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    Beginner's Greek: A Novel
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    Beginner's Greek: A Novel
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    Beginner's Greek: A Novel
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    Beginner's Greek: A Novel

    Written by James Collins

    Narrated by Jerry O'Connell

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Jerry O'Connell lends his talents to this delicious romantic comedy, ---more Cary Grant then Hugh Grant---begins on a New York to Los Angeles flight.


    When Peter Russell finally meets the woman of his dreams he falls as madly in love as you can on a flight from New York to LA. Her name is Holly. She's achingly pretty with strawberry-blonde hair, and reads Thomas Mann for pleasure. She gives Peter her phone number on a page of The Magic Mountain, but in his room that night Peter finds the page is inexplicably, impossibly, enragingly...gone.


    So begins the immensely entertaining story of Peter and his unrequited love for his best friend's girl; of Charlotte and her less-than-perfect marriage to a man in love with someone else; of Jonathan and his wicked and fateful debauchery; and of Holly, the impetus for it all. Along the way, there's the evil boss, the desirable temptress, miscommunications, misrepresentations, fiendish behavior, letters gone astray, and ultimately, an ending in which every character gets his due. Both incisive and wonderfully funny, this is a brilliantly understated comedy of manners in which love lost is found again.

    "James Collins has written a romantic, funny and insightful page turner about love in modern times, missed opportunities and the wheel of fate (with a blow-out!) that is so engaging and real, you will find it impossible to put down. Peter Russell is an everyman filled with longing, lust and good sense. I promise you will root for him as fate throws him curves aplenty on his path to true love. BEGINNER'S GREEK and Peter Russell are keepers."
    -- Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of Lucia, Lucia and Big Stone Gap
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateJan 9, 2008
    ISBN9781600240751
    Unavailable
    Beginner's Greek: A Novel
    Author

    James Collins

    James Collins is an established journalist who writes for the New Yorker, Spy and Time magazine. He lives in New York.

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    Reviews for Beginner's Greek

    3/5

    206 ratings24 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This novel was the perfect vacation read. I wanted something light and enjoyable and easy to get into. Collins' has been compared to Jane Austen and I can see why. This story is very much an updated version of the trials and tribulation faced by Austen's characters, except that we are treated to many more sordid details about infidelity and the ways men and women relate to each other. You could say it's Jane Austen meets Woody Allen.
      Collins' prose is elegant and the story was much more sophisticated and literary then I expected.
    • 4/5
      I am a sucker for love stories. This book made me want run to NY and take a carriage ride through Central Park.

      Peter and Holly are the romantic leads in this book. They meet and it's love at first sight but they don't find each other again until Holly begins dating Peter's best friend.

      On the surface this sounds like a plot out of a bad romantic comedy. Mr. Collins manages to elevate Holly and Peter's story above that with his words and the wit he infuses throughout the book.

      The only flaw, in my opinion, is the epilogue. It didn't fit with the rest of the story.
    • 3/5
      Well, this was sweet and surprisingly entertaining, although it took a while to get going. And the ending was almost embarrassingly satisfying, which I like.

      However, I can't help but think that if a woman had written this, it would have CHICK LIT in big sparkly pink letters on the cover, and be reviewed in Cosmopolitan or something instead of the New York Times.

      I'm just saying.

    • 4/5
      I was so keen to read this book in large part because of an NYT review I read comparing it, favorably, to Laurie Colwin's [book:Happy All the Time]. After having finished it, I can't think of a better comparison.

      I don't usually write reviews with spoliers, but there are some tiny ones coming up, so if you'd like to be completely surprised in your reading of the book, stop here. Just know that it was exceptionally good, and that I would give it four-and-a-half stars.

      ***spoilers start here*** I didn't like it quite as much as I liked hers, which is one of my favorite books of, well, ever, really. There were some things I wish James Collins had done differently, like not have Jonathan sleep around quite so much. And I wish he'd spent some time with Holly's perspective once she found out that Charlotte had left Peter.

