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Give Sorrow Words: Maryse Holder's Letters from Mexico
- Narrated by: Edith Jones Rubin
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
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Publisher's Summary
In 1976, Maryse Holder traveled to Mexico to pursue a life of sexual exploration. She wrote a series of letters describing her experiences, in which she expressed a desire to "wring a masterpiece from my life".
Following Holder's brutal murder in Mexico at the age of 36, these letters became the basis for the book Give Sorrow Words: Maryse Holder's Letters from Mexico. Published in 1979 by Grove Press, with an introduction by Kate Millett, it was praised by The New York Times Book Review, the Kirkus Review, and her writing compared to Genet, Jean Rhys, and Henry Miller in it's sexual candor and artistry.
In 2013, Edith Jones, the woman to whom Maryse Holder wrote those letters, re-issued Give Sorrow Words in a new edition. This long-forgotten masterpiece of feminist sexuality is timelier than ever, foreshadowing the blunt talk about a woman's erotic life embodied by Lena Dunham and others.
Give Sorrow Words is the story of one woman's shocking descent into a provocative world of lust and danger. As Maryse Holder's letters explore the last, eventful months in her life, they speak directly to the listener - forcing us to confront the pain, and even sometimes the passion, of living on the very edge of life, to the end.
Critic Reviews
What listeners say about Give Sorrow Words: Maryse Holder's Letters from Mexico
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Steven Bilow
- 11-23-14
Amazing writing, horrible reading
What did you like best about Give Sorrow Words: Maryse Holder's Letters from Mexico? What did you like least?
I have never read any writing like this before. It is a one-of-a-kind combination of solid intellectual writing and very sad ly perverse sexuality. It's not porn. It's not even erotica. But it is the most direct writing about sexual experience I have ever read. The uniqueness of this book is what I liked best. What I liked least is that the reader of this audio book is too fast, very sloppy, and continually (almost purposefully) mispronounces every Spanish word in the book. The only good thing about the reader is that she is the woman to whom the letters were actually written. Still, this is the worst read audio book I have ever heard. I bought the Kindle version just so I could finish it without having to listen to the mispronunciations and utter lack of editing and production values. It's an interesting read byut a pitiful listen.
Would you ever listen to anything by Maryse Holder again?
Don't have to worry about that since nothing else was ever published.
Would you be willing to try another one of Edith Jones Rubin’s performances?
Absolutely not. If this is an example of an educated woman's reading ability then I'll stay away at all cost. Terrible job.
1 person found this helpful
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This was a waste of my time and added no value.
- By Deborah on 01-03-18
By: Claire Dederer
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Getting Off
- One Woman's Journey Through Sex and Porn Addiction
- By: Erica Garza
- Narrated by: Joy Osmanski
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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A fixation on porn and orgasm, strings of failed relationships and serial hook-ups with strangers, inevitable blackouts to blunt the shame - these are not things we often hear women share publicly, and not with the candor, eloquence and introspection Erica Garza brings to Getting Off. Garza draws an evocative, studied portrait of the anxiety that fuels her obsessions as well as the exhilaration and hope she begins to feel when she suspects she might be free of them. And yet there is no false or prepackaged sense of redemption here.
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If you suffer from PMO addiction, it's not for you
- By Anonymous User on 10-17-21
By: Erica Garza
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Fury
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Salman Rushdie
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The world renowned author of The Satanic Verses and The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Salman Rushdie is a Whitbread Award winner and recipient of the Booker Prize. His first truly American novel, Fury is a metaphorically rich black comedy that reflects the pressure-cooker of modern life. Malik Solanka, irascible doll-maker and retired historian of ideas, suffers the pain of wanting without knowing exactly what it is he wants.
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surprisingly good
- By David on 11-21-07
By: Salman Rushdie
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Crying in the Bathroom
- A Memoir
- By: Erika L. Sánchez
- Narrated by: Erika L. Sánchez
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants in Chicago in the nineties, Erika Sánchez was a self-described pariah, misfit, and disappointment—a foul-mouthed, melancholic rabble-rouser who painted her nails black but also loved comedy, often laughing so hard with her friends that she had to leave her school classroom. Twenty-five years later, she’s now an award-winning novelist, poet, and essayist, but she’s still got an irrepressible laugh, an acerbic wit, and singular powers of perception about the world around her.
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I felt awkward with this personal view of Erika's
- By Peter R. on 03-27-23
By: Erika L. Sánchez
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Not That Bad
- Dispatches from Rape Culture
- By: Roxane Gay
- Narrated by: Roxane Gay, Brandon Taylor, Emma Smith-Stevens, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In this valuable and revealing anthology, cultural critic and best-selling author Roxane Gay collects original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are "routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied" for speaking out. Contributions include essays from established and up-and-coming writers, performers, and critics.
