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The Visible Man
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Annabella Sciorra, Scott Shepherd
- Length: 8 hrs
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How this differs from the other version
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Publisher's summary
Austin, Texas. Therapist Victoria Vick is contacted by a cryptic, unlikable man who insists his situation is unique and unfathomable. As he slowly reveals himself, Vick becomes convinced that he suffers from a complex set of delusions: Y__, as she refers to him, claims to be a scientist who has stolen cloaking technology from an aborted government project in order to render himself nearly invisible. He says he uses this ability to observe random individuals within their daily lives, usually when they are alone and vulnerable. Unsure of his motives or honesty, Vick becomes obsessed with her patient and the disclosure of his increasingly bizarre and disturbing tales. Over time, it threatens her career, her marriage, and her own identity.
Interspersed with notes, correspondence, and transcriptions that catalog a relationship based on curiosity and fear, The Visible Man touches on all of Chuck Klosterman’s favorite themes: the consequence of culture, the influence of media, the complexity of voyeurism, and the existential contradiction of normalcy. Is this comedy, criticism, or horror? Not even Y__ seems to know for sure.
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Story
Lauren Marks was 27 when an aneurysm ruptured in her brain and left her fighting for her life. She woke up in a hospital soon after with serious deficiencies to her reading, speaking, and writing abilities, and an unfamiliar diagnosis: aphasia. This would be shocking news for anyone, but Lauren was a voracious reader, an actress, director, dramaturg, and pursuing her PhD. At any other period of her life, this diagnosis would have been a devastating blow. But she woke up...different.
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Absolutely wonderful book
- By SJMT on 01-27-19
By: Lauren Marks
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Heaven
- Or, How I Made Peace with the Paranormal and Stigmatized Zealots and Cynics in the Process
- By: Corey Taylor
- Narrated by: Corey Taylor
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In this book, Corey Taylor undertakes something never before attempted in the history of rock superstardom: he takes you with him as he journeys undercover through various ghostbusting groups who do their best to gather information and evidence about the existence of spirits. Taylor also gives you a behind-the-scenes tour of his crazy life and the many beyond-the-grave events he's encountered. (You'll be shocked how often Slipknot has been invaded by the supernatural).
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Too Much Padding
- By W. Maughan on 01-26-16
By: Corey Taylor
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Familyhood
- By: Paul Reiser
- Narrated by: Paul Reiser
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In Familyhood, Reiser shares his observations on parenting, marriage, and mid-life with the wit, warmth, and humor that he’s so well-known for. From the first experience of sending his two boys off to summer camp to maneuvering the minefield of bad words learned at school, this hilarious new book captures the spirit of familyhood, the logical next frontier for Reiser’s trademark perspective on the universal truths of life, love, and relationships.
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Witty and warm, a pleasurable read
- By Frank on 06-03-11
By: Paul Reiser
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This Is Not Over
- A Novel
- By: Holly Brown
- Narrated by: Madeleine Maby, Donna Postel
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Two very different women with this in common: Each harbors her own secret, her own reason why she can't just let this go. Neither can yield, not before they've dredged up all that's hidden, even if it has the power to shatter all they've built.
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Pettiness Turn Twisted!
- By Jenn on 01-19-17
By: Holly Brown
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Dead Certain
- A Novel
- By: Adam Mitzner
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Ella Broden is living a double life. By day, Ella works as a buttoned-up attorney on some of the city's most grueling cases. By night, she pursues her passion for singing in the darkest clubs of Manhattan. No one knows her secret, not even Charlotte, the younger sister she practically raised. But it seems she's not the only one in the family with something to hide. When Charlotte announces she's sold her first novel, Ella couldn't be more thrilled...until she gets a call that her sister's gone missing.
