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The Argonauts
- Narrated by: Maggie Nelson
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
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Publisher's summary
National Book Critics Circle Award winner, Criticism, 2015.
An intrepid voyage out to the frontiers of the latest thinking about love, language, and family.
Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts is a genre-bending memoir, a work of "autotheory" offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language. At its center is a romance: the story of the author's relationship with the artist Harry Dodge. This story, which includes Nelson's account of falling in love with Dodge, who is fluidly gendered, as well as her journey to and through a pregnancy, is an intimate portrayal of the complexities and joys of (queer) family making.
Writing in the spirit of public intellectuals such as Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes, Nelson binds her personal experience to a rigorous exploration of what iconic theorists have said about sexuality, gender, and the vexed institutions of marriage and child-rearing. Nelson's insistence on radical individual freedom and the value of caretaking becomes the rallying cry of this thoughtful, unabashed, uncompromising book.
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Editor's Pick
A game-changer in audio
"Remember how much of a game-changer this title was when it came out? This was that title everyone was talking about—and rightfully so. It’s inventive, intelligent, and beautiful. And made all the better by Maggie Nelson’s narration."
—Aaron S., Audible Editor
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What listeners say about The Argonauts
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- redhidari
- 10-01-15
A relaxing meditation on identity, gender and art
A friend close to the author told me numerous times to read this book. Because I was in school, because I had no time to read, because I was busy raising hell, I put it off. After getting a punishing job that has left me no time for reading I decided to take his advice and buy the audiobook for my long LA commutes. I finally understood the parallels he saw and the radical voice of Maggie I feel is a commonality. I should have read the book but I would have missed out on the author's soothing voice. I would have missed the slight intonation she gave to certain subjects or the correct pronunciation of the names of theorists I had never known how to properly pronounce. This is a beautiful, meditative and at times painfully personal story. What a gift that Harry and Maggie allowed the world in. The ideas, the stories and her voice will stay with me for a very long time. Well done.
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28 people found this helpful
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- Victoria Wick
- 11-20-16
Didn't really care for this book
Had some interesting ideas but she quoted/paraphrased something too much, it felt like she was trying to make it longer. Made it feel really unoriginal
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15 people found this helpful
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- Mandy
- 10-10-17
I couldn't finish this book!
I couldn't finish this book. I only gave it 2 stars because I like that the author tackled such a timely take on the new idea of family.
I *may* have enjoyed it more if I hadn't listened to it. It was narrated by the author, and her monotone reading was off-putting. She's writing/reading about her family and there was absolutely NO feeling. However, I also did not love her writing style. She quotes other authors, A LOT. So much so, that it's hard to keep up with the thread of what she was originally talking about. It felt many times like she was reveling in her own literary knowledge.
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14 people found this helpful
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- Claire T.
- 09-05-16
Intelligent Stream of Thought on Gender &Sexuality
Would you consider the audio edition of The Argonauts to be better than the print version?
If I could go back, I would definitely rather read the print version than listen to the audiobook. Maggie Nelson has a very eloquent and intelligent way of speaking/writing, and so I feel I would've better understood her story and what she was trying to say if I were able to visually re-read and analyze certain passages. She used a handful of words that I was not familiar with when listening to this while driving for lengthy periods of time, and so I was unable to look up the definitions of those particular words in the moment. Another issue with listening to this book instead of reading it is that Nelson uses a lot of quotations from other writers, theorists, and philosophers and this sometimes makes the performance a little choppy because of the author having to verbally say "quote... unquote" around every quotation.
What did you like best about this story?
I loved the mixture of styles. Nelson masterfully intertwined memoir story telling with intellectual/academic discussions of gender, sexuality, and relationship. This is definitely not your average story or novel, it is very unique and so it really stands above and beyond any other book for me.
Have you listened to any of Maggie Nelson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I have not, but I think her narration of this novel was fantastic. I imagine some may think she had a lack of animation to her voice, but I loved her straight forward way of reading. For me it made the humour of certain passages really stand out, as well as letting the words speak for themselves.
