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Exit Ghost Audiobook
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(3.11) - 2,484 listener ratings
Publisher Description
Philip Roth is the most decorated American writer of his generation. He has won two National Book Awards, two National Book Critics Circle Awards, three PEN/Faulkner Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Now in Exit Ghost, this masterful writer crafts what may be the final chapter in the story of his beloved hero Nathan Zuckerman.
After 11 years of isolation in his New England mountain refuge, Zuckerman returns to New York City and makes three important connections. The first is to a young couple with whom he suggests swapping homes. The second is to Amy, the former muse of Zuckerman’s first literary hero, E.I. Lonoff. And the third is to a bold, ambitious Lonoff biographer who is irritatingly persistent. It seems Zuckerman’s carefully protected sense of isolation is bound to be shattered.
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"this book was challenging on a number of levels. first of all, it dealt with difficult topics that i don't experience--old age, incontinence, impotence, dementia (although that last one is debatable!). some of the main character's thoughts and experiences and turns of phrase were hard to read and frankly made me really uncomfortable, but i know that was the point--old age isn't easy or comfortable. second, i hadn't read any of the other zuckerman books so i didn't have that background to refer to when reading this one. i want to read them and then come back to this book. third, there was an entire cultural context behind this book, much of which, i have to admit, went completely over my head. i found myself wanting to read this book in a class (and in a class comprised of students representing a range of age groups). i want to be able to approach this book from multiple angles and with that knowledge already ingrained, so that i can enjoy it as deeply as possible. because the writing was fantastic, but there was a lot more i could have gotten out of it."
— Brenna (4 out of 5 stars)
Exit Ghost Listener Reviews
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" Very clever, slightly weird, funny and satirical, a bit intellectual, obsessive reading...i'm not entirely sure what i thought of this book, to be honest. Did i enjoy it? I'm not sure "enjoy" is the right word. It was a good read, although slow to start with it soon picked up, but i'm left feeling slightly frustrated as i don't think the story has been resolved...at least not to my satisfaction. But what do i know? This is my first Philip Roth book, so maybe thats typical. "
— Heidi, 2/15/2014 -
" This was my first experience with Roth. The story was excellent though I had a lot of difficulty identifying with an impotent, incontinent septuagenarian protagonist. Roth is also very much a writers writer, the story is packed with references to Conrad, Mailer, Keats and other authors that, while I may have read, I have nowhere near the familiarity with their work that Roth does. I think for my next encounter with Roth I will jump back a few decades to meet Norman Zukerman in his younger, wilder days. "
— Mike, 2/13/2014 -
" Nathan Zuckerman has lived a life of a kind of a recluse in the Berkshires until he has to go to NYC for a doctor's appt. While there he stumbles across someone he met once forty years earlier. This leads to some rash decisions that he is not able to cope with both physically and mentally. All in all, the good empathize with Zuckerman's shortcomings, but after awhile I began to view him as a whiner. The book really never got going enough for me. "
— Paul, 2/5/2014 -
" Really a 4.5...More later "
— Merilee, 1/29/2014 -
" I'd give it more than five stars if I could. I love Roth, and this book is a distillation of all his classic themes. God, I love Roth. Nathan Zuckerman at 71, returning to New York City after self-exile of 11 years, trying to seduce a 20-something woman, while vowing to do evertyhing in his power to prevent E.I. Lonoff's biography from being written, while meeting with Lonoff's erstwhile young mistress now an old woman close to death, at the time of the Kerry/Bush election. It just has it all. I can't do it justice; I can only recommend it very highly. "
— Susie, 1/25/2014 -
" Vanilla "
— Jason, 1/17/2014 -
" This story is pretty awful. I kept waiting and hoping it would get better but it never does. You have better reads than wasting your time on this. 0 of 10 stars. "
— Tim, 1/14/2014 -
" good enough, but not his best. "
— Josh, 1/6/2014 -
" Maybe it's just me. Novels about writers are a lot like poems about writing poems. It feels like Roth wrote this one without a full audience in mind. "
— Monda, 10/3/2013 -
" Disappointing. I am not sure how a character can appear in so many novels over the years, live a life, and fail to learn anything much at all from the experience. Sad. "
— Sheila, 9/30/2013 -
" not his best, but had moments... "
— tamar, 10/15/2012 -
" Good, solid Roth. Sadly, more of his books have followed an underlying theme of action based in "against my better judgment, I acted..." Nevertheless, I'll be sorry to see Nathan Zuckerman go. "
— Steve, 10/30/2011 -
" Nothing like a 71 year-old Manhattan intellectual hankering after a 30 year-old Manhattan writer. And, Roth is still a champ at the dry, self-effacing, scathing review of himself, his writing and American lit. in general. Roth lovers who liked THE HUMAN STAIN should read its sequel here. "
— Telander6, 6/11/2011 -
" Another Roth on my bookshelf. Another good one. Another Zuckermann story, one in which we get to know the maladies of Zuckermann much better. We'll suffer with him and we see him slowly fading. "
— Julian, 8/27/2010 -
" Another moving Philip Roth book ... i read this at the same time I was listening to his EVERYMAN ... two moving portraits of life as it draws down towards "the end" ... hard to listen to / read but very moving .... "
— Lisa, 1/3/2010 -
" Ageing writer writes about ageing writer looking for life's last unpredictable gasps in New York City, third in the Nathan Zuckerman series. Bit of prostate cancer thrown in. I liked it, despite the no fishing whatsoever. "
— Tom, 10/26/2009 -
" having never read any of this series......kinda strange to start with this one. I like Roth's writing but the plot and characters left me wanting more. "
— Lance, 10/25/2009
About Philip Roth
Philip Roth (1933–2018) was one of the most decorated writers in American history, having won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award twice, the PEN/Faulkner Award three times, the National Book Award, and many more. He also won the Ambassador Book Award of the English-Speaking Union and in the same year received the National Medal of Arts at the White House. In 2001 he received the highest award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Gold Medal in Fiction, given every six years “for the entire work of the recipient.”
About George Guidall
George Guidall, winner of more than eighty AudioFile Earphones Awards, has won three of the prestigious Audie Award for Excellence in Audiobook Narration. In 2014 the Audio Publishers Association presented him with the Special Achievement Award for lifetime achievement/ During his thirty-year recording career he has recorded over 1,700 audiobooks, won multiple awards, been a mentor to many narrators, and shown by example the potential of fine storytelling. His forty-year acting career includes starring roles on Broadway, an Obie Award for best performance off Broadway, and frequent television appearances.