Vance Bourjaily has 4 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators. The most-rated is The Violated.
Brill Among the Ruins
Summary
Nominated for the National Book Award: The story of a middle-aged American man searching for himself in the ruins of Mexico. At the start of this vibrant and invigorating novel, Robert Brill has a farm, a law practice, a daughter in high school, a son fighting in Vietnam, and a wife who deep-dives into the sherry bottle every night. What more can a typical Midwesterner ask for in the late 1960s? A lot, thinks Brill. Tired of distracting himself with drinking, hunting, and sleeping around, Brill leaves Illinois and his family to join an archaeological dig in Puebla, Mexico. As he sifts through pre-Columbian artifacts, Brill considers the ruins of his life and imagines what might have been. One exhilarating fantasy involves a beautiful and free-spirited woman named Gabby. If there is a lesson to be learned from cataloging ancient pottery shards, however, it is that the past never disappears, no matter how far you try to run from it. Hilarious, candid, and deeply felt, Brill Among the Ruins is considered by many critics to be Vance Bourjaily's finest novel.
©1970 Vance Bourjaily; This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc. (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
The End of My Life
Summary
Vance Bourjaily's classic novel of World War II dramatizes an entire generation's loss of innocence. When Thomas "Skinner" Galt leaves Greenwich Village to volunteer as an ambulance driver with the British Army, he anticipates the adventure of a lifetime. What he fails to understand is that no matter where he comes from or how many books he has read, once he dons a military uniform, his life will cease to be his own. Stationed first in the Middle East and then in Italy, Skinner and his fellow American volunteers, Rod, Freak, and Benny, endure boredom, fear, and the exquisite frustration of following orders. They seek solace in their friendship with one another and in the debauched diversions available to men during wartime. But as the days and nights drag on, Skinner begins to drift away from his comrades - and from himself. Too late, he discovers that the path he has chosen leads only to tragedy. Inspired by Vance Bourjaily's experiences as an ambulance driver in the American Field Service and commissioned by legendary editor Maxwell Perkins, The End of My Life marked the arrival of a writer heralded by the New York Times as "a Dostoevsky of the generation that came of age in World War II". Elegant, spare, and fiercely honest, this is a timeless portrait of the devastating effects of war on the human spirit.
©1947, 1975 Vance Bourjaily; This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc. (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
Confessions of a Spent Youth
Summary
In this masterwork of confessional literature, a man approaching middle age recalls his impetuous youth with fondness, remorse, and astonishment. Spanning the years 1939 to 1946, this is the story of a defining era in one man's life and an exhilarating tribute to the entire generation that came of age during World War II. Quince's youthful adventures begin with his first sexual encounter, a night with a girl named Moomie in a one-room cabin in Virginia, and end with the 24-year-old veteran settling down to his postwar future. In between he falls in and out of love with dozens of women, drinks and drugs his way through two years of college and four years of military service, travels the world, and meets a dazzling array of colorful characters. In a voice both beguiling and sincere, an older, wiser Quince narrates his escapades in search of the truth about who he was and who he has become. One of the finest novels of mid-20th-century America, Confessions of a Spent Youth is poignant, witty, and profound.
©1952, 1959, 1960 Vance Bourjaily; This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc. (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
The Violated
Summary
The lives of four Americans born between the world wars are intertwined to devastating effect in this gripping novel from one of the 20th century's most acclaimed authors. Beautiful, sad Ellen Beniger; her younger brother, Tom, a scholar unhappily moonlighting as a TV writer; the athletic amorist Guy Cinturon; and tough little Eddie Bissle, ex-infantryman and Ellen's secret lover, struggle to come to grips with the limits of their futures and the scars of their pasts as they enter middle age. Will the physical, emotional, and spiritual violations they have endured remain with them forever? Or can they be healed? As The Violated builds to its stunning climax, the story of four lost souls reveals heartbreaking truths about the dark side of post-World War II America.
©1958 Vance Bourjaily; This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc. (P)2015 Audible, Inc.