Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

MacArthur Park

By: Judith Freeman
Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

A captivating, emotionally taut novel about the complexities of a friendship between two women - and how it shapes, and reshapes, both of their lives.

"Filled with gorgeous prose and deep emotion.... Explores what it means to be an artist, delves into the vicissitudes of life and death, and takes us on journey through the splendor (and sometimes ugliness) of the American West - with dollops of Flaubert, Faulkner, Chekhov, Collette, and Chandler along the way." (Lisa See, author of The Island of Sea Women)

Jolene and Verna share complicated ties that have crystallized over time. Beginning when they were girls discovering their needs and desires, their ongoing stories have been inextricably linked. But when Verna marries Vincent, Jolene’s ex-husband, their paths may have finally, permanently diverged.

A successful and provocative feminist artist, Jolene travels the world, attracting attention wherever she goes. Verna, a writer, works from her home near MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, where she and Vincent plan to spend the rest of their lives in a contemplative, intimate routine. Then Jolene asks one more favor of Verna - to take a road trip with her to their small hometown in Utah. It’s a journey that will force them to confront both the truths and falsehoods of their memories of each other and of the very beginnings of their friendship, and to reckon with the meaning of love, of time itself, of the bonds that matter most to us, and with what we owe one another.

©2021 Judith Freeman (P)2021 Random House Audio
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Vigil Harbor cover art
The Sixteen Pleasures cover art
House of Secrets cover art
Fellowship Point cover art
Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet cover art
The Exile and the Mapmaker cover art
Mother Land cover art
Touched by the Sun cover art
David and Ameena cover art
Lucy cover art
Leaving the Witness cover art
Letters from Brenda cover art
Call Me by Your Name cover art

Critic reviews

“Intelligent, challenging fiction [with] bravura descriptions of diverse American landscapes.... Freeman asks us to understand that committed relationships necessarily involve conflict and compromise.” (Kirkus Reviews)

"Judith Freeman has long been one of our wisest and wiliest radicals. She's never written a book more daring than MacArthur Park, an audacious novel that is several books in one: a revealing piece of auto-fiction, a story about an alter-egoing female friendship, a portrait of a tricky marriage, a vivid road trip along little known Western highways, a debate between different visions of art (and womanhood!), and a rumination on the importance of finding somewhere to call home. As scrupulous and beautifully observed as all her work, this is one of those books that gets better and better as you go along." (John Powers, critic at large, Fresh Air with Terry Gross)

“A wonderful and revealing book about the bond between two strong American women involved in a lifelong triangle and the different, sometimes conflicting, paths they take across time - and across the country - toward intimacy and real self-knowledge. Eccentric, readable, and beautifully crafted, this novel shows us what it means to be an artist and what it means to love other people, and a stream of bracing fun and wit burbles behind the book’s powerful, contemporary American story. Freeman, as always, captures nuance and character in swift, evocative strokes, and never flinches from taking a hard look at what the dark future holds and how we are to face it.” (Amy Wilentz, author of The Rainy Season)

What listeners say about MacArthur Park

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.