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Our Father

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Our Father

By: Marilyn French
Narrated by: Marianne Fraulo
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About this listen

Famed presidential advisor Stephen Upton has suffered a stroke, and his four very different daughters gather in his perfectly appointed mansion outside Boston to await his death or recovery.

Elizabeth, cold and calculating, fights hard for every success and pays a high price; beautiful Mary has always needed a man to support her tastes, but time is catching up with her; Alex can't remember her childhood and wants to know why; and Ronnie, illegitimate and proud, refuses to acknowledge her feelings for the man they all love and hate.

In the weeks to come, they will learn one another's terrible secrets, and the astonishing truth about the life they might have shared.

Once again, Marilyn French has written an extraordinary novel of our times - a novel of family love and resentment, of sisterhood and fatherhood, of acceptance and rejection and the search for peace.

©1994 Belles-Lettres, Inc. (P)2013 Audible, Inc. Family Life Genre Fiction Women's Fiction

Critic reviews

"Should strike a chord with every woman who is willing to think honestly about the place of femaleness in the world." (Chicago Tribune)
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I have never read a book from this author before but I would definitely look for more of her work.

Superb narration and characters

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The characters are interesting and the story is just a background to some very interesting thoughts about the feminine condition and racial discrimination. Really enjoyed this book.

Slow but so good

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I found this novel compelling and towards the end I found it really difficult to stop listening to it. I laughed, cried and cried. I liked the four main characters; each of them flawed in their own way. Some of their ideas made me mad, some irritated and some provoked reflection. I know this novel will stay in my mind for some time as I worry over its parts.
My only criticism is that the actor narrating often used the same voice, intonation and emotion for all the characters, which at times had me rewinding to be certain who was saying what.

A hard story to listen to, beautifully written

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I loved this book. Well read. I could envisage each character and saw the surroundings as if I was there. Very thought provoking, interesting and informative. Five stars all the way.

Intimate Brave Compelling Story

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Such strong messages told through the experiences of 4 very different women. Men didn’t come out of it so well. Maybe not all men, but the system - the patriarchy. The enduring power of such a state makes one quake at the very idea of working out a way to change it. The corruption runs so deep, the privilege and entitlement the very heartbeat of our western culture. Seems a very steep mountain …

What a clever storyteller!

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