's father is a murderer. And, in 1975, the year in which much of this bitterly funny novel is set, America is doing its best to lose track of its one-time client, the lethally hemorrhaging republic of South Vietnam.
-
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
- By: Italo Calvino
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 220
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 200
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 195
Italo Calvino imagines a novel capable of endless mutations in this intricately crafted story about writing and readers. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler turns out to be not one novel but 10, each with a different plot, style, ambience, and author, and each interrupted at a moment of suspense. Together they form a labyrinth of literatures, known and unknown, alive and extinct, through which two readers, a male and a female, pursue both the story lines that intrigue them and one another.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The position of the feet during reading...
- By literate rose on 02-09-18
-
After Henry
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Hess
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars 14
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars 14
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 13
In her latest forays into the American scene, Joan Didion covers ground from Washington to Los Angeles, from a TV producer's gargantuan "manor" to the racial battlefields of New York's criminal courts. At each stop she uncovers the mythic narratives that elude other observers: Didion tells us about the fantasies the media construct around crime victims and presidential candidates; she gives us new interpretations of the stories of Nancy Reagan and Patty Hearst; she charts America's rollercoaster ride through evanescent booms and hard times that won't go away.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
It'll blow a hole in your retina
- By Darwin8u on 10-03-15
-
The Doomsday Machine
- By: Daniel Ellsberg
- Narrated by: Steven Cooper
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 318
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 282
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 280
The Doomsday Machine is Ellsberg's hair-raising insider's account of the most dangerous arms buildup in the history of civilization, whose legacy - and renewal under the Obama administration - threatens the very survival of humanity. It is scarcely possible to estimate the true dangers of our present nuclear policies without penetrating the secret realities of the nuclear strategy of the late Eisenhower and early Kennedy years, when Ellsberg had high-level access to them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating Insider Story
- By Terry Masters on 12-07-17
-
South and West
- From a Notebook
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr, Nathaniel Rich
- Length: 2 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 55
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 47
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 50
Joan Didion has always kept notebooks - of overheard dialogue, observations, interviews, drafts of essays, and articles - and here is one such draft that traces a road trip she took with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, in June 1970, through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
"Notes" Are Not a Book
- By C. Telfair on 03-11-17
-
Manhattan Beach
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Egan
- Narrated by: Norbert Leo Butz, Heather Lind, Vincent Piazza
- Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,712
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,483
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 2,475
Anna Kerrigan, nearly 12 years old, accompanies her father to the house of a man who, she gleans, is crucial to the survival of her father and her family. Anna observes the uniformed servants, the lavishing of toys on the children, and some secret pact between her father and Dexter Styles. Years later her father has disappeared, and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that had always belonged to men.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I usually love Jennifer Egan, however...
- By D. Thomas on 11-10-17
-
All the Pretty Horses
- The Border Trilogy, Book One
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,519
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,403
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,391
Sixteen-year-old John Grady Cole's grandfather has just died, his parents have permanently separated, and the family ranch, upon which he had placed so many boyish hopes, has been sold. Rootless and increasingly restive, Cole leaves Texas, accompanied by his friend Lacey Rawlins, and begins a journey across the vaquero frontier into the badlands of northern Mexico.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful writing
- By LMS on 05-21-15
-
Beautiful Animals
- A Novel
- By: Lawrence Osborne
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 81
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 72
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 71
On a hike during a white-hot summer break on the Greek island of Hydra, Naomi and Samantha make a startling discovery: a man named Faoud, sleeping heavily, exposed to the elements, but still alive. As the two women learn more about the man, a migrant from Syria and a casualty of the crisis raging across the Aegean Sea, their own burgeoning friendship intensifies. But when their seemingly simple plan to help Faoud unravels, all must face the horrific consequences they have set in motion.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
please offer more of this author's books
- By S. Liskey on 07-20-17
-
Miami
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars 18
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 18
It is where Fidel Castro raised money to overthrow Batista and where two generations of Castro's enemies have raised armies to overthrow him, so far without success. It is where the bitter opera of Cuban exile intersects with the cynicism of U.S. foreign policy. It is a city whose skyrocketing murder rate is fueled by the cocaine trade, racial discontent, and an undeclared war on the island 90 miles to the south.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Havana vanities come to dust in Miami.
- By Darwin8u on 09-22-15
-
Nobody's Fool
- By: Richard Russo
- Narrated by: Ron McLarty
- Length: 24 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,422
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 980
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 976
Divorced from his own wife and carrying on halfheartedly with another man's, saddled with a bum knee and friends who make enemies redundant, Sully now has one new problem to cope with: a long-estranged son who is in imminent danger of following in his father's footsteps. With its sly and uproarious humor and a heart that embraces humanity's follies as well as its triumphs, Nobody's Fool is storytelling at its most generous.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Wonderful Book Fabulous Narrator
- By Marsha on 04-27-05
Publisher's Summary
The legendary author of Play It As It Lays and Slouching Towards Bethlehem here trains her eye on the far frontiers of the Monroe Doctrine, where history dissolves into conspiracy (Dallas in 1963, Iran Contra in 1984), and fashions a moral thriller as hypnotic and provocative as any by Joseph Conrad or Graham Greene.
In that latter year, Elena McMahon walks off the presidential campaign she has been covering for a major newspaper to do a favor for her father. Elena's father does deals. And it is while acting as his agent in one such deal - a deal that shortly goes spectacularly wrong - that she finds herself on an island where tourism has been superseded by arms dealing, covert action, and assassination.
The Last Thing He Wanted is a tour de force - persuasive in its detail, dazzling in its ambiguities, enchanting in its style.
Critic Reviews
More from the same
What members say
Average Customer Ratings
Overall
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
5 Stars2
-
4 Stars3
-
3 Stars1
-
2 Stars1
-
1 Stars0
Performance
-
4.5 out of 5 stars
-
5 Stars4
-
4 Stars2
-
3 Stars0
-
2 Stars1
-
1 Stars0
Story
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
5 Stars2
-
4 Stars2
-
3 Stars1
-
2 Stars1
-
1 Stars0