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The Motion of the Body Through Space

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The Motion of the Body Through Space

By: Lionel Shriver
Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard
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About this listen

From the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin

All her life Serenata has run, swum, and cycled – but now that she’s hit 60, all that physical activity has destroyed her knees. And her previously sedentary husband Remington chooses this precise moment to discover exercise.

As he joins the cult of fitness, her once-modest husband burgeons into an unbearable narcissist. When he announces his intention to compete in a legendarily gruelling triathlon, Serenata is sure he's going to end up injured or dead – but the stubbornness of an ageing man in Lycra is not to be underestimated.

The story of an obsession, of a marriage, of a betrayal: The Motion Of The Body Through Space is Lionel Shriver at her hilarious, sharp-eyed, audacious best.

©2020 Lionel Shriver (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Dark Humour Family Life Fiction Friendship Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Sports Marriage Physical Exercise Witty Funny Cycling Thought-Provoking Comedy

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Critic reviews

"Enjoyably abrasive...a compelling read...sardonic and elegant." (Evening Standard)

"Scabrously funny...few authors can be as entertainingly problematic as Shriver." (Guardian)

"With laugh-out-loud and sad moments, it’s a pinpoint-sharp novel." (Woman and Home)

All stars
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Interesting idea for a story. The narrator does a good job except she makes the main male voice too old. He is only on his 60s in the book but she makes him sound like he’s in his 80s. So a bit off putting. But other than that well read.

Review

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This is a strange one as the female voice Serenata is just fabulous, liquid honey toned, as her husband said, you could listen to her reading the tax codes and still love it. She makes her living doing voice overs etc which her husband Remington introduced her to, as a career, an encouraging, generous direction. He could be a lovely man if you just read the words in the book. But! The narrator had made him sound ridiculous from the start. He comes across as a croaky, querulous David Sedaris, each time he speaks, it grates, jars and irritates. I hated the way it made me feel he was a ridiculous person whereas he could be quite the opposite, I'd like to make up my own mind.

The story unrolls slowly, I have read every Lionel Shriver and know she can be overly US in her references but here I felt a real connection with her heroine who was 'ahead of her time'. Just wish Audible had got a man to speak the male part...

Unfortunately a listening experience of two halves

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Felt reader should have been directed not to try to feign gruff male personas.... this grated

Enjoyably apposite

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Razor sharp social commentary on maintaining a long term relationship through ageing, a husband's iron man obsession and the wife's loss of her own fitness. It's bleak but oh so funny. Full of moments of recognition where she perfectly expresses a thought I had not put into words in my own, less incisive, head. Biteingly realistic and shot through with a kindof forgiveness for the frailties of all her characters whilst firmly remaining from the woman's perspective. Marvellous!

Philosophical, terrifying and funny all at once

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I loved this book. It made me laugh so often. Great themes, great characters and the politics and antics were all too real! I highly recommend this book.

Very relatable!

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The storyline was interesting, the quality of writing is good. The narration of the female characters was fine, but the male voices were butchered by a put on voice. It was difficult to listen to. It's a shame because the female characters were fine, the story line had a lot of potential.

Interesting story line, annoying narration parts

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From the point of view of healthy OAP this was a very fine read. Funny, sardonic and wise.

Good as it gets

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I like Lionel Shriver’s books but I didn’t enjoy the audio of this book. The voices of the characters by one person putting on strange voices sounded cartoonish and was irritating. I think the audio version made this book’s characters feel quite shallow. Maybe the point but I won’t choose an audio fiction book again

Audio

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This book really resonated with me (I'm a 56 year old woman). It's whip smart and very emotional.

Loved it!

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Shriver treads that delicate line which creates characters just flawed enough, and just likeable enough, that you want to know what happens to them. She tackles a broad range of topics in modern morality, and neatly lays out The logical fallacies and dilemmas which they create.

Funny, insightful, and occasionally uncomfortable.

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