Play Audiobook Sample
At Paradise Gate Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(2.99) - 203 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
Infused with sharp insight, honesty, and emotion, At Paradise Gate is a treat for both the heart and the intellect. In this poignant story, best-selling author Jane Smiley pens a graceful portrait of an ordinary midwestern family confronting the mysteries of death and regeneration. While her 77-year-old husband lies upstairs, dying, Anna Robison spends her depleting energy defending their home. Their three middle-aged daughters and 23-year-old granddaughter have invaded, radiating vigor and good intentions. But the younger women temper their help with squabbling, ill-considered advice, and an abundant supply of their own problems. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley brilliantly captures the simple pleasures and troubles common to everyday life. With her dramatic performance, narrator Suzanne Toren highlights the satisfying family ties and the underlying domestic tensions. You won't want to miss another spell-binding title by Jane Smiley: A Thousand Acres.
Download and start listening now!
"I've not read Smiley for a while, and have forgotten just how good a writer she is. She writes internal family drama like no one else I can think of. Here she takes a few key days in a family's life and make a whole world of it, just as our own brains do. So good."
— Carla (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
-
“A wise and wonderful book, shot through with rare insight.”
— Des Moines Register -
“Complex domestic tensions…Honest, moving, quietly splendid.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
Smiley's sharp insight, the homely use of details of family life, and the mysteries of marriage set this book apart…One to reread with appreciation and pleasure.”
— Fresno Bee -
“Studded with sensuous descriptive passages and marked with slivers of insight—a treat for senses and intellect alike. For Smiley, another quite remarkable effort.”
— Library Journal
At Paradise Gate Listener Reviews
-
" She is such a talented writer. Always compelling and just complex enough without being austere. Liked A Thousand Acres a little better but then again so did the Nobel judges "
— Melissa, 12/18/2013 -
" family comes together at death of patriarch. had to put down... "
— Kimberlyn, 11/23/2013 -
" So disappointing. Reading this was like wading through mud. I've read other Smiley books and so I was optimistic when I began this novel, but it just dragged on and on with nothing happening. And I didn't like any of the characters. I'm actually surprised I finished it. "
— Doralyn, 11/16/2013 -
" The family dynamics in this book are very intriguing. I really like the look at the different relationships and especially Anna's love for her husband. "
— Margaret, 8/21/2013 -
" This is a really masterful book, but it was hard to finish. Everything is interior. EVERYTHING. There are some really amazing descriptions and insights, and I can see Jane Smiley really focusing on how small things feel. Sometimes, though, I just wanted there to be action amid all the reflection. "
— Alexine, 7/6/2013 -
" A 2 star Lifetime movie. "
— Cusmarg, 12/17/2012 -
" good story about an adult family of daughters and parents "
— Lucy, 12/3/2012 -
" A portrait of a marriage during the 24 hours before the husband dies while the daughters and granddaughter are helping their mother. This is contrasted by the dissolution of the granddaughter's marriage and the grandmother remembering the many difficulties of her own marriage. "
— Sara, 8/27/2012 -
" I listened to this book while traveling. I was good and shared great insigtht into families. "
— Sherry, 4/5/2012 -
" I've read and liked some of Jane Smiley's later novels. This was an earlier one, and it just didn't go anywhere for me. The relationships among the characters, while interesting, were not compelling enough because I didn't like any of them that much. "
— Margaret, 3/17/2012 -
" I listened to this book while traveling. I was good and shared great insigtht into families. "
— Sherry, 7/2/2010 -
" The family dynamics in this book are very intriguing. I really like the look at the different relationships and especially Anna's love for her husband. "
— Margaret, 4/15/2010 -
" family comes together at death of patriarch. had to put down... "
— Kimberlyn, 8/12/2009 -
" Very different from my own family, but it rings true. End of life issues are real and poignant. "
— Lana, 11/16/2008 -
" So disappointing. Reading this was like wading through mud. I've read other Smiley books and so I was optimistic when I began this novel, but it just dragged on and on with nothing happening. And I didn't like any of the characters. I'm actually surprised I finished it. "
— Doralyn, 3/5/2008
About Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, as well of works of nonfiction and books for young adults. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she has also received the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature. In 2001 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
About Suzanne Toren
Suzanne Toren, award-winning narrator, has over thirty years of experience in narration. She was named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile magazine in 2019. She has won the American Foundation for the Blind’s Scourby Award for Narrator of the Year, AudioFile magazine named her the 2009 Best Voice in Nonfiction & Culture, and she is the recipient of multiple Earphones Awards. She performs on and off Broadway and in regional theaters and has appeared on Law & Order and in various soap operas.