-
Telegraph Avenue
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Clarke Peters
- Length: 18 hrs and 39 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Audible Premium Plus
$14.95 a month
Buy for $39.92
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Wonder Boys
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A wildly successful first novel made Grady Tripp a young star, and seven years later he still hasn't grown up. He's now a writing professor in Pittsburgh, plummeting through middle age, stuck with an unfinishable manuscript, an estranged wife, a pregnant girlfriend, and a talented but deeply disturbed student named James Leer.
-
-
Good listening albeit rather slow
- By MIGHTYA on 09-22-14
By: Michael Chabon
-
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
- A Novel
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: Peter Riegert
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For 60 years Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the federal district of Sitka, a temporary safe haven created in the wake of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. The Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. But now the district is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end.
-
-
Didn't finish...
- By Ann E O'Connor on 10-16-17
By: Michael Chabon
-
Moonglow
- A Novel
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moonglow unfolds as the deathbed confession, made to his grandson, of a man the narrator refers to only as "my grandfather". It is a tale of madness, of war and adventure, of sex and desire and ordinary love, of existential doubt and model rocketry, of the shining aspirations and demonic underpinnings of American technological accomplishment at midcentury, and, above all, of the destructive impact - and the creative power - of the keeping of secrets and the telling of lies.
-
-
Loved the book. Winced at the pronunciation.
- By lisa cole on 12-22-16
By: Michael Chabon
-
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1939, in New York City. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdiniesque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat: smuggling himself out of Hitler's Prague. He's looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for a partner in creating the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book. Inspired by their own fantasies, fears, and dreams, they create the Escapist.
-
-
A World I DON'T Ever Want to Escape From.
- By Darwin8u on 06-12-12
By: Michael Chabon
-
Summerland
- A Novel
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: Michael Chabon
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ethan Feld is having a terrible summer: His father has moved them to Clam Island, Washington, where Ethan has quickly established himself as the least gifted baseball player the island has ever seen. Ethan's luck begins to change, however, when a mysterious baseball scout named Ringfinger Brown and a 765-year-old werefox enter his life, dragging Ethan into another world called the Summerlands.
-
-
Summer Road Trip with my Kids
- By spendthrift on 08-03-16
By: Michael Chabon
-
Gentlemen of the Road
- A Tale of Adventure
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: Andre Braugher
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They're an odd pair, to be sure: pale, rail-thin, black-clad Zelikman, a moody, itinerant physician fond of jaunty headgear, and ex-soldier Amram, a gray-haired giant of a man as quick with a razor-tongued witticism as he is with a sharpened battle-ax. Brothers under the skin, comrades in arms, they make their rootless way through the Caucasus Mountains, circa A.D. 950.
-
-
Incredible Story - Fitting Narrator!
- By TH on 12-01-09
By: Michael Chabon
-
Wonder Boys
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A wildly successful first novel made Grady Tripp a young star, and seven years later he still hasn't grown up. He's now a writing professor in Pittsburgh, plummeting through middle age, stuck with an unfinishable manuscript, an estranged wife, a pregnant girlfriend, and a talented but deeply disturbed student named James Leer.
-
-
Good listening albeit rather slow
- By MIGHTYA on 09-22-14
By: Michael Chabon
-
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
- A Novel
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: Peter Riegert
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For 60 years Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the federal district of Sitka, a temporary safe haven created in the wake of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. The Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. But now the district is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end.
-
-
Didn't finish...
- By Ann E O'Connor on 10-16-17
By: Michael Chabon
-
Moonglow
- A Novel
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moonglow unfolds as the deathbed confession, made to his grandson, of a man the narrator refers to only as "my grandfather". It is a tale of madness, of war and adventure, of sex and desire and ordinary love, of existential doubt and model rocketry, of the shining aspirations and demonic underpinnings of American technological accomplishment at midcentury, and, above all, of the destructive impact - and the creative power - of the keeping of secrets and the telling of lies.
-
-
Loved the book. Winced at the pronunciation.
- By lisa cole on 12-22-16
By: Michael Chabon
-
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1939, in New York City. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdiniesque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat: smuggling himself out of Hitler's Prague. He's looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for a partner in creating the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book. Inspired by their own fantasies, fears, and dreams, they create the Escapist.
-
-
A World I DON'T Ever Want to Escape From.
- By Darwin8u on 06-12-12
By: Michael Chabon
-
Summerland
- A Novel
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: Michael Chabon
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ethan Feld is having a terrible summer: His father has moved them to Clam Island, Washington, where Ethan has quickly established himself as the least gifted baseball player the island has ever seen. Ethan's luck begins to change, however, when a mysterious baseball scout named Ringfinger Brown and a 765-year-old werefox enter his life, dragging Ethan into another world called the Summerlands.
