I'm Dying Laughing
The Humorist

Name: I'm Dying Laughing
Brand: Blackstone Audiobooks
Availability: InStock
Author: Christina Stead
ISBN: 9781483074184

Author: Christina Stead

Narrator: Anna Fields

Unabridged: 18 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook (DRM Protected)

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Published: 06/24/2010

Categories: Fiction

Synopsis

This last great work by one of the century’s great writers is a large and original novel of betrayal and self-delusion, madness and consuming passions, that recreates to chilling effect the political turbulence of the American Left and the clamor and menace of the McCarthy Right. Not since her classic The Man Who Loved Children has Stead fashioned such willful and memorable characters as Emily Wilks and Stephen Howard. Emily is a woman of enormous but mercurial enthusiasms whose unflagging ebullience masks a darkness that will lead to disaster. Stephen—handsome, clever, spoiled—is a dangerous dreamer, an upper-class dropout playing at radical politics. Together, they mirror the times through which they live: the heady revolutionary fervor of the Depression, the short collaborative effort of wartime America, the fractiousness of the Cold War years.

About Christina Stead

Christina Stead (1902–1983) born in Australia, was the author of over a dozen works of fiction and the recipient of the Patrick White Prize.

About Anna Fields

Anna Fields (1965–2006), winner of more than a dozen Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award in 2004, was one of the most respected narrators in the industry. Trained at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, she was also a director, producer, and technician at her own studio, Cedar House Audio.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Tuck on February 06, 2012

Blurb described this as verbose, and that is a good way to talk about this novel of mostly dialog. It is what makes it pretty good. Takes place in usa and france (mostly) from 1930’s through 1950’s and the main characters are leftists and writers, of novels, articles, and screenplays and scripts. So......more

Goodreads review by Sunny on May 25, 2021

I think this was OK overall. I had read her book called “the man who loved children”, which I thought was a brilliant study of some of the relationships in a large family and you can clearly see that Christina stead has some brilliant insights to give into the relationships that take place. She real......more

Goodreads review by Stef on July 08, 2023

Disturbing and sad book set just before WWII in America and Europe (mainly France). Emily is a journalist from a less than shiny background and she marries an heir to a fortune (who does not yet have his money). They live beyond their means manipulating family and friends alike. They are communists......more

Quotes

“This is wonderful material, wonderfully suited to Stead’s great gifts, and much of the scene, extremely difficult to translate into fiction, is wonderfully done.” Los Angeles Times

“The material itself is fascinating, the writing, especially the dialogue, vital and tumultuous.” Publishers Weekly

“Provides insight into Stead’s view on the political and social climate in the United States, 1930–1960, and on the destructive forces acting on women.” Library Journal

“An aptly, ironically titled novel of politics and the dark places of the heart…I’m Dying Laughing reflects the sum of Stead’s worldly experience: the political activism; the far-flung years in New York, London, Paris.” Kirkus Reviews