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Dead End Gene Pool
- A Memoir
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
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Publisher's summary
For generations the Burdens were one of the wealthiest families in New York, thanks to the inherited fortune of Cornelius "The Commodore" Vanderbilt. By 1955, the year of Wendy Burden's birth, the Burdens had become a clan of overfunded, quirky and brainy, steadfastly chauvinistic, and ultimately doomed bluebloods on the verge of financial and moral decline - and were rarely seen not holding a drink.
In Dead End Gene Pool, Wendy invites listeners to meet her tragically flawed family, including an uncle with a fondness for Hitler, a grandfather who believes you can never have enough household staff, and a remarkably flatulent grandmother. At the heart of the story is Wendy's glamorous and aloof mother, who, after her husband's suicide, travels the world in search of the perfect sea and ski tan, leaving her three children in the care of a chain-smoking Scottish nanny, Fifth Avenue grandparents, and an assorted cast of long-suffering household servants (who Wendy and her brothers love to terrorize).
Rife with humor, heartbreak, family intrigue, and booze, Dead End Gene Pool offers a glimpse into the fascinating world of old money and gives truth to an old maxim: The rich are different.
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Story
There's something eerily unsettling about Ottessa Moshfegh's stories, something almost dangerous, while also being delightful and even laugh-out-loud funny. Her characters are all unsteady on their feet in one way or another; they all yearn for connection and betterment, though each in very different ways, but they are often tripped up by their own baser impulses and existential insecurities.
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Funny, Dynamic Writing
- By Sofia Macht on 06-13-18
By: Ottessa Moshfegh
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Like Family
- Growing Up in Other People's Houses, a Memoir
- By: Paula McLain
- Narrated by: Wendy Tremont King
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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This powerful and haunting memoir details the years Paula McLain and her two sisters spent as foster children after being abandoned by both parents in California in the early 1970s. As wards of the State, the sisters spent the next 14 years moving from foster home to foster home. The dislocations, confusions, and odd pleasures of an unrooted life form the basis of one of the most compelling memoirs in recent years - a book in the tradition of Jo Ann Beard's The Boys of My Youth and Mary Karr's The Liars' Club.
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A famous writer describes her life growing up in foster care
- By Nancy C. on 12-21-18
By: Paula McLain
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Notes on a Banana
- A Memoir of Food, Love, and Manic Depression
- By: David Leite
- Narrated by: David Leite
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Reminiscing about the people and events that shaped him, David looks back at the highs and lows of his life, from his rejection of being gay and his attempt to "turn straight" through Aesthetic Realism, a cult in downtown Manhattan, to becoming a writer, cookbook author, and web publisher, to his 23-year relationship with Alan, known to millions of David's readers and listeners as "The One", which began with (what else?) food.
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Finished it in a day!
- By Kathryn on 08-23-17
By: David Leite
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Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules (Unabridged Selections)
- By: Edited by David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris, Mary-Louise Parker, Cherry Jones
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules is a collection of short stories, some classic, others impending, selected and introduced by David Sedaris.
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Great stories but only 5 of 17 are included
- By Terri Kirk on 07-13-12
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Chanel Bonfire
- By: Wendy Lawless
- Narrated by: Wendy Lawless
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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By the time Wendy Lawless turned 17, she'd known for quite some time that she didn't have a normal mother. But that didn't stop her from wanting one.... Georgann Rea didn't bake cookies or go to PTA meetings; she wore a mink coat and always had a lit Dunhill plugged into her cigarette holder. She went through men like Kleenex, and didn't like dogs or children. Georgann had the ice queen beauty of a Hitchcock heroine and the cold heart to match.
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Not an Engaging Listen
- By Sobriquet on 03-13-13
By: Wendy Lawless
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The Bell Jar
- By: Sylvia Plath
- Narrated by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful but slowly going under - maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.
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A must-read for every woman
- By Julie W. Capell on 05-06-16
By: Sylvia Plath
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A Three Dog Life: A Memoir
- By: Abigail Thomas
- Narrated by: Abigail Thomas
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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When Abigail Thomas’s husband, Rich, was hit by a car, his brain shattered. Subject to rages, terrors, and hallucinations, he must live the rest of his life in an institution. He has no memory of what he did the hour, the day, the year before. This tragedy is the ground on which Abigail had to build a new life. How she built that life is a story of great courage and great change, of moving to a small country town, of a new family composed of three dogs, knitting, and friendship, of facing down guilt and discovering gratitude.
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Eloquent & Honest
- By Sara on 09-30-15
By: Abigail Thomas
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In the Country
- Stories
- By: Mia Alvar
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu, Don Castro
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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These nine globe-trotting, unforgettable stories from Mia Alvar, a remarkable new literary talent, vividly give voice to the women and men of the Filipino diaspora. Here are exiles, emigrants, and wanderers uprooting their families from the Philippines to begin new lives in the Middle East, the United States, and elsewhere - and sometimes turning back again.
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My introduction to Filipino literature and culture
- By Amazon Customer on 03-28-16
By: Mia Alvar
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Caramelo
- By: Sandra Cisneros
- Narrated by: Sandra Cisneros
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Lala Reyes’ grandmother is descended from a family of renowned rebozo, or shawl-makers. The striped (caramelo) is the most beautiful of all, and the one that makes its way, like the family history it has come to represent, into Lala’s possession. The novel opens with the Reyes’ annual car trip - a caravan overflowing with children, laughter, and quarrels - from Chicago to “the other side”, Mexico City. It is there, each year, that Lala hears her family’s stories, separating the truth from the “healthy lies” that have ricocheted from one generation to the next.
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Love, family, history, and fantasy, Caramelo
- By Michele on 08-07-20
By: Sandra Cisneros
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The Paper Palace
- A Novel
- By: Miranda Cowley Heller
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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It is a perfect July morning, and Elle, a 50-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at “The Paper Palace” - the family summer place she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: Last night, Elle and her oldest friend, Jonas, crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside. Now, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love.
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The story has too much child abuse discription
- By DTurek on 07-14-21
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Up from Orchard Street
- By: Eleanor Widmer
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Three generations of Roths live together in a crowded tenement flat. Long-widowed Manya is the family's head and its heart. But Manya is no soft touch, except, perhaps, where her granddaughter Elka is concerned. Precocious Elka is her closest companion and confidante. Through Elka's eyes we come to know the fascinating characters who move in and out of the Roths' lives.
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Tenement Life From a Child's Point of View
- By Sara on 08-10-14
By: Eleanor Widmer
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Lie Still
- A Novel
- By: Julia Heaberlin
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Nursing the faded scars of a long-held trauma, Emily Page and her husband, awaiting the arrival of their first child, move from New York City to the uber-wealthy Clairmont, Texas. There, Emily is swept into a world of opulent privilege and shifting loyalties. But the secrets she keeps follow her south, and with them comes the danger that her new friends can't protect her from, and her new enemies will not hesitate to use to destroy her once and for all.
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Lie Still
- By Mary K on 06-27-17
By: Julia Heaberlin
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Tar Baby
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Desiree Coleman
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Jadine Childs is a Black fashion model with a white patron, a white boyfriend, and a coat made out of ninety perfect sealskins. Son is a Black fugitive who embodies everything she loathes and desires. As Morrison follows their affair, which plays out from the Caribbean to Manhattan and the deep South, she charts all the nuances of obligation and betrayal between Blacks and whites, masters and servants, and men and women.
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So good that I'm writing my first Audible review!
- By BL on 12-10-11
By: Toni Morrison
What listeners say about Dead End Gene Pool
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Princeali
- 10-26-21
What a read!
Juicy, fascinating, and tragic!
A complete pleasure to listen to.
I put off reading/listening to this book after it was recommended to me by my husband; I really wish I hadn’t waited.
If you’re into dynastic lineage stories, this book is for you. Wendy’s descriptive, and sometimes hilarious, language made this story hard not to binge.
Why hasn’t this been adapted for film!?
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- avid reader
- 08-23-10
Fun romp, terrible narration
I am loving this story. How else could us average folks peep into the world of the formerly uber-rich blue bloods of the robber baron era? Wendy Burdon deftly manages to report on her family's dysfunction with loving and hilarious portraits and vignettes. HOWEVER, where did poor Audible find this narrator, and how many people listened to this before it was approved?? Marlo refers to Dusty Springfeild's Wishing and Hoping as Wishing and Hopping, prounounces Schlumberger like a burger from the slums, completely mangles French accents, etc. Fingernails on the blackboard... Wendy B, you deserved far better than this! Next time, please read it yourself. You'd not only do it better, but presumably save a few bucks, too!