-
-
Summer Road Trip with my Kids
- By spendthrift on 08-03-16
By: Michael Chabon
-
Gentlemen of the Road
- A Tale of Adventure
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: Andre Braugher
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They're an odd pair, to be sure: pale, rail-thin, black-clad Zelikman, a moody, itinerant physician fond of jaunty headgear, and ex-soldier Amram, a gray-haired giant of a man as quick with a razor-tongued witticism as he is with a sharpened battle-ax. Brothers under the skin, comrades in arms, they make their rootless way through the Caucasus Mountains, circa A.D. 950.
-
-
Incredible Story - Fitting Narrator!
- By TH on 12-01-09
By: Michael Chabon
-
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Michael Chabon masterfully renders the funny, tender, and captivating first-person narrative of Art Bechstein, whose confusion and heartache echo the tones of literary forebears like The Catcher in the Rye's Holden Caulfield and The Great Gatsby's Nick Carraway. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh incontrovertibly established Chabon as a powerful force in contemporary fiction, even before his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. An unforgettable story of coming of age in America, it is also an essential milestone in American fiction.
-
-
Disappointing
- By George S. Pichon Jr. on 04-13-18
By: Michael Chabon
-
Smoke
- By: Joe Ide
- Narrated by: Zeno Robinson
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After double-crossing gang leaders on both sides of the city, IQ has become LA's most hunted man in this thrilling crime novel from an "electrifying" talent (Time).
-
-
Ugh
- By lance g morton on 03-03-21
By: Joe Ide
-
Motherless Brooklyn
- By: Jonathan Lethem
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Cantor
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From America's most inventive novelist, Jonathan Lethem, comes this compelling and compulsive riff on the classic detective novel. Lionel Essrog is Brooklyn's very own Human Freakshow, an orphan whose Tourettic impulses drive him to bark, count, and rip apart language in startling and original ways. Together with three veterans of the St. Vincent's Home for Boys, he works for small-time mobster Frank Minna's limo service cum detective agency. Life without Frank, the charismatic King of Brooklyn, would be unimaginable.
-
-
You're Not the Only Freak Show in Town!
- By Dave on 05-01-14
By: Jonathan Lethem
-
Outlawed
- By: Anna North
- Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The day of her wedding, 17-year-old Ada’s life looks good; she loves her husband, and she loves working as an apprentice to her mother, a respected midwife. But after a year of marriage and no pregnancy, in a town where barren women are routinely hanged as witches, her survival depends on leaving behind everything she knows. She joins up with the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, a band of outlaws led by a preacher-turned-robber known to all as the Kid. Charismatic, grandiose and mercurial, the Kid is determined to create a safe haven for outcast women.
-
-
Interesting idea
- By Sarahmarie on 01-17-21
By: Anna North
-
Empire Falls
- By: Richard Russo
- Narrated by: Ron McLarty
- Length: 20 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dexter County, Maine, and specifically the town of Empire Falls, has seen better days, and for decades, in fact, only a succession from bad to worse. One by one, its logging and textile enterprises have gone belly-up, and the once vast holdings of the Whiting clan (presided over by the last scion’s widow) now mostly amount to decrepit real estate. The working classes, meanwhile, continue to eke out whatever meager promise isn’t already boarded up. Miles Roby gazes over this ruined kingdom from the Empire Grill, an opportunity of his youth that has become the albatross of his life.
-
-
Hugely Enjoyable
- By margaret on 01-23-12
By: Richard Russo
-
Labyrinths
- Selected Stories & Other Writings
- By: Jorge Luis Borges
- Narrated by: Dominic Keating
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The groundbreaking trans-genre work of Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) has been insinuating itself into the structure, stance, and very breath of world literature for well over half a century. Multi-layered, self-referential, elusive, and allusive writing is now frequently labelled Borgesian.
-
-
Look, this is Borges
- By Lars Spuybroek on 05-27-20
-
Missionaries
- A Novel
- By: Phil Klay
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Cynthia Farrell, Henry Leyva, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A group of Colombian soldiers prepares to raid a drug lord's safe house on the Venezuelan border. They're watching him with an American-made drone, about to strike using military tactics taught to them by US soldiers who honed their skills to lethal perfection in Iraq. In Missionaries, Phil Klay examines the globalization of violence through the interlocking stories of four characters and the conflicts that define their lives.