      I liked the abundance of secondary characters, though again, I wish that Collins had treated them with more equal attention. I especially enjoyed the epilogue, which tied things up in a neat little bow, while still leaving a tiny bit of room for speculation. Perfect.
    • 2/5
      A story of fated love: Peter and Holly meet on an airplane flying from coast to coast. Both are truly smitten. She gives him her name (first only) and phone number on a scrap of paper, and he loses it. That's the set-up. The rest of this long and excessively wordy book reveals in a painstakingly slow and often difficult-to-believe manner how they come to be together at last.
    • 3/5
      A first novel by an experienced journalist -- yet I had trouble gaining any sympathy for any of the characters or situations and ended up skim reading til the end. I think I was looking for a more light-hearted, humorous book based on the jacket description. This was not that.
    • 3/5
      As most of the reviewers have said, I found Collin's style to be more than a little pretentious. The two leads are not well rounded (they have no flaws!!) and are hard to connect to, and I found their everlasting love to be a little too cheesy. Even Jonathon with his many flaws, was not developed well enough. The most developed character was probably Julia because I really believed her story to the point where I could imagine her as a person (in contrast to Holly who seems to be some sort of deity). Despite the problems I had with the book, it was a decent read. . .
    • 3/5
      This book is just OK. I listened to it while gardening the other day and it was a nice way to pass the time. I agree with one of the other readers who said that Jonathan was the best thing to happen to this book. Everyone else was just so milquetoast.
    • 2/5
      The author achieves the tone of a British comedy of manners but I found the characters boring. Everything is done in exhaustive detail, however. The secondary characters are very well developed - for no purpose, unfortunately. He will describe an entire character's life just to explain why they take the one action that actually affects the main characters.Peter is boring until he attends a special dinner and magically becomes the life of the party, right down to remembering the full text of an obscure poem. A disappointment, given the advance praise on the book jacket.
    • 3/5
      April '09 Long story about two nice people who fall in love on a plane, marry other people and end up together. Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain ties them together at first and last.
    • 1/5
      The authors prose style is ponderous to say the least.
    • 3/5
      I read a lot of buzz about this book in the papers, and I was anxious to read it since it was billed as better than the average chick lit. As chick lit is a guilty pleasure of mine, I was interested in something that would make it a little better. I have to admit, I was disappointed at first. The prologue is great, but then the novel drags, switching viewpoints from character to character. I found myself saying "why do I care what this person thinks, and why does the author go into so much detail about everything?" But then the plot started moving, the pace picked up, and I really enjoyed the end of this book. If you need a fast read, this is not for you, since you probably won't make it through the first couple of long chapters. But if you're willing to stick with it, the end of this book is as satisfying as the best chick lit i've read. Parts of the book are a bit unbelievable, but so is most chick lit, right? I'm looking forward to future books from the author.
    • 2/5
      I didn't have a deep desire to read this book, but it was at the library, and so was I, which made it a free book that I had an ever-so-slight interest in, and our library so rarely has anything new on the shelves that I want to read...This lackadaisical approach to bookpicking is exactly why I need libraries, not bookstores, because when one combines my greed with my reading speed, and adds my somewhat-indiscriminate book appetite to *that*, well...I'd be wasting a lot of money. This book was entertaining enough, I suppose; it wasn't quite chick lit written by a guy, more like "sensitive guy lit" or something along those lines. The tone at the beginning of the book was so insufferable that I put it down and went onto something else, but once I'd gone through my other library books, I went back to this. (Yes, my house is filled with other books, but I can be weird about library books.) I wouldn't really recommend this, but I wouldn't call it literary poison, either. It failed to move me in any direction.
    • 5/5