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Mixed Review
- By Amazon Customer on 06-16-17
By: Adam Mitzner
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And When She Was Good
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Linda Emond
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Heloise considers it a blessing to be a person who seldom attracts attention. In her suburb, she's just a mom, the young widow with the forgettable job, who somehow never misses a soccer game. In the state capital, she's the redheaded lobbyist with a good cause and a mediocre track record. But in discreet hotel rooms throughout the area, she's the woman of your dreams - if you can afford the hourly fee. For more than a decade, Heloise believed she was safe, managing to keep up this rigidly compartmentalized life. But her secret life is under siege. One county over, another so-called suburban madam has been found dead in her car, an apparent suicide.
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And When She Was Bad...
- By Carole T. on 08-18-12
By: Laura Lippman
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The Unspeakable
- And Other Subjects of Discussion
- By: Meghan Daum
- Narrated by: Meghan Daum
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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It's a report tempered by hard times. In "Matricide", Daum unflinchingly describes a parent's death and the uncomfortable emotions it provokes; and in "Diary of a Coma" she relates her own journey to the twilight of the mind. But Daum also operates in a comic register. With perfect precision, she reveals the absurdities of the marriage-industrial complex, of the New Age dating market, and of the peculiar habits of the young and digital.
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Complaining about her dead mom.
- By Erik Hermansen on 11-23-14
By: Meghan Daum
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How to Host a Viking Funeral
- The Case for Burning Your Regrets, Chasing Your Crazy Ideas, and Becoming the Person You're Meant to Be
- By: Kyle Scheele
- Narrated by: Kyle Scheele
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Turning 30, artist and speaker Kyle Scheele wanted to do something unusual to mark this milestone. Instead of a birthday bash, he decided to hold a funeral to memorialize the decade of his life that was ending. Building a 16-foot Viking ship out of cardboard, he invited friends to help him set it on fire—a symbolic farewell to his 20s and all the grief, regret, and mistakes that accompanied those years.
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underwhelming
- By Amazon Customer on 12-11-22
By: Kyle Scheele
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Road Dog
- Life and Reflections from the Road as a Stand-up Comic
- By: Dov Davidoff
- Narrated by: Dov Davidoff
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Road Dog is comedian, actor, and writer, Dov Davidoff's unflinching memoir told through reflections of twelve months on the road. Davidoff travels across the country from college campuses to local theaters doing stand-up comedy and telling it like it is. He's been known to wax poetic about everything from encounters with large fake breasts, to people who have too many kids, to magnum condoms the size of CD cases. He is hilarious and relatable and will have you laughing at yourself in no time.
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dark, real, & exceptional
- By Luis F Rodriguez on 11-22-17
By: Dov Davidoff
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A Fractured Mind
- My Life with Multiple Personality Disorder
- By: Robert B. Oxnam
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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At the peak of his professional career, after having led the Asia Society for nearly a decade, Oxnam was haunted by periodic blackouts and episodic rages. After his family and friends intervened, Oxnam received help from a psychiatrist, Dr. Jeffery Smith, and entered a rehab center. It wasn't until 1990, during a session with Dr. Smith, that the first of Oxnam's 11 alternate personalities, an angry young boy named Tommy, suddenly emerged.
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A solid look at a rare disorder
- By O. Canosa on 11-23-07
By: Robert B. Oxnam
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Privileged Information
- Alan Gregory, Book 1
- By: Stephen White
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Alan Gregory is a clinical psychologist with a thriving practice in Boulder, Colorado. His life begins to unravel when one of his female patients is found in an apparent suicide and the local paper begins printing accusations from an unnamed source of sexual impropriety between the woman and Dr. Gregory. He launches a psychological and personal quest for the truth that rapidly intensifies when more of his patients die untimely deaths, and Gregory suspects not only that the deaths are related but that another one of his patients may be somehow involved. Lacking facts but roused by suspicion and troubled by seemingly random acts of terror around him, Gregory starts to fear for the safety of the people he loves. The question of the inviolability of confidential disclosures made to Gregory by his patients - privileged information - becomes crucial as the psychologist pursues an unsettling romance with Lauren Crowder, a lovely deputy district attorney investigating one of the deaths. Bound to silence, Gregory follows the psychological tracks of someone he fears may be a cunning and disturbed killer, while turning to his enigmatic but supportive partner, Diane Estevez, for counsel, and to his tart-tongued female urologist neighbor for support. The sinister, surprising drama unfolds against Boulder's Rocky Mountain backdrop, in the arresting natural beauty of Aspen, and in the midst of a baroque Halloween costume party in downtown Boulder. Finally, in a lonely mountain lodge enshrouded in menace, the story comes to its breathtaking climax.
