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    Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade
    Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade
    Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade
    Audiobook10 hours

    Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade

    Written by Patrick Dennis

    Narrated by Christopher Lane

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Wildly successful when it was first published in 1955, Patrick Dennis' Auntie Mame sold over two million copies and stayed put on the New York Times bestseller list for 112 weeks. It was made into a play, a Broadway as well as a Hollywood musical, and a fabulous movie starring Rosalind Russell. Since then, Mame has taken her rightful place in the pantheon of Great and Important People as the world's most beloved, madcap, devastatingly sophisticated, and glamorous aunt. She is impossible to resist, and this hilarious story of an orphaned ten-year-old boy sent to live with his aunt is as delicious a read in the twenty-first century as it was in the 1950s.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJan 19, 2016
    ISBN9781511333467
    Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade

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    Reviews for Auntie Mame

    4/5

    481 ratings32 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Well, contrary to the assertions of the glowing afterword, this book is unfortunately not a timeless work for the ages. What a remarkable hodgepodge of different types of casual racism, from the painful caricature of the Japanese servant to the nonchalant treatment of a white teenager’s fetishization and implied rape of young Black girls on a former plantation in the South. And then, to shake things up, there’s a firm and dramatic denunciation of anti-Semitism. Huh.
    • 5/5
      LOVE this book on audio. It is an absolutely wonderful story!
    • 4/5
      Watching the stage musical inspired me to find this one at the library. In this day and age, it's wildly politically incorrect but other than that outrageously funny.
    • 3/5
      I haven’t finished the book yet but I’m enjoying most of it. Only problem is large sections of audio are missing. Like a few sentences worth in at least the first three chapters. I’m not sure why, but I’ve had a similar problem on a few other audiobooks.
    • 3/5
      An oldie but a goodie. Familiar, but amusingly lighthearted. Auntie Mame is of course entirely over the top, but endearing and uncomfortably recognizable in various possible shapes and sizes.
    • 5/5
      Patrick's madcap aunt is so zanily unpredictable that his service in World War II--during which he is wounded in action--is restful by comparison to the scrapes Mame gets him into. By about the fifth chapter you will be surprised by nothing this woman does. She's one of the most incredible, ageless chameleons you'll ever meet in a book, remaking herself over and over for men, for depression, for war, and for the pure fun of it. Worth reading for the spirited arguments alone, and laugh-out-loud funny on almost every page. Long live Mame!
    • 4/5
      Really an entertaining and funny read. The author's protagonist uses her life and money to do good among her peers: dismissing the bourgeoisie and the snooty and the racist with class and tact. While I was reading it, I found myself dreading the part where Patrick would be a grown man with a family, and auntie Mame would be old and dying. I couldn't bear to think of that forever-young personality as ending. To my relief, she remains at the end as young-at-heart and full of life as ever, and I guess she always will.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed many of the stories in this book. Unfortunately, about halfway through I started to find the endless negative stereotypes tedious rather than funny. I suspect I would have enjoyed it more if I'd read the stories one at a time, with other things in-between. Three stars because I did enjoy it in parts, it was vividly written, and I liked more of it than I disliked. But this won't be going on my favorites list.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Auntie Mame is one of my favorite characters of all time. I would have loved to have been her niece!

      I'm not sure how I've missed this book for so long. The humor is my kind of funny. The characters are fantastic -- completely crazy for the most part, but wonderful. The author himself is intriguing. It was an absolute to joy to read every word.

      A timeless gem!

    • 4/5
      The book is made up of various short stories that follow Patrick's childhood through adulthood. I really enjoyed this gloriously campy period piece. Yes, it’s filled with period-typical stereotypes and attitudes towards women and “foreigners”, but that didn't bother me because I don't think you can read a book published almost seventy years ago and compare it to current era-correctness.

      Auntie Mame is one of the most memorable and likable characters in literature. She’s fabulous, ridiculous, charming, and mischievous. I thought this was one of the funniest comic novels I've ever read. The humor derives not only from the plotting and the complex, problematical situations which Mame (and sometimes Patrick) create but also from the writing itself, which is lively, witty, and masterful.


