A Widow's Story
A Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Ellen Parker
About this listen
In a work unlike anything she's written before, National Book Award-winner Joyce Carol Oates unveils a poignant, intimate memoir about the unexpected death of her husband of 46 years and its wrenching, surprising aftermath.
"My husband died, my life collapsed." On a February morning in 2008, Joyce Carol Oates drove her ailing husband, Raymond Smith, to the emergency room of the Princeton Medical Center, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia. Both Joyce and Ray expected him to be released in a day or two. But in less than a week, even as Joyce was preparing for his discharge, Ray died from a virulent hospital-acquired infection, and Joyce was suddenly faced - totally unprepared - with the stunning reality of widowhood.
A Widow's Story illuminates one woman's struggle to comprehend a life without the partnership that had sustained and defined her for nearly half a century. As never before, Joyce Carol Oates shares the derangement of denial, the anguish of loss, the disorientation of the survivor amid a nightmare of "death-duties", and the solace of friendship. She writes unflinchingly of the experience of grief - the almost unbearable suspense of the hospital vigil, the treacherous "pools" of memory that surround us, the vocabulary of illness, the absurdities of commercialized forms of mourning. Here is a frank acknowledgment of the widow's desperation, only gradually yielding to the recognition that "this is my life now."
Enlivened by the piercing vision, acute perception, and mordant humor that are the hallmarks of the work of Joyce Carol Oates, this moving tale of life and death, love and grief, offers a candid, never-before-glimpsed view of the acclaimed author and fiercely private woman.
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When Stalin came into power in 1924, the Communist government began persecuting dissident writers. Though Stalin spared the life of Boris Pasternak - whose novel in progress, Doctor Zhivago, was suspected of being anti-Soviet - he persecuted Boris' mistress, typist, and literary muse, Olga Ivinskaya. Boris' affair with Olga devastated the straitlaced Pasternaks, and they were keen to disavow Olga's role in Boris' writing process.
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A wonderfully enjoyable read
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By: Anna Pasternak
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Hope and Other Luxuries
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- Narrated by: Abby Craden
- Length: 22 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Clare Dunkle seemed to have an ideal life - two beautiful, high-achieving teenage daughters, a loving husband, and a satisfying and successful career as a children's book novelist. But it's when you let down your guard that the ax falls. Just after one daughter successfully conquered her depression, another daughter developed a life-threatening eating disorder.
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Potent and Real
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By: Clare B. Dunkle
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Chicken Soup for the Soul - Messages from Heaven
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- Unabridged
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When our loved ones leave this world, our connection with them does not end and we often receive signs from the other side. These true and touching stories of will amaze and support all readers - religious or secular. The 101 true and miraculous stories in this book of signs and messages from beyond show that death may take away the physical presence of our loved ones, but not their spirit. This book is for everyone, religious or secular, as regular people share their amazing experiences with the other side.
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Tear Jerker
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By: Jack Canfield, and others
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Nine-year-old Louis Drax lies in a coma in a hospital bed, re-living the events that led to his near-fatal fall into a ravine. Despite being attracted to the boy's mother Natalie Drax, Louis' doctor, Pascal Dannachet, begins reluctantly to question her version of Louis' accident and the apparent culpability of her missing husband. As the boy struggles to communicate from within his coma, the chilling truth emerges....
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Intriguing, but easy to figure out
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Trying to Save Piggy Sneed contains a dozen short works by John Irving, beginning with three memoirs, including an account of Mr. Irving’s dinner with President Ronald Reagan at the White House. The longest of the memoirs, The Imaginary Girlfriend,” is the core of this collection.
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Unabridged?
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What happens when we die? What is heaven really like? When we arrive, will we know people? What role do angels play in our lives? Can the amazing experiences of everyday people reveal insights into life “on the other side”? Trusted pastor Jim Garlow and experienced journalist Keith Wall believe they can.
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Don't waste your time
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Last Evenings on Earth
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The first short-story collection in English by the acclaimed Chilean author Roberto Bolano. Winner of a 2005 PEN Translation Fund Award. "The melancholy folklore of exile", as Roberto Bolano once put it, pervades these 14 haunting stories. Bolano's narrators are usually writers grappling with private (and generally unlucky) quests, who typically speak in the first person, as if giving a deposition, like witnesses to a crime.
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Solid Character based Stories
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Abandon Me
- Memoirs
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In her critically acclaimed memoir, Whip Smart, Melissa Febos laid bare the intimate world of the professional dominatrix, turning an honest examination of her life into a lyrical study of power, desire, and fulfillment. In her dazzling Abandon Me, Febos captures the intense bonds of love and the need for connection - with family, lovers, and oneself. First, her birth father, who left her with only an inheritance of addiction and Native American blood, its meaning a mystery.
