A PEN/Hemingway Award winner and finalist for the National Book Award, Los Angeles Times Book Award, and National Book Critics' Circle Award, Louis Begley offers listeners the third novel starring retired lawyer Albert Schmidt. "Schmidtie" (to people who know him) is languishing alone, with only two real friends and his daughter in contact. Readying his home in the Hamptons for a visit from his estranged friend Alice, Schmidt hopes to resurrect a relationship he left in shambles a decade ago.
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"Long sentences indeed. For a few I had to take a breath and read slower. But I liked this book. A nice ending to the Schmidt story. I'm going to read more Louis Begley in the future!" — Cheryl (4 out of 5 stars)
"Long sentences indeed. For a few I had to take a breath and read slower. But I liked this book. A nice ending to the Schmidt story. I'm going to read more Louis Begley in the future!"
“Schmidt, as he considers, worries, wonders, speculates, calculates, plans, and reconsiders, is engaging company…One of the victories in this novel is how candid he is. Begley gets as close to Schmidt as a diarist, inhabiting this man who has been seasoned by a long life and yet somehow seems new this morning…Schmidt can cavil with the best of them, but he has a code. He’s capable of a sobering empathy, has a withering understanding of the recent Bush regime, knows how to prepare a martini. We get so close to him in this intimately written book.”
“A page-turner…While Schmidt is stepping back—onto the stage of life, rather than into the fray—he is also reflecting, often sharply and intelligently.”
“Intelligent, literate, and moving novel of late middle age…Begley has created complex human beings who have reached middle and late age with a full load of baggage, yet they are, on the whole, more good than bad, more giving than receiving.”
“The enterprising and original Begley has given us…Schmidt’s sardonic formulations [that] always have pertinent and pointed vigor…The most lively pages are ones where his animus against the trendy, the petty, and the self-righteous are given full rein. His irascibility, at times directed against himself, represents the other side of an embrace of positive things—like imagination, love, irony, the occasional double bourbon, and the novels of Trollope. One feels these are qualities and pleasures that, like his protagonist, Louis Begley finds sustaining and around which he has woven an appealing novel.”
" A very satisfying conclusion to the Schmidt trilogy. Long sentences, but they are well-crafted. "
" Great book for the Boomer Generation from an American writer on par with John Irving, Saul Bellow and Philip Roth. "
" I liked the narrative.... Well written. "
" His books are all so well written! "
" It's time to include Louis Begley in the same conversation as Updike, Cheever and Bellow. "
Louis Begley lives in New York City. His previous novels are The Man Who Was Late, As Max Saw It, About Schimdt, Mistler’s Exit, Schmidt Delivered, and Shipwreck.
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.
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