Modern Lovers
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Modern Lovers Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Emma Straub (Author), Jen Tullock (Narrator), Penguin Audio (Publisher)
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 6,982 ratings
Editors' pick Best Literature & Fiction
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From the author of the New York Times best sellers All Adults Here and This Time Tomorrow, a smart, highly entertaining novel about a tight-knit group of friends from college - and what it means to finally grow up, well after adulthood has set in.

Friends and former college bandmates Elizabeth and Andrew and Zoe have watched one another marry, buy real estate, and start businesses and families, all while trying to hold on to the identities of their youth. But nothing ages them like having to suddenly pass the torch (of sexuality, independence, and the ineffable alchemy of cool) to their own offspring.

Back in the band's heyday, Elizabeth put on a snarl over her Midwestern smile, Andrew let his unwashed hair grow past his chin, and Zoe was the lesbian all the straight women wanted to sleep with. Now nearing 50, they all live within shouting distance in the same neighborhood deep in gentrified Brooklyn, and the trappings of the adult world seem to have arrived with ease. But the summer that their children reach maturity (and start sleeping together), the fabric of the adult lives suddenly begins to unravel, and the secrets and revelations that are finally let loose - about themselves, and about the famous fourth band member who soared and fell without them - can never be reclaimed.

Straub packs wisdom and insight and humor together in a satisfying book about neighbors and nosiness, ambition and pleasure, the excitement of youth, the shock of middle age, and the fact that our passions- be they food, or friendship, or music - never go away, they just evolve and grow along with us.

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  1. Listening Length
    9 hours and 2 minutes
  2. Author
    Emma Straub
  3. Narrator
    Jen Tullock
  4. Audible release date
    May 31, 2016
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Penguin Audio
  7. ASIN
    B01D0JQ8V2
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 9 hours and 2 minutes
Author Emma Straub
Narrator Jen Tullock
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date May 31, 2016
Publisher Penguin Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B01D0JQ8V2
Best Sellers Rank #94,146 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#979 in Humorous Fiction & Satire
#1,897 in Family Life Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#3,140 in Humorous Fiction

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
6,982 global ratings
Worth your time, readers!
5 Stars
Worth your time, readers!
Really enjoyed this book! The author actually chatted with us at our book club @ MashableReads headquarters! She's really from Brooklyn, and very cool and funny!
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Top reviews from the United States

bookworm
4.0 out of 5 stars Women you want to hang with
Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2020
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After seeing the many negative or mediocre reviews, I hesitated about reading this novel, but I'm so glad I did. It proved to be a wonderful escape during the early days of coronavirus and sheltering in place, and I really looked forward to "hanging" with these fascinating women. Straub is a graceful and elegant stylist and very good at drilling into her characters' emotional lives. With the exception of the odious Andrew, these are complicated and very believable characters -- not always likable, but who among us are. That's what makes them interesting. And building her story through the lenses of almost all of the characters not only made the novel more compelling, but also stronger, showcasing the ways we so often misinterpret others' actions or thoughts or fall prey to misconceptions of our own. Her take on Brooklyn today was particularly good -- gentle satire poking fun at the pretensions and pretentiousness, but with a loving eye. Straub is also very good with teenagers. Ruby was perhaps my favorite character and her interactions with her other friends and of course with Harry were lively, entertaining and also incredibly sweet.

The one negative, as others pointed out, is Andrew, who was impossible to like and worse, to believe in. What a sad sack at almost 50; whiny, self-involved, self-pitying, stupid, irritating beyond belief. I'd have chalked this up to Straub's difficulty with male characters but Harry was a wonderful character, so I have to believe she either missed the boat with Andrew or had some reason for making him so unpleasant. He's the only one that doesn't grow and he isn't really mentioned in her clever finale wrapping up the lives of everyone else looking ahead a few years. I'd have rooted for Andrew to face some consequences from throwing away a considerable amount of money on a con man, but that plot line never goes forward, and for me, that was a bit of a miss. All this said, I'd still recommend this as a heartfelt, funny and very well-written novel. Can't wait to start her new one, just out this week.
7 people found this helpful
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Pantextual
5.0 out of 5 stars Best book I've read in over a year and I'm a tough customer
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2016
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I'm pretty picky about my books and won't hesitate to put a book down if it doesn't grab me. Modern Lovers by Emma Straub pulled me right in and didn't let go. I devoured this book in 3 days and could not get the characters out of my head for days if not weeks afterward.

I won't rehash too much of the plot, since others have done so, but the idea of revisiting the past and finding one's voice in the present resonated with me. The comparisons between some of the main characters' college angst while in an alternative rock band and their present-day challenges as adult parents were intriguing and the added bittersweet struggles of their teenage children made for a story with more surprises and twists than I ever thought possible.

