Asa, as I Knew Him, Susanna Kaysen
Asa, as I Knew Him, Susanna Kaysen
List: $15.00 | Sale: $10.50
Club: $7.50

Asa, as I Knew Him

Author: Susanna Kaysen

Narrator: Hillary Huber

Unabridged: 5 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/28/2026

Categories: Fiction, Women

Synopsis

Dinah Sachs and Asa Thayer have had a love affair, conducted in afternoons stolen from the office of the magazine where they work. But now that the affair is over, Dinah, in an act of lingering passion, invents a narrative of Asa's youth, imagining the events that shaped the "happy, handsome man" who, in her words, "was born to stomp on my heart."

Witty and sexy, funny and immediate, Asa, As I Knew Him is a a seductive dialogue between love and memory, obsession and illusion.

About Susanna Kaysen

Susanna Kaysen is the nationally bestselling author of the novels Asa, As I Knew Him and Far Afield and the memoirs Girl, Interrupted and The Camera My Mother Gave Me. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Abby on April 01, 2012

I have to admit: if it weren't for Girl, Interrupted, I would've never picked this up. But I'm glad I did. It's a very nontraditional and unorthodox book -- a breath of fresh air after all the formulaic novels. And Kaysen writes absolutely beautifully. There were some paragraphs that I just had to c......more

Goodreads review by SmarterLilac on February 13, 2009

Now this one, I love. It's terse, but somehow still dreamy. A beautiful work on memory and obsession.......more

Goodreads review by Caroline on November 25, 2021

This was somehow not worth my time but also very much worth my time???......more

Goodreads review by peter on March 04, 2024

My brain and my heart hurt. There is nothing like this book. Not perfect, but genuinely a fascinating exploration of both love, desire, obsession, pattern, etc. but also a genius and innovative exercise in writing, narration and truth. Left me wanting a little more in some places and a little less i......more

Goodreads review by Samantha on August 08, 2011

Beautiful.......more

Quotes

"Profound, surprising, and ultimately enlightening . . . Kaysen is a gifted and potent author." --Los Angeles Times

"Susanna Kaysen possesses a lyrical wryness that splendidly evokes . . . all the scents and unnamed sadnesses that lay claim to memory and give us reason to go on." --Boston Globe

"It is a tribute to Kaysen's considerable talent that we easily believe in all her inventions." --The New York Times Book Review

"Luminous." --San Francisco Chronicle

Pre-Order
Add to Wish List