• The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.

  • A Novel
  • By: Adelle Waldman
  • Narrated by: Nick Podehl
  • Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
  • 3.4 out of 5 stars (283 ratings)

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The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.  By  cover art

The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.

By: Adelle Waldman
Narrated by: Nick Podehl
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Publisher's summary

A debut novel by a brilliant young woman about the coming-of-age of a brilliant young literary man.

Nate Piven is a rising star in Brooklyn’s literary scene. After several lean and striving years, he has his pick of both magazine assignments and women: Juliet, the hotshot business reporter; Elisa, his gorgeous ex-girlfriend, now friend; and Hannah, "almost universally regarded as nice and smart, or smart and nice" and who holds her own in conversation with his friends. But when one relationship grows more serious, Nate is forced to consider what it is he really wants.

In this 21st-century literary world, wit and conversation are not at all dead. Is romance? Novelist Adelle Waldman plunges into the psyche of a modern man - who thinks of himself as beyond superficial judgment, yet constantly struggles with his own status anxiety; who is drawn to women, yet has a habit of letting them down. With tough-minded intelligence and wry good humor The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. is an absorbing tale of one young man’s search for happiness - and an inside look at how he really thinks about women, sex and love.

©2013 Adelle Waldman (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Nate is so convincingly drawn you’ll want to hug him, lecture him and shake some sense into him simultaneously. Waldman has deftly written a laugh-out-loud treatise on why he didn’t call." (Allison Amend, author of A Nearly Perfect Copy)

What listeners say about The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

The Memoirs of a Self-Indulgent Intellectual Jerk

I was very excited to start this book as I had read a number of positive reviews, both on this site (and Amazon and Goodreads) and in magazines. In fact, even after reading it I'm inclined to think that I missed something important because I can't understand how anyone could find this book enjoyable.

Our narrator, Nate, is one of the most selfish, snobbish, unlikable narrators I've ever come across. I don't always have to like the narrator of a story (Dorian Gray anyone?) but listening to Nate complain about his life and his lack of respect for pretty much every woman in his life for eight and a half hours--or 250 pages--was like sitting next to someone on the train that just won't shut up. He was like a self-indulgent child that couldn't understand why everything in his life wasn't perfect and gets bored with everything that is. This was probably the point of the book, I realize. But for me to enjoy a book about someone like this, there has to be some redeeming quality in the narrator or some interesting secondary character. There was not.

The plot of the book largely follows Nate's relationship with a new girl, Hannah. To give some background, he has a pretty dysfunctional romantic history. Though it's never explicitly stated, he doesn't seem to consider women his intellectual equals. For maybe the first month of their relationship, the story is very sweet. I found myself hoping that the point of the story was that people can change, that basic human kindness can be found in even the most unlikely of hosts. But then everything starts to deteriorate. I hated Nate for the way he treated Hannah--and women in general. I hated Hannah for being a smart woman and putting up with such a prick. The secondary characters are all caricatures--the Harvard playboy who only dates beautiful women, the bitter intellectual woman who is obsessed with marriage, the slutty damaged girl that every man is fascinated with, even the immigrant parents who came to America to give their son a better life. And I didn't care one way or another what happened to any of them.

I was miserable almost the entire time I read this book. It seemed to be a dreary, hopeless look at the death of romance and human decency in favor of pseudo-intellectual snobbery. (The narrator repeatedly mentions wanting to date a girl who has read Svevo and other hipster-obscure authors.) If you're in the mood to read something that makes you hate relationships or want to feel very smart, this is probably the book for you. Otherwise, skip it.

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17 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Sad that the awful reader ruined the narrative

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

No, I would hope my friends could read it in print. The narrator was awful - whiny, nasal and boring as hell.

What other book might you compare The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. to and why?

Perhaps the Ivy Chronicles.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Nick Podehl?

A woman. A good British male reader. This guy is just awful.

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

I laughed when I was not annoyed by the horrible reader.

Any additional comments?

It makes me sad that an excellent debut novel could be ruined by such a bad and clueless reader. That guy is so bad I will never listen to any book he narrates. I would leave the train carriage if he sat next to me and I had to hear him speak. Why do so many American readers think they are actors and over-act? Truly trying and more than a bit annoying. This is why I mostly listen only to British novels, but keep trying to find good american ones. Hard, given the readers.

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8 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Need a reason to cancel The New Yorker?

If you've ever longed to live in a literary scene, or wanted a do-over on your twenties, this book will pull your head right around. Nate is sees himself as a thoughtful intellectual; he wants to exert broad cultural influence through his writing. But he is baffled by his difficulties in relationship. What is blindingly obvious to the reader is that however well-educated or intelligent he is, he is immature to the point of infantilism in his relations with women. He makes tiny incremental steps forward in this story, but at the end he has only managed to find a woman who enforces decent behavior from him by dint of tears and curses. Why should this jerk be granted whatever cultural influence he has attained? (And the author seems to agree -- the essays he writes sound like deadly piffle). This was a well-written book, but you may wonder why this guy gets a book-length apologia.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent

This is an excellent novel, very well performed. I'm so glad I came across it. Ms Waldman will be on my must-listen list for her next novel, whenever we get it. It's highly entertaining, original realistic fiction. You might call it a sharply observed comedy of manners. I have no idea whether it's a realistic depiction of the rising young literary milieu in Brooklyn, but it sure feels authentic.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Waste of time

Narration is terrible and annoying, inadvertently assigning personalities to characters. Also, thus debute is terrible... smug dude criticizing all the women he with in a name of literary prowess.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Waist of time

I kept waiting for this book to get good, it never did. I do not recommend it.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Don’t waste your money

This book is awful!!! I tried, I made it to chapter 4. I even speed it up and that didn’t even help. Save your money.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Nina is that you?

This performance was really distracting, because all of the female characters (except Aurit) sounded like Fred Armisen as Nina in Portlandia....maybe the point was to make them sound vapid? But it just bugged me.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A white man's dilemma

I'll give credit where credit is due. Definitely well written--a firm grasp on a middle class white man's perspective. But his privileged circle of friend's had my eyes rolling. Very reflective of the guilty hipster American-- all theories, petty relationship issues, and a pervasive but insightful look into the judgment we place on the people around us. Looking through a man's perspective, at least from Nate's, he sadly confirms a few of my fears as a woman entering the dating scene. Nate overall is an average guy with asshole tendencies. I grew frustrated as he demeaned Hannah for simply being vulnerable as anyone should be in a healthy relationship! And yet I was relieved and a bit surprised on how much i could relate to Nate. I'd say a good book is one that provokes you. Especially through a narrator you grow frustrated with because you see yourself through his worst qualities. I love anti-heroes. As for the glimpse of the white middle class writing community--can't say I was surprised by that.
--Reviewed by a WOC ✌

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Gender in Gentrifying Brooklyn

The story gives a good picture of how gender roles play out for liberal arts types trying to build careers and be in relationships. I wish I would have gotten more of Hannah's perspective. The narration was great in the voice of Nate, but the female took more time to get used to. I recommend this for anyone who tries or has tried to balance a creative life with another person.

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