On Sunset: A Memoir
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On Sunset: A Memoir Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Kathryn Harrison (Author), Rebecca Lowman (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 45 ratings
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Born in Los Angeles at the dawn of the 1960s to parents who quickly departed, Kathryn Harrison was received by her maternal grandparents as a late-life child. Harry Jacobs and Margaret Sassoon, true wandering Jews, had emigrated to L.A. after leading whirlwind lives in Shanghai, London, Alaska, Russia, and beyond.

Harrison grew up in their fading Tudor mansion on Sunset Boulevard, a kingdom inhabited by gleaming memories from their extraordinary past. Their photos, letters, and souvenirs sparked endless family stories that spanned cultures, dynasties, and continents - until declining finances forced them to sell the house in 1971, and night fell fast.

Vivid and poignant, filled with the wisdom of retrospect and the wonder of childhood, On Sunset seeks to recover a foundational time in her life, affirming the power of storytelling and the endurance of memory.

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  1. Listening Length
    6 hours and 39 minutes
  2. Author
    Kathryn Harrison
  3. Narrator
    Rebecca Lowman
  4. Audible release date
    October 2, 2018
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B07H3BQ93H
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 6 hours and 39 minutes
Author Kathryn Harrison
Narrator Rebecca Lowman
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date October 02, 2018
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B07H3BQ93H
Best Sellers Rank #440,279 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#1,710 in Biographies of Authors
#6,005 in Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals
#8,486 in Rich & Famous Biographies

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
45 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

carilynp
5.0 out of 5 stars The quintessential memoir
Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2018
Verified Purchase
If you’ve read any of Kathryn Harrison’s memoirs, particularly THE KISS, you might be wondering what her latest ON SUNSET is about. I can assure you, as a fan of her work, the subject is tame but paints a magnificent picture. It is about growing up and being raised by her grandparents in their on its way to being dilapidated but still charming mansion on the outskirts of Beverly Hills. Her grandmother hales from a rather glamorous and somewhat eccentric background and her grandfather, a sort of adventurer and a bit enchanting himself. Because Harrison’s mother wasn’t able to take care of her, her grandparents stepped up and did the job. While an unconventional situation, it sure made for an interesting childhood.

Harrison regales us with a past steeped in magical memories.
5 people found this helpful
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Helen
5.0 out of 5 stars A one-of-a-kind, amazing book
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2019
Verified Purchase
I just finished re-reading this book for the third time. It contains such a wealth of autobiographical information I found it overwhelming the first time through. Harrison’s great-grandparents and grandparents are figures from an unquestionably distant era, the turn of the twentieth century, and living in Europe or across the globe in Asia, but Harrison writes of them in such careful, yet persistent tones..she crafts a volume that, if the reader is willing to make the journey, results in the knowledge of people who lived and loved and suffered and strategized and did what they needed to do to make their way in the world. This is a truly amazing book.
3 people found this helpful
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KM
5.0 out of 5 stars Whew
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2019
Verified Purchase
Whew. A stunning look at, pretty much, a stunning upbringing. The speaker suffers because her mother is, basically, gone, and the writer shows us how a child processes this, subtly, in that she doesn't quite have the words, despite being that the sorrow is there. It is a complicated relationship; the grandparents stepping in to raise her and give her comfort, especially the grandfather, and an eccentric upbringing that the grandmother is mostly responsible for, is well told, with insight, humor and, in the end, joy.
5 people found this helpful
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J.K
5.0 out of 5 stars The best one
Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2019
Verified Purchase
Out of all her memoirs, this one is the best, in my opinion. I enjoyed reading about Harrison's grandparents' lives and adventures.
One person found this helpful
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Tom Densmore
1.0 out of 5 stars Worst
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2019
Verified Purchase
Although a nice memory for the author not a nice memory for this reader. In fact after laboring through about a hundred pages put the book down. Will give to my local library. The writing style is the worst. The author evidently is trying to impress the reader she knows how to use every big word from Webster's Thesaurus.
3 people found this helpful
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Jen F
2.0 out of 5 stars Devoid of emotion
Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2022
Unfortunately, I felt like there was little here. I found some of the history interesting (primarily some rarely told Jewish Mizrahi history), but it didn't go in depth anywhere. There was no emotion in this at all, the writing style was a bit too choppy for my preference. I didn't even get a strong sense of place when supposedly the place was what was supposed to be front & center in this memoir. I'm a bit baffled by the positive response from so many.
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Tanya Marquardt
5.0 out of 5 stars A snapshot of a bygone time, in all its pleasures and its complications
Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2018
I devoured this book - it was such a pleasure to read about Harrison's childhood and loved the way she went back and forth between the lives of her grandmother and grandfather, whose lives traversed across histories and continents to meet in LA and eventually raise Harrison. We see Kathryn as a child, wondering at her grandparent's lives the way one might wonder at fairy tales. Pictures of their lives and their families are sprinkled throughout the book, and this helps to place them in relationship to historical events as well as to class and sexuality. A snapshot of a bygone time, in all its pleasures and adventures as well as the repression and erasure of culture that came with British colonization. We keep seeing the young Kathryn trying to locate herself in relationship to the stories she hears, stories that live in her and create the writer that she becomes.
7 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Book arrived in great condition, just as described
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 3, 2019
Verified Purchase
A humorous, beautifully written account of the author's grandparents
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