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Four and a half stars, actually....
- By karen on 10-11-13
By: Stephen White
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The Journal of Best Practices
- A Memoir of Marriage, Asperger Syndrome, and One Man's Quest to Be a Better Husband
- By: David Finch
- Narrated by: David Finch
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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At some point in nearly every marriage, a wife finds herself asking, "What is wrong with my husband?!" In David Finch's case, this turns out to be an apt question. Five years after he married Kristen, the love of his life, they learn that he has Asperger syndrome. The diagnosis explains David's ever-growing list of quirks and compulsions, his lifelong propensity to quack and otherwise melt down in social exchanges, and his clinical-strength inflexibility. But it doesn't make him any easier to live with.
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I wish I had read this many years ago
- By Patrick on 05-02-12
By: David Finch
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Troublemaker
- Surviving Hollywood and Scientology
- By: Leah Remini
- Narrated by: Leah Remini
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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The outspoken actress, talk show host, and reality television star offers up a no-holds-barred memoir, including an eye-opening insider account of her tumultuous and heart-wrenching 30-year-plus association with the Church of Scientology.
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This book is fascinating and funny! Fantastic!
- By Kim on 11-04-15
By: Leah Remini
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What listeners say about The Visible Man
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Stephen Matos
- 05-31-17
A decent read.
The author succeeded in creating unique and detailed characters. Although the story began with intriguing, thought-provoking circumstances, it ultimately became diluted by generic and predictable antics. The conclusion was underwhelming.
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- Jamie
- 05-14-12
Fantastic.
What did you love best about The Visible Man?
The story, the performance of the readers, and the ability of Klosterman to reach out to a new medium for him, but still retain his sensibility.
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- Sam
- 03-19-18
Thought-provoking Work
What made the experience of listening to The Visible Man the most enjoyable?
The narrators were great and really brought the characters to life. I know some of the other reviewers commented on the fact that the narrator who played Y seemed more sane and personable than their perception of Y as a sociopath but I thought that was precisely the purpose of such a selection. Since the voice of Y was sane and alluring it enticed me to interpret Y as an alluring character the way theoretically Victoria viewed him.The pop culture philosophy was also interesting and thought-provoking. I had the distinct desire to talk to someone else about the thoughts expressed in this book and my views on them which is always a good thing in a book. Some of his social commentaries were a bit short but I believe that if they had been extended they would likely fall into repetition (the discussion about money and happiness is an example of this)
Who was your favorite character and why?
Unlike I believe some other readers, I was particularly drawn to the character of Y. I could understand and sympathize with Victoria's unfortunate lack of boundaries with Y. This might however be because I tend to like portrayals of brilliant characters and their thought process (despite or perhaps because of the often arrogant and dysfunctional way they are portrayed in most forms of media). I thought that Y had both charisma and definite issues and had the distinct feeling that many people would consider him psychopathic although I would not.
Any additional comments?
Y described really odd and likely clinically disturbed people for the majority of his descriptions of his home observations. I thought Chuck's choice to do this was both interesting and unfortunate. Examining disturbed people gave me as a reader an opportunity to analyze what I would think about these people and gave me the feeling that it was entirely possible that most single adults were secretly disturbed in their most private moments. However, it also nagged me because from my own experience it didn't feel true (note that my only experience with being with someone when they are alone is with myself). As such, I was taken out of the story several times and had to remind myself that it was possible the characters picked these stories out of thousands because they were the most interesting and that Chuck simply could not write about at length about the truly boring aspects of the private lives of sane non-disturbed people (which might constitute almost exclusively consumption of media). It was just unfortunate because one of the charms of the book was the realization that theoretically it was possible thought incredibly unlikely that any of us could be watched when we believe we are alone and the use of unrelatable subjects for Y's observations served to distance ourselves from the possibility of being observed.