If you could give The Argonauts a new subtitle, what would it be?
The Argonauts: Falling forever, falling to pieces
Any additional comments?
Although I loved this book, I do wish it would have been divided into a couple more chapters. I also wish the audiobook would have verbally indicated when chapters were beginning
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14 people found this helpful
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- Carol Goodman
- 09-21-15
This book speaks to me and for me
A treasure- scholarship woven thru the most intimate and exquisitely written details of lives lived deeply, honestly. Love and curiosity guide the trajectory of each inquiry. This book is a rich expression of liberation.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Rachel
- 09-08-18
Not for me
I have heard great things about this book, and I gave it a solid chance, but it was 100% not for me.
It was exceedingly depressing. It tells the story of the narrator and her significant other, but the story is just a litany of the ways society fails the couple because of prejudice. I didn't care about the main characters. It sucks that people are unpleasant to them, but I didn't want to read an unremittingly negative litany of all the terrible things society does to them with no way out and no way through. The author's life must just be completely awful with no silver lining and no good experiences ever. I can't even understand why the couple stays together. Nelson in the book felt like the inspiration for Debbie Downer or Eeyore.
The narration emphasized this feeling with a plodding, monotone. I really tried to appreciate the book. I tried listening to it on at least 5 separate occasions, trying out the possibility that I was in the wrong mood or frame of mind. I even increased the narration speed--first to 1.25 and then to 1.5. I thought I could plod through it--it's fairly short.
Nothing helped. I gave it a real chance and I can confidently say that I heartily disliked it.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Sharlotte
- 09-09-17
Mixed Feelings. Strange Book
I found this book frustratingly elusive and lacking linear organization, although there were some interesting points in her stream of thought and ongoing reflections. The narration was mixed as well. Nelson has a beautiful, clear voice, but her reading is methodical and distant. I would not particularly recommend this book because it's too obtuse, even for my quirky taste.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Megan
- 07-06-16
Wonderful writing
While Maggie Nelson was not my favorite narrator, the writing was captivating. The author offers such a mesmerizing take on all aspects of love and being human. I learned so much from such a short book.
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8 people found this helpful
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- C. Rose
- 07-14-17
I cried, and I don't do that often.
Wow. What a beautiful, tough, humane book. Wish there were more stars for me to offer it. Not a good one to share with young children, and not an easy thing to listen to if you've already lost your own mother. But wow. I can't recommend this enough. Thank you Maggie.
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- Mara
- 05-12-16
So intense
This is the most important book I read since Between the World and Me.
Intense and electrifying and amazing! I'll definitely be re reading this many many times
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Story
Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color.... Since 2009, when it first published, to today, Bluets has drawn scores of readers and listeners with its surprising insights into the emotional depths that make us most human - via 240 short pieces, at once lyrical and philosophical, on the color blue. This new edition celebrates Maggie Nelson’s uncompromising vision, inviting longtime fans and newcomers alike to experience and share in an indispensable work that continues to disrupt the literary landscape.
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nothing like bluets
- By SuZ on 04-08-21
By: Maggie Nelson
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The Death of the Heart
- By: Elizabeth Bowen
- Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this piercing story of innocence betrayed set in the 30s, the orphaned Portia is stranded in the sophisticated and politely treacherous world of her wealthy half-brother's home in London. There she encounters the attractive, carefree cad Eddie. To him, Portia is at once child and woman, and her fears her gushing love. To her, Eddie is the only reason to be alive. But when Eddie follows Portia to a sea-side resort, the flash of a cigarette lighter in a darkened cinema illuminates a stunning romantic betrayal.
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Beautifully Crafted Story
- By LRWord on 02-27-23
By: Elizabeth Bowen
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The Art of Cruelty
- A Reckoning
- By: Maggie Nelson
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Today both reality and entertainment crowd our fields of vision with brutal imagery. The pervasiveness of images of torture, horror, and war has all but demolished the 20th-century hope that such imagery might shock us into a less alienated state, or aid in the creation of a just social order. What to do now? When to look, when to turn away? Genre-busting author Maggie Nelson brilliantly navigates this contemporary predicament, with an eye to the question of whether or not focusing on representations of cruelty makes us cruel.