-
-
Captivating, realistic, and touching
- By Derek Long on 02-11-21
By: Phil Klay
-
The City We Became
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Manhattan, a young grad student gets off the train and realizes he doesn't remember who he is, where he's from, or even his own name. But he can sense the beating heart of the city, see its history, and feel its power. In the Bronx, a Lenape gallery director discovers strange graffiti scattered throughout the city, so beautiful and powerful it's as if the paint is literally calling to her. In Brooklyn, a politician and mother finds she can hear the songs of her city, pulsing to the beat of her Louboutin heels.
-
-
I don't understand the hype
- By Joe on 04-13-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
-
Deacon King Kong
- A Novel
- By: James McBride
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and, in front of everybody, shoots the project's drug dealer at point-blank range. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride's funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird.
-
-
Masterpiece
- By Linda G McDonough on 05-17-20
By: James McBride
-
The Corrections
- A Novel
- By: Jonathan Franzen
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 21 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Corrections is a grandly entertaining novel for the new century--a comic, tragic masterpiece about a family breaking down in an age of easy fixes. After almost 50 years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson's disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives. Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.
-
-
Uniquely divisive book.
- By Richard Delman on 08-27-18
By: Jonathan Franzen
-
Underworld
- By: Don DeLillo
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 31 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nick Shay and Klara Sax knew each other once, intimately, and they meet again in the American desert. He is trying to outdistance the crucial events of his early life, haunted by the hard logic of loss and by the echo of a gunshot in a basement room. She is an artist who has made a blood struggle for independence.
-
-
CYBEX burned into my eyes
- By Ruth Ann Orlansky on 07-01-12
By: Don DeLillo
-
Homeland Elegies
- A Novel
- By: Ayad Akhtar
- Narrated by: Ayad Akhtar
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ayad Akhtar forges a new narrative voice to capture a country in which debt has ruined countless lives and the gods of finance rule, where immigrants live in fear, and where the nation's unhealed wounds wreak havoc around the world. Akhtar attempts to make sense of it all through the lens of a story about one family, from a heartland town in America to palatial suites in Central Europe to guerrilla lookouts in the mountains of Afghanistan, and spares no one - least of all himself - in the process.
-
-
a mishmash of political theory and porn
- By LC on 02-06-21
By: Ayad Akhtar
Publisher's Summary
As the summer of 2004 draws to a close, Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe are still hanging in there - longtime friends, bandmates, and co-regents of Brokeland Records, a kingdom of used vinyl located in the borderlands of Berkeley and Oakland. Their wives, Gwen Shanks and Aviva Roth-Jaffe, are the Berkeley Birth Partners, a pair of semi-legendary midwives who have welcomed, between them, more than a thousand newly minted citizens into the dented utopia at whose heart - half tavern, half temple - stands Brokeland Records.
When ex-NFL quarterback Gibson Goode, the fifth-richest black man in the United States, announces plans to build his latest Dogpile megastore on a nearby stretch of Telegraph Avenue, Nat and Archy fear it means certain doom for their vulnerable little enterprise. Meanwhile, Aviva and Gwen also find themselves caught up in a battle for their professional existence, one that tests the limits of their friendship. Adding another layer of complication to the couples' already tangled lives is the surprise appearance of Titus Joyner, the teenage son Archy has never acknowledged and the love of 15-year-old Julius Jaffe's life.
What listeners say about Telegraph Avenue
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- T. C. Pile
- 10-20-12
Music Lover's Delight
Michael Chabon is an author whose reputation certainly precedes him, and I don't know how I've managed to go this long without digging in to his work. Certainly, there is a nagging concern that what you've heard or read is hype, and that the actual experience is going to be a letdown.
This is not the case here. Telegraph Avenue is everything I want in a novel and more. It's a deep and thoughful reflection on the relationships between blacks and whites, the intermeshing of cultures, of gentrification and urban renewal. It's a detailed and insightful memoir of a time and a place, populated with a rich tapestry of characters who are fully drawn and completely believable. There's a compelling story that spins an intricate web around you and makes you care about what happens; that involves you in a complex set of relationships between people and their community and the conflicts between their personal histories, their aspirations, their families, and their limitations. Local politics, social responsibility, Black Panthers, kung fu, environmentalism, aging blaxploitation stars, midwifery, the impossibility of being 14 years old -- it's all there.
And music. Telegraph Avenue pulses with music, both in the many references that become a soundtrack running in your head and in the detailed, lively descriptions of the incredible conflagration of funk, soul, R&B, rock and roll and jazz that bubbled up out of the American cultural melting pot beginning in the Sixties and continuing to this day. If you don't know what a CTI release was, go do some listening. It will add a layer of depth to the experience of this book that is priceless.
