
The Easy Way Out
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $15.56
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Josh Hurley
-
By:
-
Stephen McCauley
About this listen
Patrick O’Neil is a travel agent who never goes anywhere. His closest confidante, Sharon, is chain-smoking her way to singles hell, passing up man after man. His parents, proprietors of a suburban men’s store whose fortunes are sagging more visibly than its customers, can’t agree how best to interfere in their sons’ lives. And his lover, Arthur (a nice golden retriever of a guy to whom Patrick can’t quite commit), wants to cement their relationship by buying a house.
Then a call comes in the middle of another sleepless night. Tony, Patrick’s straight-as-an-arrow younger brother, has fallen in love with a beautiful lawyer who is turning him on to … opera.
Unfortunately, she’s not the woman he’s already pledged to marry. Tony’s life is a mess. Finally, the brothers have something in common.
©1992 Stephen McCauley (P)2023 Blackstone PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Gay Best Friend
- By: Nicolas DiDomizio
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Domenic Marino has become an expert at code-switching between the hypermasculine and ultrafeminine worlds of his two soon-to-be-wed best friends. But this summer—reeling from his own failed engagement and tasked with attending their bachelor and bachelorette parties—he's anxious over having to play both sides. The pressure is on. The bride wants Dom to keep things clean. The groom wants Dom to let loose with the guys. And Dom just wants to get out of this whole mess with his friendships intact.
-
-
Amazing!! Didomizio does it again!
- By Bradley S on 07-07-23
-
My Ex-Life
- A Novel
- By: Stephen McCauley
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Hedges’ life is coming apart at the seams. His job helping San Francisco rich kids get into the colleges of their (parents’) choice is exasperating; his younger boyfriend has left him; and the beloved carriage house he rents is being sold. His solace is a Thai takeout joint that delivers 24/7.
-
-
SO ENJOYABLE!
- By Tammy L. Virgili on 05-23-18
By: Stephen McCauley
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
-
So incredibly boring
- By Rhonda Morrison on 08-05-23
By: Ann Patchett
-
Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style
- A Novel
- By: Paul Rudnick
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Devastatingly handsome and insanely rich, Farrell Covington is capable of anything and impossible to resist. He’s a clear-eyed romantic, an aesthete but not a snob, self-indulgent yet wildly generous. As the son of one of the country’s most powerful and deeply conservative families, the world could be his. But when he falls for Nate Reminger, an aspiring writer from a nice Jewish family in Piscataway, New Jersey, the results are passionate and catastrophic. Together, the two embark on a unique romance that spans half a century.
-
-
Great audiobook
- By Ryan Macht on 11-30-23
By: Paul Rudnick
-
Less (Booktrack Edition)
- A Novel
- By: Andrew Sean Greer
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who says you can't run away from your problems? You are a failed novelist about to turn 50. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: Your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can't say yes—it would be too awkward—and you can't say no—it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world. Question: How do you arrange to skip town? Answer: You accept them all. What would possibly go wrong?
-
-
Less is not more. Plus a Pulitzer?
- By Seth on 03-24-20
-
The Other Man
- By: Farhad J. Dadyburjor
- Narrated by: Ariyan Kassam
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heir to his father’s Mumbai business empire, Ved Mehra has money, looks, and status. He is also living as a closeted gay man. Thirty-eight, lonely, still reeling from a breakup, and under pressure from his exasperated mother, Ved agrees to an arranged marriage. He regrettably now faces a doomed future with the perfectly lovely Disha Kapoor. Then Ved’s world is turned upside down when he meets Carlos Silva, an American on a business trip in India.
-
-
Too long, too much whining
- By Guy Ivie on 04-24-22
-
The Gay Best Friend
- By: Nicolas DiDomizio
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Domenic Marino has become an expert at code-switching between the hypermasculine and ultrafeminine worlds of his two soon-to-be-wed best friends. But this summer—reeling from his own failed engagement and tasked with attending their bachelor and bachelorette parties—he's anxious over having to play both sides. The pressure is on. The bride wants Dom to keep things clean. The groom wants Dom to let loose with the guys. And Dom just wants to get out of this whole mess with his friendships intact.
-
-
Amazing!! Didomizio does it again!
- By Bradley S on 07-07-23
-
My Ex-Life
- A Novel
- By: Stephen McCauley
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Hedges’ life is coming apart at the seams. His job helping San Francisco rich kids get into the colleges of their (parents’) choice is exasperating; his younger boyfriend has left him; and the beloved carriage house he rents is being sold. His solace is a Thai takeout joint that delivers 24/7.
