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Magnificence
Unavailable
Magnificence
Unavailable
Magnificence
Audiobook6 hours

Magnificence

Written by Lydia Millet

Narrated by Xe Sands

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

This stunning novel introduces Susan Lindley, a woman adrift after her husband's death. Suddenly gifted her great uncle's Pasadena mansion, Susan decides to restore his extensive collection of preserved animals, tending to "the fur and feathers, the beaks, the bones and shimmering tails." Meanwhile, a menagerie of uniquely damaged humans - including a cheating husband and a chorus of eccentric elderly women - joins her in residence. Funny and heartbreaking, Magnificence is the story of a woman emerging from the sudden dissolution of her family. Millet's trademark themes - evolution and extinction, children and parenthood, loss and wonder - produce a rapturous final act to the critically acclaimed cycle of novels that began with How the Dead Dream.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 5, 2012
ISBN9781611209860
Unavailable
Magnificence
Author

Lydia Millet

Lydia Millet is the PEN Award-winning author of eleven works of literary fiction, including Sweet Lamb of Heaven and Magnificence, which have been New York Times Notables and Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalists. She lives in Arizona.

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Reviews for Magnificence

Rating: 3.738636227272727 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

44 ratings6 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Nicely written book that goes nowhere. Maybe it's just deeper than I am, but I got lost in the taxidermy. I'm sure it symbolized something but by the time the secret of the manhole cover was revealed I didn't care anymore.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This might be my favorite book of the whole trio; ironically, it is also the last. Lydia Millet continues to be one of my favorite American authors - and she will continue to be as long as she keeps writing books like these. Here's hoping that they'll one day release all three books in omnibus format for re-reading purposes.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    So glad to have discovered writer Lydia Millet during this awful period in history, a darkly comic relief. I read the 1st of this trilogy recently and loved it. Wasn't able to get the 2nd but looking forward to reading it soon. These books as far as I can tell stand on their own but love learning more about the characters from How the Dead Dream.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Susan is facing the unraveling of her life. Her husband has just been murdered while abroad, and her paraplegic daughter wants less and less to do with her. Beyond that, Susan is wracked by guilt because she believes her infidelity led her husband to travel and therefore, die. In the midst of this muddle, Susan finds herself the beneficiary of an unusually generous bequest. A distant relative has left her his palatial estate full of hundreds of stuffed animals. With little else to fill her days, Susan decides to move in and care for the eccentric collection. But the estate holds more secrets than she imagines.This novel is lyrical, witty, and haunting in its depth. The author's skill shines throughout the narrative.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The writing is magnificent. The characters are not likeable but they are appealing and the plot is a bit far fetched but, again, appealing for its oddness and what lies beneath, no pun intended. Each character was struggling with something which made them uncomfortable and which they were unlikely to resolve. I did not realize that this book was a sequel and I will go back and read its predecessor.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book was last one of the trilogy and perhaps I would have enjoyed it more had I read the first 2 novels. I chose this book based on the author's reputation with authors writings. The story about the murder of her husband and subsequent events seemed to be inert as another reviewer had described it. Her observations about L.A and the narrative prose were excellent but it was not enough to sustain me for the entire novel. I may consider her short stories that received a Pulitzer Prize nomination. The moral of the story is when a book is 3rd one in the trilogy, read the other books first.