Mariana

By: André Aciman

Narrated by: Mamie Gummer

Length: 1 hr and 37 mins

Publisher's Summary

A hot-blooded new story written by the New York Times best-selling author of Call Me By Your Name and performed by Mamie Gummer (The Good Wife, True Detective).  

Mariana has just arrived at the Academy in Italy, where she will spend the next few months on fellowship. That night, over dinner with the other fellows, she meets Itamar. He is handsome and charismatic, and a known Lothario. Although she is aware that an affair with this man may not end well for her, Mariana finds herself falling for Itamar nonetheless. When he abruptly leaves her, Mariana is unmoored. Intent on not giving Itamar the satisfaction of knowing he has destroyed her, Mariana must present a cool façade, until a chance encounter with him in public threatens to leave her completely undone.  

By turns incisive and scathing, Mariana is at once a keen psychological portrait and a gripping story of a scorned lover’s descent into despair and rage.    

©2021 André Aciman (P)2021 Audible Originals

Don't bother

This was supposed to keep me intrigued the entire book, says audible. I got it for a car ride to keep me awake, I fell asleep, wrecked and died.🙄

So pathetic

Not worth the time I invested in this sad pathetic neurotic lovesick pinning for a man.

An old man's fantasy.

I kept waiting for this to turn into more than a lovesick 14-year-old's diary entry (I just want to smell his armpit!) but it never did. There are some who will like this old man's fantasy of how his European summer fling romance from 60 years ago fawned and pined and missed him when he left her and broke her heart. There are some who want to hear a solid 90 minutes of this "woman" argue with herself internally over a guy who has clearly moved on (I'm not in love with him; I'm desperately in love with him; I'll never speak to him again; I'll write him a letter telling him how he's undone me; I avoid even glancing at him; I wait each day for a card from him that I know will never come). There are, however, others who'd rather be stabbed in the eye with a fountain pen. If you're one of the latter, just walk away.

Left crying

I have never read something that I felt in my soul like I felt this. Cried because I felt this pain before. Definitely worth it

Don't waste your time!

Total snooze fest! Don't waste your time. The story was nonsense if you consider that a story!!!

The writing will take your breath away

The writing is so amazing. The author has such a way with words. The way he describes the characters feelings is so intense. I never knew feelings can be described almost better than the actual feeling itself because of how fleeting they can be. it's like he slowed time down and carefully described every fleeting feeling no matter how small and made it so relatable. It was beautiful.

A Painful Obsession

I heard Andre Aciman say during an interview that he was working on a short story told from the woman’s point of view and that it was challenging for him to write from that perspective. Well, he nailed it! This is a story about a brief but intense relationship that will forever haunt the woman involved and will sound so utterly familiar to anyone who has experienced such an obsession. As expected, a profound listen!

This is How Some People Truly Think

This is a perfect example of how some of us truly think when we are in love and/or obsessed. An accurate depiction of someone never laving your thoughts. I loved this short story, love the authors writing style, and love the narration. Highly recommend!

Wow.

Oh boy—how this focused on the feeling we know so well, but how it lingers and goes through many facets of it. Aciman’s writing always fascinated me and I think that’s what made this story work, because some have called it boring, but I left thinking—wow. I wanted to know more but it’s clear in this story why it’s the way it is. It’s an interesting 1hr30mins read and I’d come back to it again in the future.

Booooooooooooring

Ugh, don’t waste your time. Unremarkable, unmemorable, uninteresting, underwhelming, unrelenting blah. Read by Meryl Streep’s daughter.