The Point of Vanishing cover art

The Point of Vanishing

A Memoir of Two Years in Solitude

 Preview

Try for $0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Point of Vanishing

Written by: Howard Axelrod
Narrated by: Howard Axelrod
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $17.81

Buy Now for $17.81

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

On a clear May afternoon at the end of his junior year at Harvard, Howard Axelrod played a pick-up game of basketball. In a skirmish for a loose ball, a boy's finger hooked behind Axelrod's eyeball and left him permanently blinded in his right eye. A week later, he returned to the same dorm room, but to a different world. A world where nothing looked solid, where the distance between how people saw him and how he saw had widened into a gulf.

Desperate for a sense of orientation he could trust, he retreated to a jerry-rigged house in the Vermont woods, where he lived without a computer or television, and largely without human contact, for two years. He needed to find, away from society's pressures and rush, a sense of meaning that couldn't be changed in an instant.

©2015 Howard Axelrod (P)2016 Tantor Biographies & Memoirs Nature & Ecology Philosophy
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What the critics say

"A vibrant, honest, and poetic account of how two years of solitude surrounded by nature changed a man forever." ( Kirkus)

What listeners say about The Point of Vanishing

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.ca reviews

Amazon Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Prunella P.

Book as friend, for a week.

I am sad this audiobook just came to an end; it's like I'm saying goodbye to a friend. In the process, myself, of making a big transition in life after some upheaval, I feel a poignant connection to this story, but I am also buoyed somehow. New stories to live out. The author's reading was just right, as one would hope, not dramatic, not too casual, well-paced and warm. I cried at times, which is unusual with me and books, but some of his descriptions are so beautiful, and other passages about his inner states sometimes touched me so deeply that I realized I'd never quite been able to name my own, similar states as accurately. I hope there is more by this writer that I can listen to.

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!