This Is Not Your Fault
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This Is Not Your Fault
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By:
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Courtney Maum
About this listen
From acclaimed author Courtney Maum, a short story about a couple in the throes of divorce during COVID-19 that will remind listeners of the heartfelt humor and acuity of her critically acclaimed and beloved debut novel, I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You.
Hal Beekman is exhausted. With all of his energy devoted to his real estate developments, he doesn’t have the bandwidth to figure out why his wife is sad. As for Stacey Beekman, a transplanted Midwesterner with divorce-whisperer friends, the only solution for a husband who doesn’t desire her is to find a second husband who does. But with Stacey left alone in a new house to parent her tech-addicted children and Hank isolated in a Greenwich McMansion that neither of them ever loved, COVID-19 has surprises in store for the Beekmans, including the realization that they might be making a mistake.
Alternating between the husband and wife’s legal paperwork and co-parenting forms - braided with desperate missives from overeager lawyers - Maum’s portrait of a strained marriage in an unprecedented time - like quarantine life itself - is a powerful reminder about what we really hold dear.
©2020 Courtney Maum (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC.Listeners also enjoyed...
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What listeners say about This Is Not Your Fault
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sebrina Autumn Calkins
- 02-09-23
Heartrending and Heartwarming
CW: Covid (Referenced in passing), Divorce
I am not sure what to say about this short story other than the fact I really enjoyed it. I have struggled with works that reference Covid as my partner and I are in the at risk category due to our chronic conditions and essentially forced to continue the lockdown life forever (The phenomenal Louise Erdrich's The Sentence was a gut punch, but incredible nonetheless), and I have had mixed experiences with epistolaries, but this was genuinely brilliant. The Covid of it all, while strangely a lynch pin of the narrative, is only referenced in passing and is more about the Zoom era than anything else, and the epistolaries being documents and emails regarding the divorce proceedings are handled really well -- short and punchy, filled with personality and driving the story.
This is a story about compatibility, needs, and communication, as well as the expected course of events. Witnessing the potential break up of two decent people (as decent as someone in real estate and wealthy enough to have employees shelter in place with them can be) who have no animosity towards each other is somehow equally, if not more, emotional than if there was mutual hatred or a one-sided feeling. There's something devastating about the niceness of it all.
I've seen some reviews talk about the ending being abrupt or not wrapped up, which it somewhat is...but that is entirely purposeful. Short stories often end suddenly and/ or with an ambiguity that is the point, which is very much the case of this one. We are left with things changing and an uncertain potential. That's great. There are some short stories on here that I do think end without purpose or effectiveness, but this isn't among them.
There has definitely been some variance in quality and some I haven't enjoyed, but I'm genuinely blown away by just how great and varied so many of the Audible Original stories included in the library have been. Will definitely be reading more of the author.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 30-01-22
erm .. I'm not even sure what to say?
it was like the author just decided to stop writing half way through a story. I love short stories but they still need an ending.
the whole thing was just people whining about their divorce, their house being too big and them not having enough sex. I'm not really sure what the point was? it was funny, it wasn't terrible, it just didn't really give much of anything
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