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The Eighth Wonder of the World
- The True Story of André the Giant
- Narrated by: Graham Rowat
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Categories: Arts & Entertainment, Art
Non-member price: $29.24
Publisher's Summary
A definitive and exhaustive biography
Is there a way to find truth in the stuff of legend? You may think you know Andre the Giant - but who was Andre Roussimoff? This comprehensive biography addresses the burning questions, outrageous stories, and common misconceptions about his height, his weight, his drawing power as a superstar, and his seemingly unparalleled capacity for food and alcohol. But more importantly, The Eighth Wonder of the World transports listeners beyond the smoke and mirrors of professional wrestling into the life of a real man.
Born in France, Andre worked on his family's farm until he was 18, when he moved to Paris to pursue professional wrestling. A truly extraordinary figure, Andre went on to become an international icon and world traveler, all while battling acromegaly. While his disorder is what made him a giant and a household name, it's also what caused his untimely death at 46.
With exhaustive research, exclusive interviews with family and friends, and an exploration of Andre's amazing in-ring career and the indelible mark he left on pop culture, Laprade and Hebert have crafted the most complete portrait of a modern-day mythical being.
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What listeners say about The Eighth Wonder of the World
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-05-2020
Essential writing, mediocre reading.
Hébert and Laprade have written one of the finest pro wrestling biographies to date. The capture the charm and complexity André, and clear up many mistruths ambiguities perpetuated by the world of professional wresting. Unfortunately, the reading left some to be desired. Given the audience of this book would be primarily wrestling fans, there are mispronounced names of wrestlers and arenas scattered about. Worse still, might be the half-attempt of impersonating the voices some of the more famous figures in the book. They come across as either copy/pasted after the fact or too inconstant. The larger a fan a listener, the more this might take them out of the experience. Still, this is absolutely an essential book for any fan of professional wrestling.
3 people found this helpful
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- k.a. stemen
- 19-07-2020
Very distracting narrator.
The book was well researched and took an interesting look at a mythical character in Andre, but the narrator seemed very unfamiliar with terms and names from pro wrestling. His mispronunciations of names and repeated readings of acronyms as their constituent letters was distracting to me.
1 person found this helpful
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- Prince Akkanatan
- 16-07-2020
The Narration Nearly Ruins A Perfectly Good Book
It's been said in the other reviews, the Narrator is atrocious! Mispronouncing names like Arm Anderson, Marty Jan-iti, and Argentina (Almond) Roca is more annoying that you might think. But what really bothered me is the frequency of him saying "Pee Pee Vee" in a delivery that tells me he has no idea what it stands for. In fact any acronym in the book is delivered that way, and few are actually explained - I know what the acronyms stand for, but it's not as pleasant to the ear. His half-hearted impressions of the voices he quotes are awful as well. *I would buy this book over if it were re-recorded.* As for the book itself, it is the definitive tome on Andre The Giant. Nothing can take away from that. Even though they use smark sources like Meltzer's nonsense (among other, more reputable sources), that too, can have it's weight as the myths of Andre also made the legend (as the book so beautifully explains).
1 person found this helpful
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- Richard
- 26-05-2020
Very Annoying Narrator
The book is great. A necessary biography of a legend. However, the narrator has a voice that left me cold. On top of that, he mispronounces words.
1 person found this helpful
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- Nicholas B. Goddard
- 26-05-2020
The Best Wrestling Biography
A must read for any fan of wrestling. Quite possibly the best wrestling biography written to date.
1 person found this helpful
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- BT Butler
- 04-12-2020
The book and story are great. But...
The narrator sounded like a World War2 era newscast except when he was reading quotes in which he sounded like a heavy smoker. I understand the importance of needing someone to be able to pronounce French properly but someone should have edited for him or coached. Mispronouncing major wrestling figure names like Bischoff and Jannety as an example and you could tell he had no clue what PPV was or stood for. The bad narration still does not change that it was well written and did a good job showing the human behind the giant.
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- Anonymous User
- 21-11-2020
Great Story
An Amazing story of the man known professionally as Andre the Giant. The most complete and complex account of his life I have ever read.
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- Kindle Customer
- 05-09-2020
Wonderful story of a Giant of a man
Terrifc, comprehensice telling of a life story of a greatly loved wrestler. Thank you to the authors and narrrator for this book.
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- dan proctor
- 17-07-2020
fantastic
this was a great book about the best big man to get in the ring the best stories are the ones outside the ring
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- Rosati
- 02-07-2020
great book
amazing. recommend highly. narrator mispronounced a lot of words, but it didn't detract from the story.
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- Mark Day
- 06-11-2020
Brilliant
A great insight into his great career and struggle through life. Brilliantly narrated, a very enjoyable audio book
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- Amazon Customer
- 15-10-2020
7* book - DUD narrator
I can understand why this book got so much critical acclaim from the likes of Jim Cornette. It really is the definitive story of André the Giant and should be the standard by which all future wrestling biographies are judged. Easy to pick up for a non-wrestling fan due to the extremely detailed writing where everything is placed in context and enough gems that even the most hardcore fan of wrestling will learn something. The references to other biographies and other wrestling books is greatly appreciated giving the text an almost academic feel. I will be purchasing the Mad Dog Vachon book on the back of this work. However, the narrator is awful. Everything is monotone cheeriness and there is more than one pronunciation error (Tony Skee-a-voni!). The material made the book gripping, the narrator tried his hardest to kill it. I'd really like to see somebody step up and take the mantle of designated wrestling book reader. The voices of wrestling have made a big impact through the years, having a serious name attaching themselves to this role in the future would be fantastic. I'd still highly recommend the audiobook if you're unlikely to purchase the book though.
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- T J Widdows
- 14-06-2020
Too much emphasis on event statistics
I think this book could have done with several proof reads before the final edition was published. The Authors seemed to spend far too much time listing attendances and appearances which I feel would have been better as an appendix at the end. If they had cut this out I think they could have cut several hours and made for a better book. In terms of narratorion the pronounciation of certain names and places started to get irritating after a while. I feel I've learned more about Andre from interviews/ podcasts from the wrestlers who knew & worked with him than I did from this book.
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- J Morris
- 24-05-2020
Amazing but . . .
. . . some unforgivable pronunciation errors and misreadings. Still an incredible story of an incredib!e man that cuts through much of the myth and BS.
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