Ten Days in the Hills

By: Jane Smiley

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

New York Times best-selling author Jane Smiley, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award, produces her version of a Hollywood novel by using Boccaccio's Decameron as her model.

Oscar-winning writer-director Max, whose star is clearly beginning to dim, wakes up the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards lying next to his lover and feeling understandably groggy from the previous evening's festivities. But this is no time for Max to lounge about and chat his way idly through a hangover. There's a houseful of guests to worry about, and they all need attention.

Here is a book full of everything one would expect in a tale about the Tinseltown glitterati: sex, politics, war, love, and the stories people tell. Ten Days in the Hills is a Hollywood yarn as only Smiley could deliver.

©2007 Jane Smiley (P)2007 Recorded Books LLC

Critic reviews

"Archly sexy and brilliant." (Booklist)
"Scintillating....Smiley delivers a delightful, subtly observant send-up of Tinseltown folly, yet she treats her characters, their concern with compelling surfaces, and their perpetual quest to capture reality through artifice, with warmth and seriousness." (Publishers Weekly)

Boring

This was the most boring book I have ever read or listened to. On and on and on with no real story. The author tries sending some political left wing messages but even they are boring.
I listen to these books to be unbored but this one put me to sleep.

"anyway...... yada, yada, yada.."

Where was the editor of this book?
I'm curious to know how many times the word "anyway..." was used in this book.

Don't waste your money....

Or your time! The material in the book was as useless as what you find in tabloid newspapers...but not nearly as interesting. SKIP IT!!!!!!!!!

Don't Waste Your Time or Money

I've never submitted a book review before but this book is so boring I felt compelled to warn other readers to not waste their time or money on this book.

worst ever

Ill never buy before reading reviews again! I gave up after 5 hours. Please dont waste your money.

Smiley strikes out

I often list Jane Smiley as my favorite author. She is able to inhabit diverse environments from the world of realtors to Iowa farmers to horse racing to the life of a university research pig as though she spent a lifetime in each environ.

With Ten Days in the Hills she seems to have lost her authority. Unlike anything I have ever read of Jane Smiley's this book does not sound authentic. Smiley usually takes unsympathic characters and gives them a humanity that makes them seem real. These characters remain unappealing.

I thought that some of the reviews that I read before purchasing Ten Days were biased against Smiley because she is very liberal. Well, so am I and I find the politics in this book to be almost a caricature of what a neo-conservative would think of a liberal.

In addition, I find the narration grating. So much so that perhaps I wouldn't find the book to be so poor if I didn't have the narrators horrible voice characterizations in my head. Nearly unlistenable.

I anxiously await Jane Smiley's next book. She is so good that I can imagine that this one is just an aberration.

Terrible

I agree with others who have reviewed this book. It's not worth reading.

Save your money

Watch wallpaper dry - it's more interesting! This may be the worst book I've ever heard. Boring beyond endurance.

It seemed like an eternity

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would not. I read Smiley's Greenlanders, also epically long, and I loved it. But this was a tiresome story about very tiresome people. Maybe it's a "beach read" or a "beach listen."

Would you be willing to try another book from Jane Smiley? Why or why not?

I have tried other of her books, as I said. I know she is well regarded but certainly not for this book.

What about Suzanne Toren’s performance did you like?

The reader was better than the book.

Worst book I ever listened to

If you're thinking of getting this because you liked the humor and action of "Moo", also by Smiley, DON'T. This is THE WORST book I"ve ever listened to, and I only tolerated it because my run route is so long. I have well over 3 hours in and nothing has happened but alot of talk between couples, pre coitus, post coitus, about HOllywood, the Iraq war, and life. What the heck was Smiley thinking?