The Graduate

By: Charles Webb

Narrated by: Scott Brick

The basis for the acclaimed 1967 film, this novel about a naive college graduate adrift in the shifting social and sexual mores of the 1960s captures with hilarity and insight the alienation of youth and the disillusionment of an era.

When Benjamin Braddock graduates from college and moves back to his parents' house, everyone wants to know what he's going to do with his life. Embittered by the emptiness of his education and indifferent to his grim prospects, Benjamin falls haplessly into an affair with Mrs. Robinson, the relentlessly seductive wife of his father's business partner. It's only when her lovely daughter Elaine comes home to visit that Benjamin, now smitten, thinks he might have found some kind of direction in his life.

But Mrs. Robinson is having none of it. A wondrously fierce and absurd battle of wills ensues, with love and idealism triumphing over the forces of corruption and conformity.

©1994 Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Brilliant...sardonic, ludicrously funny." ( New York Times)
"His novel makes you want to laugh and it makes you want to cry." ( Cleveland Plain Dealer)
"A highly gifted and accomplished writer." ( Chicago Tribune)

Movie better

"What ?" I don't know how many times the characters say that but it becomes very annoying. In fact, all of the dialogue is strangely jerky and drown out and so is the delivery. If the reader had performed it organically I think it would have worked out better. Just didn't sound like any conversations I've ever had.

I seldom read a book that was so improved by the movie. In the movie the struggle between the two generations is more apparent and of vital importance within the context of the Baby-boomer generation. I also found myself really disliking the Benjamin in the book. He carries on like a little b**** the whole time. He has few redeeming qualities. And I could never understand why Elian would be in love with him. For the book I'm left with a very strong feeling that the relationship is going to crash and burn. Within a few months one could readily imagine Elian married to Carl after all and Benjamin in boot camp.

Did a highschooler write this?

There is so much hype surrounding the film version (which I still haven't seen) that when I found the book on sale I figured I'd see what the fuss is about. I can only assume that the film fills in the gaps...The characters seemed very one dimensional and the main character seemed both whiny and creepy. Mrs. Robinson seems so predatory. A lot of the novel is he said this, she did that. It seems like something a high schooler wrote, lacking in depth and without any flourish. I was disappointed, but I will still watch the film version because I believe that the right acting could make all the difference and add dimension to the glaring gaps and one-dimensionality witnessed here.

What a baby Graduate

Ben has to be alone..The house is full of guest to welcome's him home from the east coast,and he feels he has to find ALL the answers for his future while the house is full of people. He wants to go for a walk. He is a Spoiled little boy who must have a hearing problem, because Every time he is ask a question, he says ''what', etc....it gets nerve racking...The movie came out in 1967 with a near 31 year old Dustin Hoffman playing a boy who just turns 21... I know this was a popular book / movie in the 60's,, but with a better actor, , this could of been a GIANT,,same with the book

Every Character Besides The Protagonist Is A Literal NPC

This was just straight bad. I was in utter shock that Elaine was in love with him at any point in the book at all let alone the end. He took her on one crappy date, has been an unemployed drunk for a year straight, literally kisses her while she's crying without asking (to make her stop crying??), straight up stalks her and sells his car to do so, and somehow she doesn't literally run screaming away from him when she believes he literally raped her mom and believes him when he says he didn't. This isn't a story about love, it's a story about what a person who sees women as objects thinks love looks like. Every character besides Ben acts like an NPC with extremely hardcore ludo-narrative dissonance, like they only understand like 25% of what he's saying. The only reason this isn't 1 star is because the narrator was pretty good despite what he was given to work with.

Lots of Dialog

This is a fine book. Though, it should be stated that the movie is such a faithful adaptation that even with this first listen of the book, I was able to feel like I was revisiting the story. That said, the narration was solid enough to make it feel like a qualityvaudio drama.

My one big criticism is that the book lacks a lot of description. In a book with so much dialog, some hints on the attitude of the person speaking would have been nice. That did leave substantial room for interpretation on the part of the narrator, though.

“WHAT???”

This book is all over the place. Very strange situations. Also, a protagonist you just want to slap. I dont see how a woman could find an indecisive whiny guy like Ben remotely attractive. The repetitive use of “WHAT?!?” is irksome. His lack of social skill is literally unbearable. I hope the movie is better

the movie and book mirror one another well

If you have seen the movie, you will be happy to read this one and find the adaptation was done well.

Disappointing and far fetched

The narrator was excellent. My issues with the book are with the plot, unrealistic situations, and far fetched (forced) story overall.

Mistake

Did not mean to download glad to delete
Delete delete and delete delete delete and

The protagonist, Ben, was very unlikable.

I don't understand why Elaine ran away from her wedding with him. Not only did he do what he did to her mom, he assulted her dad! Why would she ever go with this guy?