Donald Barthelme has 6 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 17 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.2★ across 11 ratings. The most-rated is Snow White.
Sixty Stories
Summary
With these audacious and murderously witty stories, Donald Barthelme threw the preoccupations of our time into the literary equivalent of a Cuisinart and served up a gorgeous salad of American culture, high and low. Here are the urban upheavals reimagined as frontier myth; travelogues through countries that might have been created by Kafka; cryptic dialogues that bore down to the bedrock of our longings, dreams, and angsts.Like all of Barthelme's work, the 60 stories collected in this volume are triumphs of language and perception, at once unsettling and irresistible. As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of Donald Barthelme's book, you'll also receive an exclusive Jim Atlas interview. This interview – where James Atlas interviews Tracy Daugherty about the life and work of Donald Barthelme – begins as soon as the audiobook ends.
©1983 Donald Barthelme (P)2009 Audible, Inc.
Snow White
Summary
An inventive, satiric modern retelling of the classic fairy tale provides an incisive and biting commentary on the absurdities and complexities of modern life. As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of Donald Barthelme's book, you'll also receive an exclusive Jim Atlas interview. This interview – where James Atlas interviews Tracy Daugherty about the life and work of Donald Barthelme – begins as soon as the audiobook ends.
©1996 Donald Barthelme (P)2009 Audible, Inc.
Selected Shorts: A Touch of Magic
Summary
By turns funny, moving, romantic and surreal, and filled with unexpected twists and turns, each of the tales on this lineup has a magical element. Andrew Lam's "The Palmist", performed by James Naughton. A chance encounter on a bus between a fortune-teller and a teenage boy. Ray Bradbury's "The Veldt", performed by Stephen Colbert. A room which can take you anywhere in the world - sometimes with dangerous consequences W. W. Jacobs' "The Monkey's Paw", performed by John Lithgow. A wonderful ghost story about a trinket with terrible powers. Saki's "The Occasional Garden", performed by Daniel Gerroll. If you can't grow a garden; poof! - you can rent one. Donald Barthelme's "The Balloon", performed by Maria Tucci. There's something suddenly in the sky in midtown Manhattan.... Kevin Brockmeier's "The Year of Silence", performed by Anthony Rapp. What if everything went quiet? Jonathan Safran Foer's "The Sixth Borough", performed by Jerry Zaks. Yes, New York had a Sixth Borough, but it drifted away.... Aimee Bender's "Drunken Mimi", performed by Bernadette Quigley. A romance between a mermaid and an imp. Haruki Murakami's "The Little Green Monster", performed by Dana Ivey. A piece of Murakami magic: Is this a monster I see before me? T. C. Boyle's "Swept Away", performed by René Auberjonois. This story's weather forecast: Very windy and very funny.
©2009 Symphony Space (P)2009 Symphony Space
Selected Shorts: American Classics
Summary
A compilation of classic tales by great American writers performed by terrific actors, with a lineup including Pulitzer Prize winners, National Book Award winners, and PEN Award winners. Amy Tan's "Rules of the Game", performed by Freda Foh Shen. A strict Chinese mother bedevils her chess prodigy daughter. Donald Barthelme's "Game", performed by David Strathairn. Playing cosmic chicken in a nuclear bunker. Eudora Welty's "Why I Live at the P.O.", performed by Stockard Channing. Hilarious story of an independent young woman striking out on her own. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" performed by René Auberjonois. Terrifyingly delicious Poe masterpiece. Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" performed by Christine Baranski. Sly, creepy tale of a teenage girl’s seduction by a dangerous drifter. John Sayles' "At the Anarchists’ Convention", performed by Jerry Stiller. Laugh-out-loud classic. Alice Walker's "Everyday Use", performed by Carmen de Lavallade. Siblings disagree about a precious piece of their family heritage. John Cheever's "Christmas Is a Sad Season for the Poor", performed by Malachy McCourt. A high-rise elevator operator is overwhelmed by his riders’ holiday generosity.
©2010 Symphony Space (P)2010 Symphony Space
The Dead Father
Summary
The Dead Father is a gargantuan half-dead, half-alive, part mechanical, wise, vain, powerful being who still has hopes for himself - even while he is being dragged by means of a cable toward a mysterious goal. In this extraordinary novel, marked by the imaginative use of language that influenced a generation of fiction writers, Donald Barthelme offered a glimpse into his fictional universe. As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of Donald Barthelme's book, you'll also receive an exclusive Jim Atlas interview. This interview – where James Atlas interviews Tracy Daugherty about the life and work of Donald Barthelme – begins as soon as the audiobook ends.
©1986 Donald Barthelme (P)2009 Audible, Inc.
Life Is Short - Art Is Shorter
Summary
Life Is Short - Art Is Shorter is not just the first anthology gathering both mini-essays and short-short stories. Listeners, writers, and teachers will get an anthology; a course’s worth of writing exercises; a rally for compression, concision, and velocity in an increasingly digital post-religious age; and a meditation on the brevity of human existence. 1. We are mortal beings. 2. There is no God. 3. We live in a digital culture. 4. Art is related to the body and to culture. 5. Art should reflect these things. 6. Brevity rules. The book’s 40 contributors include Donald Barthelme, Kate Chopin, Lydia Davis, Annie Dillard, Jonathan Safran Foer, Barry Hannah, Amy Hempel, Jamaica Kincaid, Wayne Koestenbaum, Anne Lamott, Daphne Merkin, Rick Moody, Dinty W. Moore, George Orwell, Jayne Anne Phillips, George Saunders, Lauren Slater, James Tate, and Paul Theroux.
©2015 David Shields (P)2021 David Shields