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This journey is captivating to say the least!
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The Golden Notebook
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Author Anna Wulf attempts to overcome writer’s block by writing a comprehensive "golden notebook" that draws together the preoccupations of her life, each of which is examined in a different notebook. Anna’s struggle to unify the various strands of her life – emotional, political, and professional – amasses into a fascinating encyclopaedia of female experience in the ‘50s.
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Transcendent narration of a masterpiece.
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Chicken Soup for the Soul - Find Your Happiness
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What makes you happy? Others share how they found their passion, purpose, and joy in life in these 101 personal and exciting stories that are sure to inspire and encourage listeners to find their own happiness. Chicken Soup for the Soul: Find Your Happiness will encourage listeners to pursue their dreams, find their passion and seek joy in their life with its 101 personal and inspiring stories. This book continues Chicken Soup for the Soul’s focus on inspiration and hope, reminding us that we all can find our own happiness.
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I got even more depressed
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What listeners say about A Widow's Story
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- katwoman1163
- 06-14-17
Not worth a credit
Being a recent widow I wanted to see if there were pearls of wisdom. What I got was a who's who of her friends and her jet set lifestyle. It felt very pretentious and tended to be just her whining about insomnia. Really disappointing
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- Beachmama
- 05-14-11
Mixed feelings . . .
While I enjoyed the storytelling (Ellen Parker did a magnificent job narrating) I was a bit unsettled listening to this story. The similarity of Oates story to Didion's memoir about the loss of her husband of 40 years seems more than coincidental to me. Oates is so critical of everyone around her that I had trouble caring about her terrible loss. Ms. Oates 'name drops' so often it's almost painful.
Oates is an incredible story teller, her use of language is like poetry. Listen to this book for her classic storytelling style more than the content. The content left me cold.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Stephanie
- 08-03-12
Wonderful Narration
Where does A Widow's Story rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Possibly the best for narration -- at least in the top 3. Overall, the book itself, however, was a great disappointment. I don't think I'd have finished it had the narration not been so so good.
What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
Disappointment
Which scene was your favorite?
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2 people found this helpful
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- J. A.
- 02-28-16
If you're looking for inspiration look elsewhere
But if you want to follow a realistic journey into and almost through a heartbreaking tragedy then read on., for it is a reassuring story in one sense only, that survival is possible.
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- Linda
- 07-20-21
Realistic!
I lost my own husband almost 9 months ago and I found this book to be the most reflective of my own experience that I ever read. The pain was intense, the confusion and inability to function were true and the insights were spot on. Since my husband and I had lived in Montana for the first three years of our marriage ever so far away from our home in Massachusetts, I greatly appreciated her observation of the intense bond that happens between two people when they live so far away from home and what an impact that makes on the rest of their lives.
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- kmbrly210
- 10-27-11
Depression that dragged.
I understand this was about a very sad, life changing experience, but with nearly half the book completed, I still found it depressing and dragging. I was so down after listening each morning on my way to work that I finally had to stop mid book, and move to another more upbeat topic. I hope in the end, she finds ways to be happy again but I won't finish the book to find out.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Joy
- 05-10-14
Shocking and brutally true
I was so disturbed by this haunting story of a woman suddenly left alone that I could not put it down and then could not sleep at the horror of the prospect of losing someone that you love.
Beautifully written, a book that is life changing.
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- Connie
- 02-20-13
A stunning portrayal
I am a Joyce Carol Oates fan. This book tells her own story of being widowed, the shock and grief, the acknowledgment, the beginning of moving on. It described their marriage which I found fascinating - deeply satisfying while reserved in a way. I found it deeply moving. So often grief is underplayed. This account is touching in its truth.
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- Janet
- 04-30-11
Did the second half have an editor?
I give Part One five stars - it was as emotional, as riveting as some of Oates' best fiction. And my heart ached for her because of what she was experiencing.
Yet Part Two deserves only three stars. Besides being full of redundancies, Oates' stream-of-consciousness writing - along with her attempts to share every positive aspect of her husband's life, along with her every suicidal fantasy - gave the last half a whining quality. Though I was glad to see she'd found a light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel at story's end, I was also relieved to have reached the end of book.
Narrator was superb! Five stars for Ellen Parker!
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5 people found this helpful
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- Jeremy
- 08-16-12
Very in depth experience of grief
Where does A Widow's Story rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
It's in the top 10 of all time.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Joyce Carol Oates- the author
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
It made me very sad but hopeful.
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2 people found this helpful