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The Russian Debutante’s Handbook
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins
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The Russian Debutante’s Handbook
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Publisher's summary
Best-selling author Gary Shteyngart’s exquisite fiction is met with a level of critical acclaim reserved for the very best in the field. In this startlingly provocative work, Russian immigrant Vladimir Girshkin searches for love and self-identity while interacting with a quirky set of acquaintances.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Loretta R. Cooper
- 01-24-14
Don't Let the Title Fool You
Attention fans of the bodice ripper -- this is NOT historical fiction. If you are looking for petticoats and princes this is not for you. It's also NOT a romance, although there is a lot of sex.
I know it's very stylish to adore this genre of fiction, gritty and surreal. I found the main character in turns boring and annoying. Clearly many people are quite enthralled with this author - who am I to quibble?
Still I would like a book to educate me, challenge me or entertain me. Like a good Russian novel, this one mostly depressed me.
Despite all that, there is much craft here; well-writen and very nicely performed by Adam Grupper. Before you buy, just know -- it's for an acquired kind of taste.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 11-16-23
Very Funny and right on
This is a very funny novel with a nebish hero of the first order descended from an archetypal Eastern European Jewish family of survivors. Escape!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kira Zalan
- 10-16-23
Brilliant
Hilarious, smart, and spot on about the nuances of Soviet and immigrant culture, as well as America.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- John
- 11-09-19
Hilarious and insightful.
A very funny story, with great reading by the narrator. Insightful into a culture that I am not a part of.
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- Narrated by: Nikki Massoud
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 26
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 21
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 21
Who are you? You are data about data. You are a map of connections—a culmination of everything you have ever posted, searched, emailed, liked, and followed. In this groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction, Kerry Howley investigates the curious implications of living in the age of the indelible. Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs tells the true story of intelligence specialist Reality Winner, a lone young woman who stuffs a state secret under her skirt and trusts the wrong people to help.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Really good - But Too Much Focus on Reality Winner
- By Anonymous User on 07-14-23
By: Kerry Howley
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Super Sad True Love Story
- A Novel
- By: Gary Shteyngart
- Narrated by: Ali Ahn, Adam Grupper
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 1,005
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 682
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 693
Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, creates a compelling reality in this tale about an illiterate America in the not-too-distant future. Lenny Abramov may just be penning the world’s last diary. Which is good, because while falling in love with a rather unpleasant woman and witnessing the fall of a great empire, Lenny has a lot to write about.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Dystopia Now
- By Ryan on 09-19-10
By: Gary Shteyngart
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Absurdistan
- By: Gary Shteyngart
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 84
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 70
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 71
Named as one of the New York Times Year’s Ten Best upon its publication, Gary Shteyngart’s Absurdistan is a biting, poignant satire of American-style democracy and the American Dream. After returning to Russia to attend his father’s funeral, 30-year-old Misha is subsequently denied a visa when he attempts to re-enter the United States.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Major Let Down
- By N. R. Gawlak on 03-03-14
By: Gary Shteyngart
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Lake Success
- A Novel
- By: Gary Shteyngart
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey, Soneela Nankani
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 573
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 516
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 511
Narcissistic, hilariously self-deluded, and divorced from the real world as most of us know it, hedge-fund manager Barry Cohen oversees $2.4 billion in assets. Deeply stressed by an SEC investigation and by his three-year-old son’s diagnosis of autism, he flees New York on a Greyhound bus in search of a simpler, more romantic life with his old college sweetheart. Meanwhile, his super-smart wife, Seema - a driven first-generation American who craved the picture-perfect life that comes with wealth - has her own demons to face.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Really can't stand Arthur Morey's reading
- By Anne on 12-11-18
By: Gary Shteyngart
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Our Country Friends
- A Novel
- By: Gary Shteyngart
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 537
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 457
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 455
In the rolling hills of upstate New York, a group of friends and friends-of-friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic. Over the next six months, new friendships and romances will take hold, while old betrayals will emerge, forcing each character to reevaluate whom they love and what matters most. The unlikely cast of characters includes a Russian-born novelist, his Russian-born psychiatrist wife, their precocious child obsessed with K-pop, a struggling Indian American writer, a wildly successful Korean American app developer, a global dandy with three passports.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautifully written, painful, but very, very moving
- By Jim on 11-08-21
By: Gary Shteyngart
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Little Failure
- A Memoir
- By: Gary Shteyngart
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 324
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 277
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 284
After three acclaimed novels - The Russian Debutante's Handbook, Absurdistan, and Super Sad True Love Story - Gary Shteyngart turns to memoir in a candid, witty, deeply poignant account of his life so far.
Shteyngart shares his American immigrant experience, moving back and forth through time and memory with self-deprecating humor, moving insights, and literary bravado. The result is a resonant story of family and belonging that feels epic and intimate and distinctly his own. Provocative, hilarious, and inventive, Little Failure reveals a deeper vein of emotion in Gary Shteyngart' s prose.
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1 out of 5 stars
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did not do much for me
- By Max on 04-27-14
By: Gary Shteyngart
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Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs
- A Journey Through the Deep State
- By: Kerry Howley
- Narrated by: Nikki Massoud
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 21
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 21
Who are you? You are data about data. You are a map of connections—a culmination of everything you have ever posted, searched, emailed, liked, and followed. In this groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction, Kerry Howley investigates the curious implications of living in the age of the indelible. Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs tells the true story of intelligence specialist Reality Winner, a lone young woman who stuffs a state secret under her skirt and trusts the wrong people to help.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Really good - But Too Much Focus on Reality Winner
- By Anonymous User on 07-14-23
By: Kerry Howley
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Rasa spends his days translating for Western journalists and pining for the nights when he can sneak his lover, Taymour, into his room. One night Rasa's grandmother - the woman who raised him - catches them in bed together. The following day Rasa is consumed by the search for his best friend, Maj, a fiery activist and drag queen star of the underground bar Guapa, who has been arrested by the police.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great stories but only 5 of 17 are included
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent
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3 out of 5 stars
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Compelling Story, Ridiculous Narrator
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In her tour-de-force first novel, Juliann Garey takes us inside the restless mind, ravaged heart, and anguished soul of Greyson Todd, a successful Hollywood studio executive who leaves his wife and young daughter and for a decade travels the world giving free reign to the bipolar disorder he's been forced to keep hidden for almost 20 years.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Charles Wang is mad at America. A brash, lovable immigrant businessman who built a cosmetics empire and made a fortune, he's just been ruined by the financial crisis. Now all Charles wants is to get his kids safely stowed away so that he can go to China and attempt to reclaim his family's ancestral lands - and his pride. Outrageously funny and full of charm, The Wangs vs. the World is an entirely fresh look at what it means to belong in America - and how going from glorious riches to (still name-brand) rags brings one family together in a way money never could.
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1 out of 5 stars
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5 out of 5 stars
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4 out of 5 stars
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent
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3 out of 5 stars
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In her tour