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definitely an important book
- By nikiverse on 05-25-18
By: Roxane Gay
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The Savage Detectives
- A Novel
- By: Roberto Bolaño
- Narrated by: Eddie Lopez, Armando Durán
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The late Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño has been called the García Marquez of his generation. The Savage Detectives is a hilarious and sexy, meandering and melancholy, companionable and complicated road trip through Mexico City, Barcelona, Israel, Liberia, and finally the desert of northern Mexico. It is the first of Bolaño's two giant works, with 2666, to be translated into English and is already being hailed as a masterpiece.
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Bolaño Poetic Gyre
- By Darwin8u on 11-14-14
By: Roberto Bolaño
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Humboldt's Gift
- By: Saul Bellow
- Narrated by: Christopher Hurt
- Length: 18 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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For years, they were the best of friends: the grand, erratic Humboldt and the ambitious young Charlie. But now Humboldt has died a failure, and Charlie's success-ridden life has taken various turns for the worse. Then Humboldt acts from the grave to change Charlie's life: he has left Charlie something in his will.
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Great Book, Great Reader
- By Scott on 05-10-08
By: Saul Bellow
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Eve's Hollywood
- By: Eve Babitz
- Narrated by: Mia Barron
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Journalist, party girl, bookworm, artist, muse: By the time she'd hit 30, Eve Babitz had played all of these roles. She was immortalized as the nude beauty facing down Duchamp and as one of Ed Ruscha's Five 1965 Girlfriends, and Babitz's first book showed her to be a razor-sharp writer with tales of her own. Eve's Hollywood is an album of vivid snapshots of Southern California's haute bohemians, of outrageously beautiful high school ingenues and enviably tattooed Chicanas, of rock stars sleeping it off at the Chateau Marmont.
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A fun read!
- By Ryan Stanley on 09-11-18
By: Eve Babitz
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Rosario Tijeras (Spanish Edition)
- By: Jorge Franco
- Narrated by: Mateo Angarita
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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«Como a Rosario le pegaron un tiro a quemarropa mientras le daban un beso, confundió el dolor del amor con el de la muerte. Pero salió de dudas cuando despegó los labios y vio la pistola». Así inicia la historia de Rosario Tijeras, una mujer sin edad que siendo una niña ingresó a la terrible escena del sicariato y la prostitución de Medellín a finales de los años ochenta. Ahora Antonio, su amigo incondicional, la recuerda desde el pasillo del hospital en el que Rosario lucha con la muerte.
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Best book ever!!!
- By Heslya Resendez on 12-16-22
By: Jorge Franco
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Between the Bridge and the River
- By: Craig Ferguson
- Narrated by: Craig Ferguson
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Two childhood friends from Scotland and two illegitimate half-brothers from the deep South suffer and enjoy all manner of bizarre adventures that, it turns out, are somehow interconnected and, even more surprisingly, meaningful. The eclectic cast of characters features Socrates, Carl Jung, and Tony Randall, along with an ex-television evangelist with a penchant for booze, prostitutes, and uncomfortable knitwear who gets mugged in Miami by an almost pure-blooded Watusi warrior - and sets off on a road trip in a stolen motor home.
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Crass, hilarious, and surprisingly touching
- By C. Ubik on 04-16-14
By: Craig Ferguson
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A Single Man
- By: Christopher Isherwood
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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When A Single Man was originally published, it shocked many by its frank, sympathetic, and moving portrayal of a gay man in midlife. George, the protagonist, is adjusting to life on his own after the sudden death of his partner, and determines to persist in the routines of his daily life; the course of A Single Man spans 24 hours in an ordinary day.
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Gorgeous Writing but Not for Everyone
- By Catherine on 01-27-13
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The Chronology of Water
- A Memoir
- By: Lidia Yuknavitch
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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This is not your mother's memoir. In The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch expertly moves the listener through issues of gender, sexuality, violence, and the family from the point of view of a lifelong swimmer turned artist. In writing that explores the nature of memoir itself, her story traces the effect of extreme grief on a young woman's developing sexuality that some define as untraditional because of her attraction to both men and women.
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Bad choice of narrator
- By A gross on 10-17-17
By: Lidia Yuknavitch
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The Girls from Corona del Mar
- A novel
- By: Rufi Thorpe
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Mia and Lorrie Ann are lifelong friends: hard-hearted Mia and untouchably beautiful, kind Lorrie Ann. While Mia struggles with a mother who drinks, a pregnancy at 15, and younger brothers she loves but can’t quite be good to, Lorrie Ann is luminous, surrounded by her close-knit family, immune to the mistakes that mar her best friend’s life. Then a sudden loss catapults Lorrie Ann into tragedy: things fall apart, and then fall further - and there is nothing Mia can do to help.
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Friendship and Perception
- By FanB14 on 04-21-15
By: Rufi Thorpe