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3 people found this helpful
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- Marisa
- 10-20-11
Great story, delivery could use improvement.
What an amazing tale. Family tree begins with the rise of Cornelius Vanderbilt and gets more irreverent and hilarious from there. Wonderfully written, darkly funny memoir. If you like to look at the underbelly of the super-rich, blue-bloods in particular, this one's for you. Sadly the narrator mispronounces soooooooooooo many words it is rather distracting. But I can make no fault with the story itself. So crazy it could only be true.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Marisa
- 10-20-11
Great story, delivery could use improvement.
What an amazing tale. Family tree begins with the rise of Cornelius Vanderbilt and gets more irreverent and hilarious from there. Wonderfully written, darkly funny memoir. If you like to look at the underbelly of the super-rich, blue-bloods in particular, this one's for you. Sadly the narrator mispronounces soooooooooooo many words it is rather distracting. But I can make no fault with the story itself. So crazy it could only be true.
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- Etoile NEOhio
- 03-28-23
Get a narrator who can pronounce things properly!
My enjoyment of this book was significantly diminished by the 20 (yes I counted and annotated them) pronunciation errors made by the narrator. As for the story, Ms Burden's accounting of her life as the granddaughter of Wm A Burden brings to light just how screwed up the world of trust fund babies can be. Fascinating insight into a world often glamorized and envied, but rarely laid this bare. Well written and thoughtful, but please, get a narrator who can pronounce things properly!
Dusty Springfield sang "Wishin' and HOPIN' " as in HOPE-ing, not HOPPIN' which requires 2 Ps.
JUMPER! not JUNIPER! Sheesh!
Tenerife /ˌtenəˈrif/ NOT Tener-EE-fay
The word is pronounced NAY-cent, not NASS-ent
Steiff is pronounced STEEF not Sife
Göring pronounced GEHRING not GORE-ing
Möet is Mo-ETTE not Mo-AY
it's Mount Desert like the dry arid place not DESSERT like what you eat after dinner...
Men's hair product Vitalis is vye -TAL-us not vit-AL-is
Barium is BEAR-ee-um not BAR-ee-um
The color carmine = CAR-mine .... not. CAR-men
Gila monster is HEE-la monster, not. GILL-ah
Scottish plaids are Tar-Tin not Tar-TAN
It's WANT-en behavior. NOT won-ton like the soup.!
Dress designer is Mary Q-U-A-N-T. There is no I in it so it's not Quaint
Duco rubber cement is DUCO is pronounced DUE-COE (For DuPont Co) Duco is also a brand of nitrocellulose household cement (adhesive) originally trademarked by DuPont.
Once again nascent is NAY-cent not NASS-ent
Verboten is ver-BOAT-en, not ver-BOT-in
The work chasm is pronounced KAZ-em , not CHAZ-im
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- MAV
- 07-15-24
Such a rich listen…so glad I found it!!
I loved reading this because I grew up in the same era as Wendy and there were just so many references that are so relevant, it was a dose of nostalgia. No matter where we are on the wealth Spectrum some things are the same for all of us. Because we’re just kids. I really appreciated what she shared and also how she depicted the family honestly but with love. The narrator was fine, I don’t know what people were complaining about.
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- Rachel
- 03-13-13
Self-indulgent garbage
Would you try another book from Wendy Burden and/or Coleen Marlo?
No. Wendy Burden is the most unsympathetic character. Coleen Marlo mispronounces words, like saying wonton instead of wanton.
What do you think your next listen will be?
Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Coleen Marlo?
Wendy Burden is so unsympathetic it would not matter who the narrator was.
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Dead End Gene Pool?
I would have fought to have this book not published.
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Overall
- Susan
- 08-02-10
Distasteful story, bad narration
Hard to tell which is worse, this story of entitlement and dysfunction presented as witty or the narrator's inability to pronounce a lot of the proper names the author drops with such a thud.
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5 people found this helpful