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Blue Nights
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
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Blue Nights
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Summary
From one of America’s greatest and most iconic writers: an honest and courageous portrait of age and motherhood. Several days before Christmas 2003, Joan Didion’s only daughter, Quintana, fell seriously ill. In 2010, Didion marked the sixth anniversary of her daughter’s death. Blue Nights is a shatteringly honest examination of Joan Didion’s life as a mother, a woman and a writer. Recently widowed, and becoming increasingly frail, Blue Nights is Didion’s attempt to understand our deepest fears, our inadequate adjustments to ageing and to put a name to what we refuse to see and as a consequence fail to face up to, ‘this refusal even to engage in such contemplation, this failure to confront the certainties of ageing, illness and death. This fear.’ This fear is tied to what we cherish most and fight to conserve, protect, and refuse to let go, for, ‘when we are talking about mortality we are talking about our children.’ To face death is to let go of memory, to be bereft once more, ‘I know what it is I am now experiencing. I know what the frailty is, I know what the fear is.’The fear is not for what is lost.The fear is for what is still to be lost.You may see nothing still to be lost.Yet there is no day in her life on which I do not see her.
A profound, poetic and powerful book about motherhood and the fierce way in which we continue to exalt and nurture our children, even if they only live on in memory. Blue Nights is an intensely personal, and yet, strangely universal account of how we love. It is both groundbreaking and a culmination of a stunning career.
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What listeners say about Blue Nights
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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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
- S
- 04-08-23
Loved it
A spiral of emotive reflections threaded with glimpses of older golden times in American social culture, such wonderful writing. A written companion. Didion writes effortlessly and her style at first glance seems simple but draws you in to subtly convey volumes and depths you didn’t consider.
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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
- Kindle Kid
- 16-10-14
A Must Read For Fans & Everyone Else
Would you consider the audio edition of Blue Nights to be better than the print version?
Being blind and unable to read print or braille proficiently I'd say yes as my only comparison is a screen reader reading the ebook edition which although cheaper does not make for an engaging reading experience.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Joan obviously and it was kind of her to share memories of Quintana.
What does Kimberly Farr bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
A Humanaity and decent pronunciation and intonation that a robot voice lacks. She was clear and easy to listen to. I don't know if her accent was accurate of a Californian having lived in New York which might have made a difference to othes but It was fine for me.
If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
Grief, The Final Frontier
Any additional comments?
With questions like these I'm not sure what helpful feedback authors are getting for their hardwork. Star reviews don't reflect the whole picture and arbitrary questions are a lousy substitute.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- polly
- 09-07-16
Sorry - gave up
I just loved her Year of Magical Thinking ………. this was not as magical
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1 person found this helpful