Chabon delivers extremely realistic dialog that includes plenty of street slang and Clarke Peters handles the narration of the audiobook with superb attention to the personalities and characterizations. He gives a believable and authentic voice to a wide cast of characters that includes everything from a 14 year old gay white kid to a nonagenarian Chinese woman, and delivers the narrative in a style that is deeply sensitive to cultural and political connotations. His wonderful voice becomes the music of this experience.
Dig it.
21 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Darwin8u
- 09-11-12
26,784 sq in (and 4.5 miles) surrounded by REALITY
I lived for several idyllic months during my virgin adulthood in Boulder, Colorado. There was a term often tossed around, at least then, that Boulder was 20 square miles surrounded by reality (I've since heard the same line used for Madison, Austin and Berkeley).
Like Boulder, the real Telegraph Avenue exists in an idealized borderland surrounded by reality that stretches 4.5 miles from downtown Oakland to U.C. Berkeley. On this street you find the restaurants, used clothing shops, street vendors, bookstores, RECORD SHOPS, college students, hipsters, eccentrics, tourists and the homeless. This setting, like Brokeland itself, is in many ways the natural habitat of Chabon. That very setting is both a blessing and a curse in this novel. First, it allows Chabon to do what he does best. He can vamp about people, sing with the language of the street, jump, jive and pirouette with English prose in a way that makes writers' drool with envy. "Telegraph Avenue" is 26,784 sq in (9 in x 6.2 in x 480 pps) surrounded by reality.
The downside is, in "Telegraph Avenue", Chabon gives us (for the most part) almost exactly what we expect. It is a ostinato playground with strong and confident prose riffs, but offers the safety of repetition and the comfort of Nat's call and Archy's response.
But let's just get real. I'm reviewing this novel because I loved it. Because I have been waiting for his book to drop like my young son waits for his favorite balloon magician to go to start blowing and twisting. Last night at 1:00 am, I grabbed the novel, downloaded the audio, and hyper-caffeinated myself for an all night experience that only Chabon can deliver.
Both Chabon's successes and his literary failures grow from the reality that he takes more risks in one sentence than many writers take in one chapter. If I judge him harder than this book deserves, perhaps it is only because his previous novels (Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Yiddish Policeman's Union, etc) have cast such huge, intense literary shadows in my mind. Any future work by Chabon has a helluva fight for recognition or equivalence. Listening to "Telegraph Avenue" I am tempted to believe that even Chabon's farts must sometimes sing when he is walking in Berkeley.
I would be remiss if I didn't also note that Clarke Peters is THE perfect narrator for this novel. His voice is a mixture of $ex, J@ZZ, and stree+ prophet. I do hope this isn't the last book he does. He was one of the best actors in two of the very best shows on TV (the Wire and Treme). Clarke's voice owned this novel and for a night both Chabon and Clarke shared joint ownership of my Brokeland head.
77 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rose
- 12-18-12
Funny, charming story with memorable characters
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I would recommend this book to all current and future fans of Michael Chabon.
With pitch-perfect narration by the talented Clarke Peters of The Wire and Treme, this book was so entertaining I listened to it twice, immediately. I became attached to the characters and their humorous and relatable foibles and didn't want the book to end. Michael Chabon's books are reliably great, and this one benefits from being told close-to-home by a Berkeley writer.
After a chapter or two, you feel like you feel at home in "Brokeland"--the border between bourgeoise Berkeley and poorer Oakland--with the gentrifiers and the old timers, 70s film stars, vinyl loving nostalgics, lawsuit-happy yuppies, and people trying to walk between these worlds.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Telegraph Avenue?
The uproariously drunken and messy funeral for the old-timer musician / commie / vinyl collector Mr. Jones was probably the zenith of this wild ride.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I laughed each time I listened.
Any additional comments?
I hope Clarke Peters records more books :)
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- scott
- 01-14-13
Skip the audiobook; read the real book
I'm a huge fan of audiobooks. I've probably listened to well over 200 titles, including some literary works. Having enjoyed other books by Michael Chabon, I started to listen to Telegraph Avenue with the highest expectations, but simply couldn't continue beyond a couple of hours. I'm notsure what the problem was, but I had to abandon the book early on. After a couple of months, I finally picked up the actual book and loved it. It is a brilliant novel, with themes of parents/sons; spouses, partners, race, etc. As some reviewers have noted, it recalls Joyce's Ulysses, at least superficially. It just doesn't work as an audiobook, despite the best efforts of the narrator. So, this is just one of those occasions when one is better advised to skip the audio and read the text. (Note, an article in the Times Sunday Book review from November 2013 also led with this book as a prime example of a title that didn't work in audio format.)
