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The Spectator Bird

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The Spectator Bird

By: Wallace Stegner
Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
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About this listen

 Joe Allston is a retired literary agent who is, in his own words, "killing time before time gets around to killing me." His parents and his only son are long dead, leaving him with neither ancestors nor descendants, tradition nor ties. His job, trafficking the talent of others, had not been his choice. He passes through life as a spectator. But a postcard from a friend causes him to return to the journals of a trip he had taken years before. The memories of that trip to his mother's birthplace move through layers of time and meaning, and reveal that Joe Allston isn't quite spectator enough.©1976 Wallace Stegner (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Fiction Literary Fiction

Critic Reviews

  • National Book Award Winner, 1976

"Elegant and entertaining. . . .Every scene is adroitly staged and each effect precisely accomplished." ( The Atlantic)

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Oh human nature!!

Wallace Stegner has a way of describing events and people that makes me stop and take a breath and wallow in it.

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