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Study for Obedience

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Study for Obedience

By: Sarah Bernstein
Narrated by: Sarah Bernstein
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About this listen

A powerful, compressed masterwork for fans of Shirley Jackson and Claire-Louise Bennett.

A woman moves from the place of her birth to a remote northern country to be housekeeper to her brother, whose wife has just left him. The youngest child of many siblings - more than she cares to remember - from earliest childhood she has attended to their every desire, smoothed away the slightest discomfort with perfect obedience, with the highest degree of devotion. The country, it transpires, is the country of their family's ancestors, an obscure though reviled people.

Soon after she arrives, a series of unfortunate events occurs - collective bovine hysteria; the demise of a ewe and her nearly-born lamb; a local dog's phantom pregnancy; the containment of domestic fowl; a potato blight. She notices that the local suspicion about incomers in general seems to be directed particularly in her case. What is clear is that she is being accused of wrongdoing, but in a language she cannot understand and so cannot address. And however diligently and silently she toils in service of the community, still she feels their hostility growing, pressing at the edges of her brother's property...

©2023 Sarah Bernstein (P)2023 Sarah Bernstein Contemporary Fiction Genre Fiction Psychological Small Town & Rural Fiction

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Critic reviews

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023

NAMED AS ONE OF GRANTA MAGAZINE'S BEST OF YOUNG BRITISH NOVELISTS 2023
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Such a dreary book though beautifully written. The narration was monotone which, although fitting, made it all such a hard slog.

Dreary

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I found it hard going to be in this young woman’s conscience. It was somewhat drab to be with a woman who thought so little of herself, determined to serve her brother in a old type suspicious community in a foreign country. I don’t think the narrator helped much with a nearly monotone reading… or perhaps that was meant. I felt the most dramatic part suddenly ended but I could well have missed something as I was flagging. I listened until the end as the idea was interesting and the description of the surrounds could be beautiful. . I did breathe a sigh of relief when I got out of the hard work of being in that head. Bur perhaps that was the point?

An earnest heavy experience.

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Having listened to it, i’m not entirely sure what this book was about. It has been written with a lot of description which kept reverting to a back story with no link to forward development. There was little dialogue and interaction with other characters which made the narrative difficult to follow. I thought the overall plot had good potential when I read the overview but there was little development of the plot throughout.

A weak narrative

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A blurred account of both pathological and veritable victimhood.
Dense prose obfuscates blame, cause and intent, whilst also obscuring potential signs of what has happened.
I want to revisit and suspect I will arrive at a different conclusion next time.

Needs revisiting

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So beautifully written and read I had to listen till the end but a very vague story . The words and language made me listen till the end thinking it would make sense in the end

Confusing

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I listened through this but didn't feel that there really was a story that grasped me.

I heard it

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I really wanted to read this book, as usually the long list for the Booker Prize is worth investing in.
I read a lot and am an author of six novels, published in 14 languages. In other words, I’m not exactly dense. However, try as I did, I could not find the lyrical prose and the emotional depth that some reviewers eulogize about.
I found the story deliberately cryptic and confusing, as if the author was trying to whip up drama and enigma where none existed. Why deprive the reader of a location? The townspeople with their medieval superstitions did not ring true with the availability of ‘high speed internet access”. The main character´s relentless navel gazing had little interest. I confess I didn’t get to the end… got too bored.

An aside to Audible… please discourage authors from reading their own books. They are NOT actors. This one was particularly grating.

Too much navel gazing

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This is a very dull and pretentious book. I’m an avid reader and studied literature beyond school but I found getting through this audiobook to be a laborious slog.

Boring and uneventful stream of consciousness

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The author reads excellently as the ostensibly meek but actually unreliable, uncanny and unreliable narrator.

A book for fans of Thomas Bernhard or Gwendoline Riley. If you’re looking for plot that unfolds readily at a first reading, you will be disappointed. It rewards rereading and rumination. Rum and disturbing.

Author is the perfect reader

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Lack of story, unfortunately! Had one of those listens where you've committed to see if the story gained momentum and feel hoodwinked that I wasted my time.

Lack of story

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