Amazon Customer

A Perfectly Sketched Universe

Revisado: 04-30-25

This novel illustrates why LeGuin is one of America’s greatest writers. No “sci-fi” or “female” qualifiers. Just a great writer. Drawing on her father’s career as an anthropologist, she creates a detailed anthropology of another time, another planet, and another race — so detailed as to leave the reader feeling as though she has just scratched the surface. That thought experiment provokes metaphors and comparisons to our own times in more ways than even she perhaps contemplated. Couch’s performance was good, not great, and I could have done without the normative “LeGuin should have done these things instead” portions of the Afterword to this 2019 version. That seemed gratuitous politically slanted, and often redundant. I suspect that the Afterword will not age nearly as well as the brilliant novel itself has.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Everett does Tarantino

Revisado: 04-04-25

A powerful reimagining of Huckleberry Finn from his companion’s perspective, with a couple of sharp left turns and violations of the space-time continuum by way of literary license.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Wasted Space, Missed Opportunity

Revisado: 02-20-25

I say “over,” you say “rated.” Somewhere in this self-important, pretentious mess may be a tight, engaging novel but it would take hacking away at least one-third of it. To be sure, it has long sections of exceptionally well-written prose. But so much of it is so confusing and needlessly asks so much of the reader as to be pointless, if not incomprehensible. Excellent narration. Terribly overblown and overrated IMHO.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Brilliant writing, plot, and humor

Revisado: 12-22-24

Astounding in so many ways. Hilarious from start to finish. A Unfortunately, the narrative peformance is extremely lame and downright annoying in several places throughout.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Mediocre Romantic Fiction Masquering as Historical Novel

Revisado: 11-17-24

So much in here has absolutely no basis in reality. The rest is just Hallmark garble and 1960s formulaic, telegraphed suspense that is sheer nonsense.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Not Her Best, and Not His

Revisado: 10-25-24

Starts out promising, and has some nice moments of dramatic tension through the first third or so. Then kind of meanders before fizzling out. The story might be worth 4 stars but I found Tom Hanks’ narration or performance or whatever he was going for at any given moment to be bizarre and confusing and off-putting. It really surprised me because I am such a big of his as well as of Patchett’s. Overall, disappointing.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Bollywood in a Book

Revisado: 10-17-24

A wild ride through a wild time; intelligent, nuanced, and well told, I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

A Hoot!

Revisado: 07-06-24

Hilarious, excellently-written, and wonderfully performed. Seems like a cross between Stephen King, Christopher Moore, and Kurt Vonnegut.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Maughm at His Best

Revisado: 06-29-24

One of my favorite books, re-read after more than 40 years. Excellent writing, fascinating story, and efficient character development given its relatively short length. The narration is fine, but I wish that an Englishman able to adopt an American accent had been chosen.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Splendidly bleak

Revisado: 06-21-24

Spectacular adaptation. Spectacular audio performances by all characters. Andrew Scott and Andrew Garfield deserve special recognition.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña