Up Island

By: Anne Rivers Siddons

Narrated by: Dana Ivey

Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's Summary

Molly Bell Redwine was raised to believe that nothing is more important than "The Family". But everything Molly values is challenged when her domineering mother dies, her husband leaves her for a younger woman, and her Atlanta family scatters to the four winds. She takes refuge by visiting friends in Martha's Vineyard, a very different world that hastens her changing identity. She decides to stay on after the season, living in a small cottage where she cares for her bitter, aging landlady and the woman's ill and estranged son, Dennis. As she watches over Dennis, her landlady, and her newly-widowed father, Molly lets go of her tired notions of family and begins to form a strange, but very real, new one.

©1997 Anne River Siddons (P)1997 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"One doesn't read Siddons's books; one dwells in them....[Hers] are not characters in a novel, but people living and dying, loving and hating, hungering and scheming in a world made real." (Chicago Tribune)

Music was not necessary

I love the stories by Anna Rivers Siddons. I feel as if I know her
Characters She breathes life into them and the narrator is excellent. The only negative about the Audible version is the music between chapters - not only not necessary but ruins the flow of the story.

Abridged

If i had known the audible version was abridged,i might not have gotten. Ive tead the book version and i kinda do miss some of the missing parts. If you haven’t read the book, then the fact that it’s abridged won’t bother you. Storywise … it’s a great read

If whiny rural county voices annoy you, skip this one!

The narrator of this otherwise wonderful and engrossing story is god AWFUL. All of her characters sound the same. One character is supposed to be a northerner but you wouldn’t know it. The southern family that’s described in this novel is refined, educated and upper class. The narrator’s voice tones are rural, country sounding. Not upper class southern at all as this family is supposed to be.
The whining, grating, country voice that the narrator gives to the main character “Molly Redwine” is totally wrong. I couldn’t get through even half of this mess. Skipped to the end so I could review it. I’m from Alabama myself, I read the book. Loved the story, hated the narrator.

Awful Music!!

The story is very sweet and comforting. I’d like to go to a lake and see the Sean’s.

The music at the beginning and ends of each chapter is awful. It’s loud and jazz. You get all good feeling listening and then it just. Blares out at you Edit that music OUT!!

Wonderful audiobook

Have listened to this several times. One of my favorites.
Wish i knew who the artist was for the wonderful jazz music before each chapter.

A good rendition

This narrator does an excellent job with a very good story. She was able to switch between accents smoothly and convincingly. My one criticism is that the musical interludes in between chapters were unexpected and jarring and out of character with the tone of the story. They added nothing and were, for me, a distraction from an excellent story.

A wreck

This story is like a train wreck of grief and impending loss you cannot look away from. It lures you with the island and then tells a story of isolation, with brief glimpses of Vineyard community. Good southern accents. No Island accents. Just grief, haunted by misunderstanding, with mild relief at close.

Shorty but very entertaining

I liked the story. Sometimes made me wish I could escape to a totally different life. I would recommend this to other older women who have had be upended at one time in their life or another. I laughed, shed a few tears and reflected on my own life now and again. A quick 'read', loved the narrator . What I did not care for was the loud harsh music blared at the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Very annoying

Wonderful story and narrator!

I love Anne Rivers Siddons novels as a rule and this one was no exception. I laughed, I cried and was totally invested in these characters.

The narrator was wonderful and captured all the voices and personalities extremely well.

The only pet peeve I have with the recording is the music, it became a little annoying, but otherwise I absolutely enjoyed this book,

I highly recommend it to everyone! Enjoy!

I love this book!

I have heard this book before and loved it just as much the second time. The characters are believable and loveable and I shall miss them. I only wish there was a sequel. It is a story of a woman whose life is suddenly devastated, her journey for fulfillment, and those relationships she acquired along the way. The reader does a great job and adds to the personality of the characters.