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Wonderful book, mediocre narration
- By Melina on 11-14-17
By: Maggie Nelson
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On Freedom
- Four Songs of Care and Constraint
- By: Maggie Nelson
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
So often deployed as a jingoistic, even menacing rallying cry, or limited by a focus on passing moments of liberation, the rhetoric of freedom both rouses and repels. Does it remain key to our autonomy, justice, and well-being, or is freedom's long star turn coming to a close? Does a continued obsession with the term enliven and emancipate, or reflect a deepening nihilism (or both)? On Freedom examines such questions by tracing the concept's complexities in four distinct realms: art, sex, drugs, and climate.
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Just great
- By Kristi Strong on 12-14-21
By: Maggie Nelson
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The Red Parts
- Autobiography of a Trial
- By: Maggie Nelson
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
A chilling genre-busting memoir by a major American essayist. Late in 2004, Maggie Nelson was looking forward to the publication of her book, Jane: A Murder, a narrative in verse about the life and death of her aunt, who had been murdered 35 years before. The case remained unsolved, but Jane was assumed to have been the victim of an infamous serial killer in Michigan in 1969.
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Compelling, but missing something deeper
- By S. Yates on 03-17-17
By: Maggie Nelson
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Nightwood
- By: Djuna Barnes, Jeanette Winterson - preface, T. S. Eliot - introduction
- Narrated by: Gemma Dawson
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Nightwood, Djuna Barnes's strange and sinuous tour de force novel unfolds in the decadent shadows of Europe's great cities, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna - a world in which the boundaries of class, religion, and sexuality are bold but surprisingly porous. The outsized characters who inhabit this world are some of the most memorable in all of fiction.
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The unendurable is the beginning of the curve...
- By Darwin8u on 01-18-20
By: Djuna Barnes, and others
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Bluets
- By: Maggie Nelson
- Narrated by: Maggie Nelson
- Length: 2 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color.... Since 2009, when it first published, to today, Bluets has drawn scores of readers and listeners with its surprising insights into the emotional depths that make us most human - via 240 short pieces, at once lyrical and philosophical, on the color blue. This new edition celebrates Maggie Nelson’s uncompromising vision, inviting longtime fans and newcomers alike to experience and share in an indispensable work that continues to disrupt the literary landscape.
-
-
nothing like bluets
- By SuZ on 04-08-21
By: Maggie Nelson
-
The Death of the Heart
- By: Elizabeth Bowen
- Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this piercing story of innocence betrayed set in the 30s, the orphaned Portia is stranded in the sophisticated and politely treacherous world of her wealthy half-brother's home in London. There she encounters the attractive, carefree cad Eddie. To him, Portia is at once child and woman, and her fears her gushing love. To her, Eddie is the only reason to be alive. But when Eddie follows Portia to a sea-side resort, the flash of a cigarette lighter in a darkened cinema illuminates a stunning romantic betrayal.
-
-
Beautifully Crafted Story
- By LRWord on 02-27-23
By: Elizabeth Bowen
-
The Art of Cruelty
- A Reckoning
- By: Maggie Nelson
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today both reality and entertainment crowd our fields of vision with brutal imagery. The pervasiveness of images of torture, horror, and war has all but demolished the 20th-century hope that such imagery might shock us into a less alienated state, or aid in the creation of a just social order. What to do now? When to look, when to turn away? Genre-busting author Maggie Nelson brilliantly navigates this contemporary predicament, with an eye to the question of whether or not focusing on representations of cruelty makes us cruel.