      TBR 1460
    • 4/5
      Subtitle: An Irreverent EscapadeOh, what an absolute delight! I love Mame … she’s outrageous, convivial, adventurous, kind, a bon vivant, prone to exaggeration, unable to resist, unabashedly lacking in marketable skills, and yet full of confidence. She’s also completely and utterly devoted to her nephew, Patrick, who’s been orphaned and placed in her care at the tender age of nine. Oh, what an education he gets!What started as a few essays in periodicals has been framed into this novel “memoir.” It’s funny and tender, horrifying and enthralling. I was appalled at some of Mame’s escapades, but enthralled by others, and always I was in her corner, cheering her on. I’ve wanted to read this for years, ever since I had seen the marvelous movie starring Rosalind Russell, and I admit to picturing her throughout the novel.
    • 4/5
      Loved this. Really enjoyed it. Despite the nagging feelings that it was silly and unnecessary, I should be reading something else better/ more suited to me; this book just made me keep right on reading. Funny, silly, jolly, fun; I wanted a cool aunt of my own, but sadly it looks more like I'll be the kooky aunt to my nieces and nephews instead. I hope I do as good a job of it as this character! I can't quite believe she is fictional...
    • 5/5
      Wonderful tale of an wacky aunt and her little love

      As a huge fan of the Rosalind Russell movie "Auntie Mame" I read this book in anticipation of comparison between the two. I was not disappointed!

      Much of the book is close to identical with the movie, which makes reading that much more enjoyable. It is virtually impossible to know if this is fiction or partially/fully biographical. The joy of the antics continues from start to finish.