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Steven
- 10-08-12
How Does He Do It?
Michael Chabon has written, but I should say crafted, a novel that includes the areas of family, friendships, r & b music of the 70's, race relations, and the idea of neighborhood. The stories that he weaves through the novel are fascinating and the interactions of the characters will make this book a Pulitzer contender. I have read several novels by Chabon and this is truly special.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Richard
- 03-22-16
Just not as thrilling as his previous works.
I've read (not listened to) all of Chabon's novels and this one, while enjoyable, just seems like him in a minor key. Story takes a while to get started and once it does never seems to take off. (This is odd since there is a long set piece taking place in a dirigible with a night club attached.)
Also, the story, while amusing, just didn't seem to have the depth of his best ones. I got through it but just barely.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Darrell Rupe
- 01-21-13
Chabon is clearly one of best modern day writers
I have great respect for Michael Chabon's intellect, I have to stretch my mental muscles to keep up and that can take away from enjoying his storytelling. I was here in Berkeley, frequenting the renown Telegraph Ave before, during and after the time frame of this story and I was a bit surprised by how fictional he made the setting. It is a street with much personal history for many of us, and he could have drawn on more of the culture even though that seemed to be part of his agenda. Probably a desire for more local nostalgia I was hoping to find.
The reader's performance was smooth and although I couldn't always keep the characters separated, it was done very well.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Grant
- 11-04-12
Mind = boggled.
Chabon is a master. It's clear that he is in full command of his craft and he has produced another work of incredible originality with a near perfect mixture of humor, anger, uncertainty, conflict, joy and loss. His deep understanding of the characters and the lives they live is truly astonishing. I find it hard to believe that one author could convey so much truth about music, infidelity, homosexuality, community politics, male friendships, kung-fu and 70's blacksploittion films; my mind is officially boggled. I truly enjoyed this book. From beginning to end. Why four stars instead of five? I'm not really certain, except to say that, when taken in context of his other works, Telegraph Avenue was not my favorite. Although it was up there. If I could give it four and three quarters stars I would.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Julie W. Capell
- 07-16-13
Couldn't get into this novel
What could Michael Chabon have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
I got this as an audio book to listen to for one of my book clubs. Listened to about one hour, but couldn't get into it. I loved "Cavalier and Clay" and have a passing familiarity with the city of Oakland, but this book just seemed too forced. All the name-dropping of "famous" jazz musicians and their celebrated albums, most of which I had never heard of, left me out in the cold. Maybe if snippets of their work had been playing in the background . . . but without any clues, I had no idea who most of them were. Add to that the fact that not a single female character had appeared in the first hour, which was also a bit alienating. One of the main characters is a has-been kung fu star of "B" (or possibly "C") movies, another reference that just didn't grab me. I don't mind being exposed to new ideas through books, in fact I usually welcome it, but I just wasn't compelled to go over to my computer and start googling the names of the other kung-fu stars that were mentioned. Decided the book was too long and summer too short, so hit the "off" button and moved on to the next book in my pile.
Which character – as performed by Clarke Peters – was your favorite?
I did think Clarke Peters was doing a good job of performing the book.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rebecca J. Leamon
- 05-11-13
An incredibly written and read story!
I love Michael Chabon's writing, and Telegraph Avenue merely fueled my opinion. Clarke Peters's top-notch delivery probably helped, but I frequently wished I had a paper copy of the text handy so I could share a particularly gorgeous excerpt with a friend, a student, or simply save it to reread and marvel over. The story is a daring and original amalgam of coming of age/revery/adventure/American classic/marriage hand book. . . Wow. The chapters told from the point of view of the 14 year old boys in which the moms are the enemies in their role-playing-samurai games are hysterical; even many of Chabon's throw away lines are remarkable for their original but effective writing. My one quibble, as with Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, is that Chabon's detailed descriptive eye falls on everything--and I don't really want/need to know the ins and outs (unfortunately, that is often literally true) of the characters' sexual activities. Personally, I am a believer in keeping certain parts of life private; practically, this kind of painstaking description makes it that much harder to use his novels in a high school classroom, which I'd love to do.
So: highly, highly recommended. Terrific reading and a terrific novel, but the subject matter can definitely veer into the R rated at times.
2 people found this helpful