      Immensely pleasing take on the boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, etc story. Collins' characters, especially Peter and Holly, are so honest and fresh, and his slightly deadpan narrative style just the right kind of frustrating (as in, you cannot stop reading, as you want to know when and if what you want to happen will). Pick it up for your own travel reading -- time will fly.
    • 4/5
      A winning, old-fashioned romance and social satire, reminiscent of Jane Austen.
    • 4/5
      Intricately designed first novel uses multiple points of view allowing the reader to feel within the inner circle, knowing all the secrets, waiting for the main characters to learn them. Peter and Holy meet cute on a plane. Boy loses phone number. Both are upset by loss of contact. Fate? They both seem to believe in it. But fate takes a meandering road for these two.Secondary characters are extremely well-written - having agendas of their own. I found myself caring less about Peter than the others who surround him. The female characters are especially well written by a male author. I really felt I knew them.While the scenes at Peter's job seemed very out of place until later in the novel, his coworkers are interesting characters. One problem scene for me was the dinner party at the boss's house. Peter holds his own in an extremely varied table discussion. I had no idea he had such knowledge and it made him seem suddenly larger than life. Did I believe that he knew so much about so many topics? I had no inkling of his stores of information prior to that scene.Holy is painted so perfect as to be almost imaginary (yes, I am aware that she is just that). But could she be that blind to Peter's feelings?I found myself really interested in other characters: Peter's wife Charlotte, Charlotte's step-mother Janet, Peter's boss Arthur. Even Jonathan - the best friend; the one who got the girl; the one with no morality. He is interesting in a car crash way. Ramifications of his actions flow through the story long after he departs. So many people allowed their lives to be drastically affected by this one flirtatious womanizer. The novel's title comes from a poem Peter recites at the aforementioned dinner party. It speaks of not trusting intense feelings toward anything - art, nature, love. For a romantic like Peter, seems an unusual choice of poetry to retain in memory. Is the poem real or part of the novel? May need to research that question. All in all, a pretty impressive first novel. Keeps the reader's attention focused and forces one to think and rethink possible avenues to be traveled. Spots of humor, especially the slapstick in waning chapters, made me laugh out loud. Always a good sign. . .
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this one! Very different and intersting!
    • 4/5
      The prologue might lead you to believe that you are stuck with another inane "Chick-Lit" book....sappy premise........uber-romantic boy meets perfect girl on airplane, loses her phone number and madcap adventures begin. I almost gave up on it........and am glad I gave it a few more pages to hook me. There are madcap adventures, lightning strikes, evil bosses wreck havoc on careers, and a fairy godmother emerges in the most unlikely character. What really saves this novel is the writing. Sometimes a little wordy, but always smart and literate. I wish Collins had used the poem that finally engages the title (on page 321) as the prologue......but the way he reveals each step in Holly and Peter's eventual merger is fun and that's what this book is really all about. A fun read............the sappy beginning is totally saved by the ending where every single character gets what they deserve.
    • 2/5
      I don't know what was worse, the writing or the narrator...
    • 5/5
      This was a funny, sweet, Jane Austen-esque take on love in NYC. Love the romance in this easy listen.
    • 4/5
      3.5 starsPeter always wanted to meet a girl on a plane and fall in love. He meets Holly and does just that, but then... he loses her phone number. Fast-forward 12 years, and Peter is engaged to Charlotte, but he's still in love with Holly, who now happens to be married to Peter's best friend, Jonathan. I liked this. I could have done without most of Peter's work turmoil, though some of that does play into everything else going on a bit later, but not all of it. The book does follow different characters through different parts of the book, which is kind of interesting, so the reader knows what is going on with everyone.
    • 2/5
      This was HIGHLY disappointing. The review on the back compares it to Austen...NOT OKAY TO DO THAT! It's clearly written by a man who doesn't understand women. Oy!
    • 3/5
      I wanted to read BEGINNER'S GREEK because of the full-page, front-loaded, gushing review it received in The New York Times Book Review. The reviewer compared the book to "a big sunny lemon chiffon pie," to let the reader know that BEGINNER'S GREEK is light and frivolous, yet fit for a gourmet palate and with a pleasing tang. Well, that's accurate enough.