-
-
SO ENJOYABLE!
- By Tammy L. Virgili on 05-23-18
By: Stephen McCauley
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
-
So incredibly boring
- By Rhonda Morrison on 08-05-23
By: Ann Patchett
-
Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style
- A Novel
- By: Paul Rudnick
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Devastatingly handsome and insanely rich, Farrell Covington is capable of anything and impossible to resist. He’s a clear-eyed romantic, an aesthete but not a snob, self-indulgent yet wildly generous. As the son of one of the country’s most powerful and deeply conservative families, the world could be his. But when he falls for Nate Reminger, an aspiring writer from a nice Jewish family in Piscataway, New Jersey, the results are passionate and catastrophic. Together, the two embark on a unique romance that spans half a century.
-
-
Great audiobook
- By Ryan Macht on 11-30-23
By: Paul Rudnick
-
Less (Booktrack Edition)
- A Novel
- By: Andrew Sean Greer
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who says you can't run away from your problems? You are a failed novelist about to turn 50. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: Your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can't say yes—it would be too awkward—and you can't say no—it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world. Question: How do you arrange to skip town? Answer: You accept them all. What would possibly go wrong?
-
-
Less is not more. Plus a Pulitzer?
- By Seth on 03-24-20
-
The Other Man
- By: Farhad J. Dadyburjor
- Narrated by: Ariyan Kassam
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heir to his father’s Mumbai business empire, Ved Mehra has money, looks, and status. He is also living as a closeted gay man. Thirty-eight, lonely, still reeling from a breakup, and under pressure from his exasperated mother, Ved agrees to an arranged marriage. He regrettably now faces a doomed future with the perfectly lovely Disha Kapoor. Then Ved’s world is turned upside down when he meets Carlos Silva, an American on a business trip in India.
-
-
Too long, too much whining
- By Guy Ivie on 04-24-22
-
The Best of Me
- By: David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For more than 25 years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is at absurd and moving about our daily existence. And it is almost impossible to listen without laughing.
-
-
Almost No New Material
- By Lizardectomy on 11-05-20
By: David Sedaris
-
The Dutch House
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Tom Hanks
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves. The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother.
-
-
Not my favorite Patchett
- By Regina on 12-07-19
By: Ann Patchett
-
Summer of '69
- By: Elin Hilderbrand
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the most tumultuous summer of the 20th century. It's 1969, and for the Levin family, the times they are a-changing. Every year, the children have looked forward to spending the summer at their grandmother's historic home in downtown Nantucket. But like so much else in America, nothing is the same.
-
-
great story
- By Amazon Customer on 07-09-19
By: Elin Hilderbrand
-
Golden Girl
- By: Elin Hilderbrand
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a perfect June day, Vivian Howe, author of 13 beach novels and mother of three nearly grown children, is killed in a hit-and-run car accident while jogging near her home on Nantucket. She ascends to the Beyond where she's assigned to a Person named Martha, who allows Vivi to watch what happens below for one last summer. Vivi also is granted three “nudges” to change the outcome of events on earth.
-
-
Good read!
- By Rainy day lady on 06-05-21
By: Elin Hilderbrand
-
28 Summers
- By: Elin Hilderbrand
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Mallory Blessing's son, Link, receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a number on a slip of paper in her desk drawer, he's not sure what to expect. But he certainly does not expect Jake McCloud to answer. It's the late spring of 2020 and Jake's wife, Ursula DeGournsey, is the frontrunner in the upcoming Presidential election. There must be a mistake, Link thinks. How do Mallory and Jake know each other?
-
-
Loved this Book
- By Forrest on 06-18-20
By: Elin Hilderbrand
-
16 Lighthouse Road
- Cedar Cove, Book 1
- By: Debbie Macomber
- Narrated by: Sandra Burr
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"You don't know me yet, but in a few hours that's going to change. You see, I'm inviting you to my home and my town of Cedar Cove, because I want you to meet my family, friends, and neighbors. Come and hear their stories - maybe even their secrets!"
-
-
Very Light Chick Lit
- By Leslie on 03-02-11
By: Debbie Macomber
-
Green Card
- By: Elizabeth Adams
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Grace
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
William Harper has it all: Looks, money, power. There’s just one tiny problem - he’s about to be deported. He needs a green card. Fast. An American wife is the easiest way to get one. But where will he find a woman to marry him on such short notice? Elizabeth Barrett is a full-time student, part-time dog walker, and weekend tutor. With a roommate who just ran out on her and neck deep in tuition payments, she needs money. Now. Harper just might make her an offer she can’t refuse.
-
-
So sorry
- By lac127 on 04-01-22
By: Elizabeth Adams
-
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel
- By: Elyssa Friedland
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In its heyday, The Golden Hotel was the crown jewel of the hotter-than-hot Catskills vacation scene. For more than sixty years, the Goldman and Weingold families - best friends and business partners - have presided over this glamorous resort which served as a second home for well-heeled guests and celebrities. But the Catskills are not what they used to be - and neither is the relationship between the Goldmans and the Weingolds.
-
-
Very frustrating and confusing
- By kendallalycia on 05-26-21
By: Elyssa Friedland
-
Musical Chairs
- A Novel
- By: Amy Poeppel
- Narrated by: Amanda Carlin, Matthew Lloyd Davies, Gibson Frazier, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bridget and Will have the kind of relationship that people envy: They’re loving, compatible, and completely devoted to each other. The fact that they’re strictly friends seems to get lost on nearly everyone. For three decades, they’ve nurtured their baby, the Forsyth Trio - a chamber group they created as students with their Juilliard classmate Gavin Glantz. In the intervening years, Gavin has gone on to become one of the classical music world’s reigning stars, while Bridget and Will have learned to embrace the warm reviews and smaller venues that accompany modest success.
-
-
Enjoyable, intriguing, well-crafted
- By Jolie Blonde on 08-10-20
By: Amy Poeppel
-
Like People in History
- A Gay American Epic
- By: Felice Picano
- Narrated by: Ethan Sawyer
- Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stonewall Cousins, Roger and Alistair, become lifelong friends when they meet as boys in 1954. After both discovering their homosexuality, their lives intersect against the backdrop of 20th Century gay culture, from the beachboy surfer days of the 1960's, to the Greenwich Village AIDS activism in the 1990's.
-
-
It's All About Roger And Alistair
- By Randy on 12-17-14
By: Felice Picano
-
Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl
- By: Renée Rosen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1938, and a young woman selling face cream out of a New York City beauty parlor is determined to prove she can have it all. Her name is Estée Lauder, and she’s about to take the world by storm, in this dazzling new novel from the USA Today bestselling author of The Social Graces and Park Avenue Summer.
-
-
Lots of fun
- By Robin on 05-01-23
By: Renée Rosen
-
Friends and Strangers
- A novel
- By: J. Courtney Sullivan
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Elisabeth, an accomplished journalist and new mother, is struggling to adjust to life in a small town after nearly 20 years in New York City. Alone in the house with her infant son all day (and awake with him much of the night), she feels uneasy, adrift. She neglects her work, losing untold hours to her Brooklyn moms' Facebook group, her "influencer" sister's Instagram feed, and text messages with the best friend she never sees anymore. Enter Sam, a senior at the local women's college, whom Elisabeth hires to babysit.
-
-
thought provoking story
- By Barbara S on 07-26-20
What listeners say about The Easy Way Out
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bruce
- 11-24-23
Read his later works
I loved my ex life so much that I immediately looked for other audiobooks by Stephen McCauley. At the time, there were no other books of his available. I was surprised that this book was written 30 years ago. The details are rather amusing. Jackie Onassis is still alive, the biggest political threat is John Sununu, and there are still travel agents, who can apparently forge airline tickets and get away with it. I felt let down by the narrator, who delivered the author’s dry humor with little self-awareness. He was too upbeat for the material, which might have come off edgier with a more deadpan delivery. I am looking forward to his new novel coming out in January, and have put myself on the waiting list for that. 
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Alice Blue
- 06-05-23
New recording of an older book
This is a new recording of a book written in 1992, but since I’m always up for a Stephen McCauley book, I gave it a listen. The novel follows reluctant travel agent Patrick over a few months as he gets involved in solving the relationship problems of family and friends. With McCauley’s typical light touch, we witness moments that range from achingly tender to laugh-out-loud hilarious on Patrick’s journey toward getting his own personal house in order.
In addition to a great story filled with McCauley’s lovingly drawn characters, “The Easy Way Out” serves as an early 1990’s time capsule. From the Pan Am shuttle to smoking in offices to paper airline tickets, it’s a reminder that the details of daily life keep evolving while many of our personal relationships stay the same. It is a fun read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful