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Owls Do Cry
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5 out of 5 stars
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A lovely performance, and a wonderful story
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1 out of 5 stars
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just don't get this one
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M Train
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 916
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M Train begins in the tiny Greenwich Village café where Smith goes every morning for black coffee, ruminates on the world as it is and the world as it was, and writes in her notebook. Through prose that shifts fluidly between dreams and reality, past and present, and across a landscape of creative aspirations and inspirations, we travel to Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul in Mexico; to a meeting of an Arctic explorer's society in Berlin; and to the graves of Genet, Plath, Rimbaud, and Mishima.
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4 out of 5 stars
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"Nothing"
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Editorial Reviews
This poignant and semi-autobiographical debut novel from New Zealand author Janet Frame created a sensation when it was first published, in 1957. With gorgeous but often experimental writing and a plot featuring death, mental illness, and institutionalization, Owls Do Cry was frequently seen as too grim at the time it appeared. Here, performer Heather Bolton's warm, sensitive narration counterbalances the difficult subject matter and provides a compelling listen for a classic that’s full of original images and intense, poetic prose.
Publisher's Summary
Owls Do Cry is Janet Frame's first novel. She describes her idea behind it in the second volume of her autobiography:
"Pictures of great treasure in the midst of sadness and waste haunted me and I began to think, in fiction, of a childhood, home life, hospital life, using people known to me as a base for main characters, and inventing minor characters"
Regarded by many as one of the best New Zealand novels published, Owls Do Cry forms a loose trilogy with her two subsequent novels, Faces in the Water and The Edge of the Alphabet.
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- Chloe
- 01-18-18
almost too real
great narration of a great book. a tragic but worthwhile piece of writing. I will be listening to this again
1 of 1 people found this review helpful