      This book will stay on my Kindle for re-reading when I need a laugh!!!
    • 4/5
      This is a fun read. It starts with a young boy orphaned in 1929 who must go live with an Aunt who loves a good party and who considers 9 A.M. the “middle of the night”. Soon she has him circulating about during her cocktail parties, and later sends him off to an alternative school taught in the nude to release inhibitions. For while Auntie Mame is cultured and lives for the finer things in life, she also flouts conventionality, encourages new ways of thinking, and loves the avant-garde. Each chapter is another misadventure for the pair as the boy gradually grows up to be a man, but common to all of the tales, and underneath the humor, there is social critique of both the idle rich and the uncultured bourgeois. Auntie Mame firmly disagrees with racism, elitism, and ignorance wherever she finds it. This madcap, sophisticated lady seems to be the prototype for many a derivative character in our culture to this day. Dennis slips humor and cultural references in very smoothly to his writing, and while he occasionally also indulges in stereotypes, I found this to be a smart, edgy book, particularly for 1955.
    • 4/5
      This classic defies just about any conventional assumptions that most classics bring to mind. The book is episodic. It starts with Patrick, a 10-year-old boy who is orphaned and about to move in with his eccentric aunt. Each chapter tells a new story about their adventures, tracing his upbringing all the way through college.Auntie Mame is narcissistic and dramatic, but it makes for entertaining disasters. It reminded me a bit of all the predicaments that Wooster gets into in the Jeeves books. She constantly comes up with new schemes and then finds herself in trouble. There’s one section, Southern Belle, where she ends up on horseback chasing after a fox. It’s one of the funniest things I’ve read in a long time.Other episode feature a less flattering view of her as she flirts with younger men or exploits people who offer her a favor. She’s one of the most extreme characters I’ve come across. She won’t ever be tamed and any day with her is sure to defy expectations.BOTTOM LINE: I enjoyed it, but never felt completely sucked into her world. While Wooster is a loveable screw-up, Mame makes decisions based solely on whatever she desires in that moment. Usually those decisions put her nephew in a tricky position. That grew a bit tiresome as the book went on, just as being friends with a real person like Auntie Mame surely would."My dear, a rich vocabulary is the true hallmark of every intellectual person. Here now -" she burrowed into the mess on her bedside table and brought forth another pad and pencil - "every time I say a word, or you hear a word, but you don't understand, you write it down and I'll tell you what it means. Then you memorize it and soon you'll have a decent vocabulary. Oh, the adventure," she cried ecstatically, "of molding a new little new life!" She made another sweeping gesture that somehow went wrong because she knocked over the coffee pot and I immediately wrote down six new words which Auntie Mame said to scratch out and forget about.“She was built along the lines of a General Electric refrigerator and looked like a cross between Caligula and a cockatoo.”Funny Sidenote: Apparently Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, the same playwrights behind “Inherit the Wind”, wrote the successful play version of Auntie Mame.
    • 3/5
      Der Autor beschriebt (mit autobiografischem Kern), wie er als zehnjähriger Waise 1929 zu seiner exzentrischen Tante Mame nach New York kommt und von ihr großgezogen wird. Das Buch besteht aus einzelnen Episoden und ist teilweise recht witzig.
    • 5/5
      Patrick's madcap aunt is so zanily unpredictable that his service in World War II--during which he is wounded in action--is restful by comparison to the scrapes Mame gets him into. By about the fifth chapter you will be surprised by nothing this woman does. She's one of the most incredible, ageless chameleons you'll ever meet in a book, remaking herself over and over for men, for depression, for war, and for the pure fun of it. Worth reading for the spirited arguments alone, and laugh-out-loud funny on almost every page. Long live Mame!
    • 5/5
      A dandy of a book. Auntie Mame and her escapades are truly unforgettable. A winner.
    • 5/5
      Every once in a blue moon, on a night when the stars are celebrating with a glass of champagne, and the air is heady with the scent of perfume, a person like Auntie Mame is born. While often criticized as not being of much "practical merit," - that is, not having much insight into the world of commerce, nor much interest in it- these beings are as vital to the overall good health of society as is the food we eat and the water we drink. "Madcap Mame," Dennis' eccentric Aunt, may not have been the model surrogate mother, but she made sure that her nephew developed his spirit as well as his mind. If you are fortunate, as I am, to have a person like this in your life, this novel will make you appreciate her/him even more than you already do. And if you don't appreciate this person, Auntie Mame will have a very serious "Little Morning Chat" with you about that.
    • 4/5
      It's been decades since I've read this book, but catching the old movie drew me to the rather dusty volume on my shelf, and it was just what I needed. Auntie Mame is one of my favorite characters in literature, and even though this book is almost 60 years old, it still had me laughing out lous.
    • 5/5
      Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade is one of my favorite books. I stumbled on the reprint edition when it came out in 2001 at my local Barnes & Noble, and the cover caught my eye (yes, I did judge this book by its cover, and I'm so glad that I did, since it caused a love affair with Mame that has lasted for twelve years now). Every couple of years, I need a Mame fix and I pull the book off the shelves and reacquaint myself with all the characters and madcap adventures found within (as well as the sequel, Around the World with Auntie Mame.This current read was done with my book group (I'll be honest: this was my first selection for the book group, which had already been established when they invited me to join, and I was a little concerned how the book would be received. I'm happy to report that it was a rousing success with everyone!), so it was interesting to have three fresh perspectives on the book, as sometimes after so many readings, some of the finer nuances get lost in the sheer delight of rereading a favorite book (at least it does for me).Mame herself, quite naturally, was the name reason for everyone enjoying the book. Starting off in the Roaring 20s, we watch as Mame's fortunes wax and wane with the Stock Market crash of the late 1920s, and how she struggles to keep her little make-shift family together, which she does through her own indomitable will. Told through the eyes of her nephew, Patrick, we watch as Mame raises him to the best of her ability, and while her techniques for raising a child may not be orthodox, they are certainly effective. Eventually, Mame meets the perfect man for her, and her fortunes are restored and she's back to her madcap ways. Through everything, though, Mame remains strong and resolute in her beliefs of equality and what's best for the people around her. What starts off as a seemingly ridiculous little adventure with a ragtag cast of characters becomes a heartfelt testament to what family means, both with the family we are born with and the family that we make for ourselves, and how important it is to stay true to yourself, even in the face of adversity.For me, this will be a book that I will go back to over and over again for the rest of my life. I adore it; I adore the character of Mame; and I adore the message that Patrick Dennis leaves us with this book. If you've never read it before, please give it a chance. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!
    • 4/5
      A bit of a disappointment; I thought this would be funnier than it was – something on a par with, say, 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'. It was entertaining enough, but never laugh-out-loud funny. It's also oddly uneven: the ditzy Mame of the early anecdotes turns into a wise mentor in between one story and another and, by the end, she's reduced to not much more than a walk-on role. Still, I would forgive a lot of far worse faults in view of the episode where Mame takes on Patrick's anti-Semitic would-be in-laws.
    • 3/5
      Enjoyed - easy to read, surprisingly modern for its period.
    • 5/5
      Auntie Mame is definitely the book to read when your bored- and the sequel's even better! The book never has one boring part where you wish that you had never gotten stuck reading it. This book is a comedy!
    • 5/5
      If life is a banquet than this book is the meal the drinks and the desert in one.
    • 4/5
      Sparklingly witty, irreverently satirical, this 1955 novel manages to remain timelessly relevant in its cutting send-up of conformity, conservatism, and cupidity. Mame Dennis first swam into my ken during the long, hot, boring summer of 1973, an anodyne to the astoundingly dreary Watergate hearings on TV. I complained to my mother about the absence of entertainment, and she snorted mightily: "How can *anyone* be bored in this house full of books? Here, read this," and she handed me "Auntie Mame."What can I say? Mother's always right. I love love loved this book then, and on re-reading it now 37 years later, I love it just as much...maybe more, I know more of how adult Mame felt being handed a kid to raise than I did at fourteen.It's been perfect for me to read in the Auntie-adjustment period, because it's not a novel, it's a series of interconnected short stories that share a frame. I can snag a quick hit before the next issue arises that requires me to pay attention. It's flat-out hilarious, this cocktail culture send-up; Dennis, a pseudonym for the gay (literally) dawg E.E. Tanner III, was Uncle Mame (title of his biogrpahy, BTW) and had an Aunt Marion who was the model for a lot of Mame's characteristics. Dennis hated confromity, he loathed insincerity, he was revolted by Babbittry, and he skewered his targets on brightly colored little cocktail toothpicks with the hula-themed hors d'ouevre.Mame and Patrick are limousine liberals, rich people who have it in themselves to understand and work to ameliorate the burdens of those not like themsleves. In many ways, I think Teddy Kennedy would identify with Mame and Patrick. I think they're still, to this good day, sterling examples to the well-to-do. The stories here are about Patrick in larval and chrysalis stages, before Mame effects the rowdy transition of her little love into the oddly spotted butterfly he becomes. It's delightful to trot along behind Patrick as he tells us of his life with his Most Unforgettable Character. (Anyone old enough to remember those articles in Reader's Digest is old enough to follow the archaic references in this book.)Oh, and those references...there are lots of them, and the book's genesis in the Fifties means they're even older still. A working knowledge of the 1930s and the haute couture of the day is helpful, but not necessary. Just realize that each name dropped is hoity-toity, and move on...or use this Interweb thingie to learn *a lot* about the status symbols of a bygone era. Either way, you won't miss the fun and the funny that whizzes around behind you to tickle your ribs and neck mercilessly, making you laugh harder than you'll remember laughing in a very long time.Read it and weep...from laughter!
    • 4/5
      Following the age-old story of the triumphing aunt taking in the helpless babe, the normal tale is turned on its head. Auntie Mame is entirely herself: charming, vivacious, and quirky. She makes room for her orphaned nephew, and then some. The adventures, and the interesting people, just keep coming. Told from the nephew's point of view, it follows the pair from the late 1920s all the way to what should be Auntie Mame's golden years, but she's too restless to let anything keep her down for long, not even getting older. Vibrant and amusing, it pits conventional society against individualism, and both sides win out a little bit each time, with the tying vote going in Auntie Mame's favor.
    • 4/5
      What an enjoyable book. Rediscover this. You will laugh out loud (and that is rare for me!)
    • 4/5
      This book is great humor therapy. The adventures of a woman who refuses to be boxed into conventional behavior, as seen through the eyes of her young nephew are both funny and poignant. Essentially a self-centered woman, when Mame becomes the guardian of her nephew she manages to raise him with love.
    • 5/5
      This fabulous book should be required reading for all ages. It's a wild ride through the twenties on and is a blast to read. You'll laugh out loud at her life, her antics and the way she raises (if you can call it that!) her nephew, Patrick. Enjoy