Harold Audiobook By Steven Wright cover art

Harold

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Harold

By: Steven Wright
Narrated by: Steven Wright
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A uniquely humorous and deeply profound novel from a legendary stand-up comedian that follows the thoughts of a 1960s third grader during a single day at school.

Steven Wright is one of the most significant and influential stand-up comedians in history. Rolling Stone ranked him fifteenth on their “50 Best Stand-ups of All Time” list, while the New York Times has written of his enduring legacy: “If you made a family tree of modern stand-up, he would top one of the few major and expanding branches. The children of Mr. Wright pack the comedy scene today.” Now comes his first novel, which is sure to be unlike anything you’ve ever read.

From the outside, Harold is an average seven-year-old third grader growing up in the 1960s. Bored by school. Crushing on a girl. Likes movies and baseball—especially the hometown Boston Red Sox. Enjoys spending time with his grandfather. But inside Harold’s mind, things are a lot more complex and unusual. His thoughts come to him as birds flying through a small rectangle in the middle of his brain. He visits an outdoor cafe on the moon and is invited aboard a spaceship by famed astronomer Carl Sagan. He envisions his own funeral procession and wonders if the driver of the hearse has even been born yet.

Harold documents the meandering, surreal, often hilarious, and always thought-provoking stream-of-consciousness ruminations of the title character during a single day in class. Saturated with the witticisms and profundities for which Wright’s groundbreaking stand-up has long been venerated, this novel will change the way you perceive your daily existence. To quote one of its many memorable lines: “Everything doesn’t have to make sense. Just look at the world and your life.”
Literature & Fiction Witty Thought-Provoking Literary Fiction Funny Fiction Absurdist Genre Fiction Comedy Celebrity Sports
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Imaginative Storytelling • Profound Insights • Perfect Author Narration • Unique Perspective • Philosophical Depth

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Loved this book! The thoughts are hilarious and thought provoking, and there are so many titillating factoid nuggets, like how random things came to be or random people who died, and how they died. It’s a plethora of little elements, and classic stand-up “callbacks” laced throughout that made me really enjoy this book.
Harold’s thoughts and nonsensical meanderings are EXACTLY what it’s like to be a young boy, and Wright adds humor and emotion to a simple scene, that we’ve all experienced. Sitting in class all day, escaping the monotony and wandering into our weird brains until “after 13.8 billion years and the 3 o’clock bell, the school day ended.”

Amazing! Bukowski-esque!

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I really love Steven Wright’s stand-up. This book had funny moments, but it was boring overall. The story was hard to follow, mostly because it was stream of consciousness.

Love Steve Wright, didn’t love this

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One of a kind enjoyable book. At first I thought it was just an odd intro to the book but it wasn’t. It was odd and captivating from beginning to end.

Unique and interesting

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I love this book ‘Harold’ and how random and wonderful that it is. The dream sequences are hilarious and even thought-provoking at times. I highly recommend reading this book.

Steven Wright is a worldly treasure

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Bizarre stream of thought from a child's perspective. matches the chaos of an ADHD individual.

Unique

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