Listen to a sample
Too Bright to Hear, Too Loud to See
- Author
- Juliann Garey
- Narrator
- Dan Butler
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 26 December 2012
- Run Time
- 11 hours 6 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
In her tour de force first novel, Juliann Garey takes us inside the restless mind, ravaged heart, and anguished soul of Greyson Todd, a successful Hollywood studio executive who leaves his wife and young daughter and for a decade and travels the world giving free reign to the bipolar disorder he's been forced to keep hidden for almost twenty years. The novel intricately weaves together three timelines: the story of Greyson's travels (Rome, Israel, Santiago, Thailand, Uganda), the progressive unraveling of his own father seen through Greyson's eyes as a child, and the intimacies and estrangements of his marriage. The entire narrative unfolds in the time it takes him to undergo twelve thirty-second electroshock treatments in a New York psychiatric ward. This is a literary page-turner of the first order, and a brilliant inside look at mental illness.
Critics Review
-
“Greyson Todd is so utterly human…With the sheer force of her talent, Garey makes us want to look. And she makes us laugh. And she helps us understand and feel compassion.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
-
“Greyson Todd is the most fully-realized fictional character I’ve come across in a while…Garey doesn’t shy away from the depths of her character’s pain, but scenes that could easily become gratuitous in lesser hands are rendered with restraint and grace. She excels at leading us down the rabbit hole...Garey creates an atmosphere of exquisite tension.”
Millions
-
“A gripping tale of a man’s unraveling.”
Real Simple
-
“You won’t be able to put down this exhilarating debut novel…Brave and touching.”
Marie Claire
See more reviews See fewer reviews
-
“Brilliantly captures the effects of electro-convulsive therapy…[Garey’s] prose, with its mixture of the poetic and the profane, illuminates the psyche of a bipolar man, who seeks not a Hollywood ending but a restoration of the ‘glimmer’ of his faded past.”
Huffington Post
-
“Juliann Garey writes with stark, lucid power about the tumbling journey into madness and the agonizing climb back out. Her electric prose trembles and her images vibrate at the edges, affording a rare and precious experience of the troubled mind from the inside out. It’s essential writing—terrifying, exhilarating, absurd, achingly human, and absolutely compelling.”
Brian Yorkey, co-creator of the Tony Award-nominated Next To Normal
-
“Garey breathes life into an uncomfortable and often misunderstood subject and creates a riveting experience.”
Kirkus Reviews
-
“Garey evokes in stark detail the torment and raw suffering of mental illness. A compelling read.”
Library Journal (starred review)
-
“A fine, sharp-tongued debut. Too Bright to Hear, Too Loud to See is a novel deeply wrapped around its subject, but it has its sights on grander themes—namely, how to survive in a world not made for you.”
Los Angeles Times
-
“[Greyson Todd] is interesting and complex…We are deftly led through his erratic trains of thought, and suddenly we are with him in the irrational, sometimes violent place, and oddly, we understand how we got there.”
NPR
User Reviews
No reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Juliann Garey
- Narrator
- Dan Butler
- Duration
- 11 hours 6 minutes
- Release Date
- 26 December 2012
- ISBN
- 9781620644409
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- Narrative theme: Interior life, Fiction: general and literary, Fiction: general and literary
Synopsis
In her tour de force first novel, Juliann Garey takes us inside the restless mind, ravaged heart, and anguished soul of Greyson Todd, a successful Hollywood studio executive who leaves his wife and young daughter and for a decade and travels the world giving free reign to the bipolar disorder he's been forced to keep hidden for almost twenty years. The novel intricately weaves together three timelines: the story of Greyson's travels (Rome, Israel, Santiago, Thailand, Uganda), the progressive unraveling of his own father seen through Greyson's eyes as a child, and the intimacies and estrangements of his marriage. The entire narrative unfolds in the time it takes him to undergo twelve thirty-second electroshock treatments in a New York psychiatric ward. This is a literary page-turner of the first order, and a brilliant inside look at mental illness.
About xigxag
xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK's only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.
There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at $13.95. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from $7.95. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.
Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.
Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.