I also found Straub's choice of diverse characters brave and refreshing. The character of Zoe is an African-American lesbian married to Jane, a white Jewish lesbian. Their marriage is on shaky ground and their biracial teenage daughter ,Ruby, who is wise beyond her years, is beginning to act out and define herself. We don't have the opportunity to see families like this one in much literary fiction written for the mainstream or in any mainstream fiction for that matter. I read quite a bit of lesbian fiction and Emma Straub has created a novel that could easily appeal to all readers, including those who appreciate a book with strong female characters and lesbian characters. This novel features the type of quality in terms of plot, characterization, dialogue, and language that I'd like to see more of in other genres, particularly in "lesfic."

Straub's writing is exquisite and has a maturity and sophistication I did not expect. I plan to read her other books. She has gained a new fan.
2 people found this helpful
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Alan A. Elsner
3.0 out of 5 stars Well-crafted but a bit facile
Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2016
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Yet another deep dive into the lives of middle-aged New Yorkers trying to work through the angst of love and vanishing youth. The main protagonists of this novel were once members of a college rock band in Oberlin College. Two of the band members, Elizabeth and Andrew, got married and had a child, Harry, now 17. A third, Zoe, is married to Jane and they run a restaurant in Brooklyn. Their daughter, Ruby, is 18. The fourth member of the band, Lydia, became a troubled rock star, had one mega-hit for which Elizabeth had written the lyrics, and then died of a heroin overdose aged 27. A kind of Amy Winehouse figure. Now a Hollywood producer wants to make a movie out of their early lives. Elizabeth and Zoe are all in favor but Andrew is opposed.

Zoe and Janes's marriage has gone stale and they are sleeping apart. Ruby deliberately flunked her SATs and sent in a terrible essay with her college applications -- and was rejected by every school she applied to. She's at loose ends, drifting, unable to fix on a directions. Elizabeth has given up music and sells real estate. Andrew is between jobs -- but he comes from a rich family and does't have to worry too much about it. He thinks of various new careers but gets sucked into a cult-like group practicing new-age yoga run by an obvious charlatan. Harry is in lust, and maybe in love, with Ruby.

Reading this book, I felt like I'd read it several times before recently. I guess a disproportionate number of authors and publishers and agents live in Brooklyn and have an endless fascination with the lives of 40-somethings -- which they feel the whole world shares or ought to share -- or could be made to share. That's not to say that this book was not well-written and well-constructed. During its course, several of the characters will have their little crises -- and emerge from them hopefully older and wiser. I didn't much care what happened to them -- but maybe that's just me.

One aspect that rubbed me a little the wrong way was the depiction of Andrew who comes across as a complete loser -- weightless,irresponsible, gullible and self-absorbed. Since he's the only adult male character of any consequence, that drags the book in a particular direction. This is a book mainly about women. All of the women -- Zoe, Jane, Elizabeth, even Ruby -- are fundamentally serious, well-intentioned, hard-working and responsible -- and then there's Andrew who is pathetic. The other male characters include a sociopath who was once Ruby's boyfriend, a crook who runs the yoga retreat and Harry who is a lovable teddybear. There is a subtle anti-male bias here, I began to feel.

This book has been lauded by the critics and I liked it well enough -- but to me it all went down a little too easy. The last section, in which we learn what befalls the characters through press clippings, was particularly glib and unsuccessful. All the women came through and kind of dragged their male appendages along, those who bothered to have them.
3 people found this helpful
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April Lehrling
4.0 out of 5 stars engaging
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2024
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While you don’t like the characters all the time, this made them feel human. Love and friendship are complicated. Doesn’t always feel real but still entertaining to the end. Worth a read.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Laura
5.0 out of 5 stars Bien
Reviewed in France on March 23, 2021
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Bien
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germana palermo
4.0 out of 5 stars Wunderschöne Bücher
Reviewed in Germany on October 10, 2019
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Die Bücher sind ganz neu, sehr gute Preis und Leistung Verhältniss; Die Lieferung war sehr schnell und praktisch.

Ich werde in der Zukunft sicher bestellen!
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Betina
1.0 out of 5 stars Lack of connection betwwen chapters
Reviewed in Brazil on May 19, 2017
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I couldn't even finish the book. I read half of the book and the story hasn't started yet. They are still describing characters, so I did not get involved in the story.
One person found this helpful
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Karen Carter
4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 21, 2018
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An enjoyable read where we see a group of college friends as they reach middle age. It has humour but also pathos. I found the characters of Zoe and Elizabeth well portrayed and relatable and I liked the way that their now teenage children were beginning the journey they had once travelled. The teenagers were great and spot on and the relationship between them and their parents made me sigh and chuckle as I recognised myself in them: they were trying to be the supportive friendly parent we all try to be whilst being unable to resist the rant that an often recalcitrant teen can so easily invite. The conclusion was little too neat and Andrew was beyond infuriating but overall I enjoyed this novel.
4 people found this helpful
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Alana Dawn
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
Reviewed in Canada on December 15, 2016
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Great book!
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