-
-
Wonderful book, mediocre narration
- By Melina on 11-14-17
By: Maggie Nelson
-
On Freedom
- Four Songs of Care and Constraint
- By: Maggie Nelson
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So often deployed as a jingoistic, even menacing rallying cry, or limited by a focus on passing moments of liberation, the rhetoric of freedom both rouses and repels. Does it remain key to our autonomy, justice, and well-being, or is freedom's long star turn coming to a close? Does a continued obsession with the term enliven and emancipate, or reflect a deepening nihilism (or both)? On Freedom examines such questions by tracing the concept's complexities in four distinct realms: art, sex, drugs, and climate.
-
-
Just great
- By Kristi Strong on 12-14-21
By: Maggie Nelson
-
The Red Parts
- Autobiography of a Trial
- By: Maggie Nelson
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A chilling genre-busting memoir by a major American essayist. Late in 2004, Maggie Nelson was looking forward to the publication of her book, Jane: A Murder, a narrative in verse about the life and death of her aunt, who had been murdered 35 years before. The case remained unsolved, but Jane was assumed to have been the victim of an infamous serial killer in Michigan in 1969.
-
-
Compelling, but missing something deeper
- By S. Yates on 03-17-17
By: Maggie Nelson
-
Nightwood
- By: Djuna Barnes, Jeanette Winterson - preface, T. S. Eliot - introduction
- Narrated by: Gemma Dawson
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nightwood, Djuna Barnes's strange and sinuous tour de force novel unfolds in the decadent shadows of Europe's great cities, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna - a world in which the boundaries of class, religion, and sexuality are bold but surprisingly porous. The outsized characters who inhabit this world are some of the most memorable in all of fiction.
-
-
The unendurable is the beginning of the curve...
- By Darwin8u on 01-18-20
By: Djuna Barnes, and others
-
M to (WT)F
- Twenty-Six of the Funniest Moments from My Transgender Journey
- By: Samantha Allen
- Narrated by: Samantha Allen
- Length: 3 hrs and 18 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this poignant audio piece, Samantha Allen takes listeners along for the wild ride of her own transition: The good, the bad, but mostly, the funny. Because once she began this life-changing journey in earnest, Samantha realized that while the emotional trials of gender dysphoria and self-discovery could be harrowing, there were so many laugh-out-loud moments along this winding road.
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her past is my present
- By æ on 10-13-20
By: Samantha Allen
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The Idiot
- By: Elif Batuman
- Narrated by: Elif Batuman
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A portrait of the artist as a young woman. A novel about not just discovering but inventing oneself. The year is 1995, and email is new. Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, arrives for her freshman year at Harvard. She signs up for classes in subjects she has never heard of, befriends her charismatic and worldly Serbian classmate, Svetlana, and, almost by accident, begins corresponding with Ivan, an older mathematics student from Hungary.
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Fascinating point of view
- By Amazon Customer on 04-21-17
By: Elif Batuman
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In the Dream House
- A Memoir
- By: Carmen Maria Machado
- Narrated by: Carmen Maria Machado
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming. And it's that struggle that gives the book its original structure: each chapter is driven by its own narrative trope - the haunted house, erotica, the bildungsroman....
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Devastatingly Beautiful
- By SeattleBookLover on 02-04-20
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Wave
- By: Sonali Deraniyagala
- Narrated by: Hannah Curtis
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
On the morning of December 26, 2004, on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, Sonali Deraniyagala lost her parents, her husband, and her two young sons in the tsunami she miraculously survived. In this brave and searingly frank memoir, she describes those first horrifying moments and her long journey since. She has written an engrossing, unsentimental, beautifully poised account: as she struggles through the first months following the tragedy, furiously clenched against a reality that she cannot face and cannot deny....
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Tragic. Raw. Heart-Ripping!
- By CBlox on 03-19-13
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The Copenhagen Trilogy
- Childhood; Youth; Dependency
- By: Tove Ditlevsen, Tiina Nunnally - translator, Michael Favala Goldman - translator
- Narrated by: Stine Wintlev
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Called "a masterpiece" by The Guardian, this courageous and honest trilogy from Tove Ditlevsen, a pioneer in the field of genre-bending confessional writing, explores themes of family, sex, motherhood, abortion, addiction, and being an artist. This program contains all three volumes of her memoirs.