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- Andy
- 10-29-23
interesting. Disturbing. Compelling. Decent Story.
The narration from both readers is excellent.
The story only gets 4 out of 5 stars because I just "wanted more" as a reader. Also, the lead female character makes some dumb and extremely unprofessional decisions and her self-awareness of her blunders could be read as a very problematic element of the story. Another reviewer on this app blasts the book for that element of the story primarily and while I'm not as deeply offended by that element of the narration, I do agree that it's a valid criticism. Just like bad TV or crappy horror movies, audiences might find themselves yelling at the protagonist something like, "no! Don't be so stupid! How can you not see how deranged this is!?"
I enjoyed the suspenseful aspects of this story and found myself wanting more back-story and more narrative about unseen elements of the story, which are impossible to convey through the narrative structure.
The whole book is presented as a compiled collection of notes and drafts of a manuscript for a book about a therapist and her patient who can make himself almost impossible to see. Because the book is presented in this first person style and through the retelling of transcripts of counseling sessions, it's impossible to tell what's happening between the counseling sessions unless the therapist tells us through random exposition. It's an interesting narrative choice that builds tension through omission. Is the character of the patient as sinister as implied? Yes! I really think this is a portrait of a deeply disturbed individual, but did he really do all of the things that he claimed to do while he was "invisible?"
The sense of danger implied by an unseen person who may lack empathy for others choosing to stalk people or enter their homes without their knowledge is super creepy. The character of Y chooses to inaccurately paint himself as "an impartial observer" of people when they're totally alone for the sake of trying to better understand the human condition. Y can't understand the emotions of other people and sees all social interactions as pretense or overly constructed performance... and therefore fake or disingenuous. He believes that no one is truly themselves unless they're totally alone. There were some interesting anecdotal passages about the topic of when people are alone and about social norms and the antagonist presents some conflicting views about those topics.
Y is deeply disturbed person who can use his advantages of stealth over others to "impartially observe" but he's not impartial and he does some pretty terrible things to some people if his stories are believed to be true. Not only does he lack empathy or understanding toward the rest of mankind, but he believes in the rightness of his own will for the sake of itself.
I enjoyed the suspenseful, creepy, and thriller-esque elements of this story and wanted more of that but also see how that would be impossible to deliver via the narrative structure.
I enjoyed this somewhat flawed novel for many reasons and would encourage others (even if you're not familiar with Chuck and his other non-fiction writing) to check this out. It's probably not his best writing, but it was a decent (but somewhat frustrating) story with a protagonist that you want to do better, and an antagonist that you love to hate. Lastly, the random riffing on society that this writer is best known for is shown as something deeply despicable, which is such a fascinating thing for this author to have done with this narrative. In a very "meta" kind of way, he paints his own writing style as the villain and that may be the most interesting thing about the whole book.
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- Kendall G
- 04-02-24
Fun paychothriller
Human perception, distortion and intellectual arrogance are soo fascinating. I suppose we all have a blind side.
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- KC
- 03-08-22
Maybe it would have been an intriguing short story?
This book has an intriguing premise, which creates an interesting mechanism by which to explore human nature and action, and I think could have made an interesting short story, or essay. Ultimately though, I got to the end, and wondered “what was the point?” In spite of a few clever moments, the book was surprisingly devoid of the sharp observational pop-culture humor I would have expected from the author. Nor was there much insight into the characters or the people around them. It was ultimately, in my mind, an unusual book about a sociopath patient (psychopath?) and an idiot therapist. Wish it were better.
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- Anonymous User
- 11-22-11
Don't listen to this while driving!
This was the only book we have purchased that we both didn't enjoy. We like a great plot when driving & this was just a boring diary!
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1 person found this helpful
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- D. Welter
- 12-12-11
My god what a boring, pompous waste of time.
Any additional comments?
I listened through to the very end. This book goes nowhere with a very interesting premise.Don't waste you time on this one.
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2 people found this helpful