The Women

A Novel

By: T. C. Boyle

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 18 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Frank Lloyd Wright's life was one long, howling struggle against the bonds of convention, whether aesthetic, social, moral, or romantic. He never did what was expected, and he never let anything get in the way of his larger-than-life appetites and visions.

Told through the experiences of the four women who loved him, this imaginative account of Wright's raucous life blazes with Boyle's trademark wit and invention. Boyle's protean voice captures these very different women and, in doing so, creates a masterful ode to the creative life in all its complexity and grandeur.

©2009 T. Coraghessan Boyle (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"America's most imaginative contemporary novelist." ( Newsweek)

"One of the most inventive and verbally exuberant writers of his generation." ( New York Times)

“The author is a master storyteller who takes literary license but never loses sight of his subject's humanity. Narrator Grover Gardner has a deep nasal tone that, remarkably, sounds like an old radio broadcaster's voice. This fits the mood of the book perfectly since the story takes place in the 1930s.” ( AudioFile)

Whiney Women and One Cocky Man

The only thing I liked about this book was that I learned a lot about Frank Lloyd Wright and his work. Unfortunately, he comes across as a modern day U.S. Congressman with his "I do what I want" attitude about life and especially women. Frank's women all come across as whiney and manipulative. I also did not like that the book is told from the last wife forward. At times it was difficult to follow. This was complicated by the footnotes being read in the text giving the book as feel of backtracking even more. While this footnote information was generally educational, it disrupted the flow of the book. I could barely finish this listen and wouldn't except that I needed something to entertain me on a really long road trip! Don't bother!

Disappointing

Nothing works. The device of the narrator--a fictitious FLW apprentice--falters and seems all but abandoned in the latter third; an inordinate and painful amount of the book is devoted to Miriam, the enraged, drug-addicted, vindictive second wife; all the characters are painted as deluded, selfish and manipulative. The story is told backwards for no discernible reason. I've listened to two other TC Boyle novels that are based on real stories. This is the least satisfying.

Great writer, great narrator

A wonderful listening experience.

Too Much

I have enjoyed the three previous novels by TC Boyle a great deal and I wanted to like this one. But I found it tedious. The women FLW surrounded himself with were as difficult as he was so I guess they deserved each other. I was a so over Miriam and her craziness that when her time finally came to introduce her I couldn't enjoy the reading. The reverse timeline wasn't a positive device in my opinion.
Boyle is a gifted writer , no doubt, his descriptions of a time and people he never met is remarkable and the attention to detail is riveting. This just wasn't my cup of tea....

Not worth the journey

The problem with this book is that there was really only one interesting thing that happened relative to Wright's love life, and you have to wade through the tedium of the rest of the book to get to it. SO not worth the journey to get there.

Tedious and repetitive

Would you try another book from T. C. Boyle and/or Grover Gardner?

No

What do you think your next listen will be?

PAtti Smith "M Train"

Would you be willing to try another one of Grover Gardner’s performances?

No

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The subject Frank Lloyd Wright is a complex, fascinating genius. It would have been good to have a nuanced book about him.

Any additional comments?

I almost always finish books--not this one.I gave up out of annoyance.

Sorry, but...

I think it is important that this is the ONLY audiobook to which I stopped listening after only an hour and never went back to. It just didn't seem that interesting. I wouldn't want to ruin it for anyone else -- maybe it's because I'm a fiction geek for the most part, and reality just doesn't interest me as much. Maybe I'll try it again later, but I cannot recommend this book.

didn't work for me

While I generally enjoy Boyle's writing and Gardner is a very good reader, this book just doesn't work for me, for several reasons. The book is organized in reverse order, so we start with Wright's last (third) wife Olgivanna, then a section on his second wife Miriam and then a third section about his mistress Mamah, while Wright was married to his first wife Kitty. By the time I finished the section on Olgivanna, I knew as much as I wanted to about Miriam and couldn't finish the second section, so I skipped to section 3. What was the rationale for organizing the book this way? I think it detracts, rather than adds, to the story.

I have an issue with the narrator, who is supposedly one of Wright's apprentices. I realize this is a work of fiction, but Wright and Olgivanna were married in 1927 or 1928 and the apprenticeship program did not begin until 1932. Thus there's some contradiction between actual and fictional events, but I can handle that. What's more problematic is that so many events in the book occurred before the narrator arrived on the scene. His "involvement" in the later sections of the book is minimal, as you might expect, which then begs the question: why use this narrator at all?

If you enjoy listening to Boyle, you'll probably like this -- I really enjoyed the first section of the book. Then it got tedious, and overall, just a little too long for me (even skipping most of section 2).

Horrible and disconnected

What would have made The Women better?

This book is choppy and backwards. It is about three women that FLW had relationships with, but in reverse order. The author rambles on about his own life in the "introductions" to each section.

What character would you cut from The Women?

The author.

Any additional comments?

Very disappointed this book never got better. I know, I should have cut and run earlier. Also very disappointed I cannot get a refund from Audible for it. I don't want to give the Story any starts in this review, but it seems you have to give at least one to move on in the process.