      BEGINNER'S GREEK is wonderfully written, with a smooth and luscious style, understated humor, unexpected yet appropriate metaphors, a profusion of biting-yet-not-quite-cruel character studies, and a minimum of frou-frou, "virtuosic" writerly clutter.

      BUT. Starting with the prologue, when Peter muses that women who read books by overrated English novelists on a plane are to be avoided at all costs, while readers of THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN are infinitely desirable, it's clear that BEGINNER'S GREEK was written for snobs. It's full of literary references for experienced readers to find, and then pat themselves on the back for catching - but it's also full of discreet contempt for intellectuals...or at least certain intellectuals. The less-perfect intellectuals who try too hard, who struggle to be sophisticated when others achieve it effortlessly.

      Talk about biting the hand that feeds.

      The hero of the novel, Peter Russell, is presented as an idealized nice guy - handsome, wealthy, athletic, but also charmingly earnest and just a little naive. Very sweet. The problem is, he's mostly nice by comparison. He's nice in comparison to his best friend, a manipulative and deeply selfish philanderer. The friendship alone suggests something might be wrong with Peter - the fact that Peter hates his best friend, but maintains the friendship, confirms it. He's nice in comparison to his boss, a cartoonishly villainous man whose days are spent plotting Peter's downfall. It's hard not to come out ahead in that comparison. And we're led to believe that Peter is nice because he's marrying Charlotte, an annoying and humorless woman he doesn't love...or even like that much. I'm sorry, I don't think that's nice at all.

      Especially since meanwhile, Peter is in love with Holly. Holly couldn't be more perfect. She is gorgeous, she is kind, she is smart, she is a good listener, she is thoughtful, she is educated, she is funny. She is a composite of womanly virtues. She also happens to be in love with Peter. But circumstances keep them apart - and that, of course, is the meat of BEGINNER'S GREEK.

      In fact, for the first two-thirds of the novel circumstances really go to town on Peter and Holly. Just as it starts to look like Peter and Holly might finally have their chance, some improbable disaster intervenes to separate them. Further events clear the obstacle, but before anything can happen another improbable disaster sunders them anew. This makes for an incredibly anxious reading experience. Perhaps it is to the author's credit, but I would have to call it an unpleasantly anxious reading experience.

      BEGINNER'S GREEK is a smart, well-written, frequently insightful book. But the bad impression I had of Peter at the beginning was slow to dissipate, the sly sneers at the reader enraged me, and the plotting was occasionally ridiculous. For me, the negatives were stronger than the positives.
    • 5/5
      In his debut fiction effort Collins takes what should be a simple story – boy meets girl, boy loses phone number, boy finds girl – and teases it along with nuance and finesse to create a wonderful tale of coincidence, miscommunication, and fate. Like a thrilling Shakespearean romantic comedy we meet a full cast of characters that the omniscient narrator develops with great insight and depth and we read with great anticipation as they bounce their way through life like pinballs when the machine is on full tilt. When Peter meets Holly on a transcontinental flight his romantic ideals are finally realized. While both are a bit shy and reserved, they instantly connect and their dreams of true love seem all but fulfilled, until Peter realizes he’s lost Holly’s phone number and doesn’t know enough about her to ever find her again. When, several years later, Holly shows up on the arm of Peter’s best friend the romantic roller coaster is set in motion. Lives intersect, but circumstances prevent connection. Lives reconnect, but fate intervenes. Will Peter and Holly ever unite, or were they really not meant for each other? Bring in a scheming boss, a philanthropic tycoon, a compassionate stepmother, and a bolt of lightning and you’ve got an emotional mix that thrills right up to the last page. As quoted by author Larry Doyle, “James Collins is the new Jane Austen, only taller.”