
Supernova
Original Fiction Brought to You by Electric Literature's Recommended Reading
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Narrated by:
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Kevin Stillwell
About this listen
What's fascinating about Dani Shapiro's story "Supernova" is "its focus on the minor catastrophe that is Shenkman, a relatively prosperous man whose minor shortcomings feel, to him alone, monumental and impossible to overlook," writes Benjamin Samuel, co-editor of Electric Literature, in his introduction to this issue of Recommended Reading. "Despite rowing every day, obsessively racing against an old rival in a computerized simulation, nobody even knows Shenkman is still competing. Worse still, he isn't even trying to win anymore, just trying to transpose his sense of defeat on anyone left in the race. Shenkman's last hope for achieving something is his son, Waldo, who spends so much time stargazing, so disconnected from the real world, that he's slipped out of Shenkman's reach.
"'Supernova' is a story that succeeds because of its remarkable treatment of the mediocre, it's focus on the middle of the pack where most of spend our days. It reminds us that we can exalt the quotidian, and that normalcy can be something to commemorate.... Because most of the time existence doesn't end with a bang or even a whimper, sometimes life ends with a shrug."
©2013 Dani Shapiro (P)2014 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Division Street is full of secrets. An impulsive lie begets a secret—one which will forever haunt the Wilf family. And the Shenkmans, who move into the neighborhood many years later, bring secrets of their own.. Spanning fifty kaleidoscopic years, on a street—and in a galaxy—where stars collapse and stories collide, these two families become bound in ways they never could have imagined. Urgent and compassionate, Signal Fires is a magical story for our times, a literary tour de force by a masterful storyteller at the height of her powers.
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Overall
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What listeners say about Supernova
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Mrs.Chablis
- 08-30-23
Not my favorite
While I am a huge Dani Shapiro fan, I didn't particularly connect with this one. It meandered around a bit too much and I found the characters depressing. Nevertheless she is a very talented writer with a great many other books worthy of exploring.
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