Darrell Rohling

An exercise in excessive self-consciousness.

Revisado: 08-17-22

As one you reads, listens, and tries to write literary fiction, I found Normal People to basically be a well-written & lengthy vignette about college age characters, which led me to keep thinking that the main ‘conflict’ was merely the author working out her own then-experience. I hung in there until end, hoping that I would come to care more about the relationship b/t the main characters, but, sorry to say, I didn’t. Narrator did well enough, except for her male rendition of Connel; which came off as overwrought.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Something in it for every reader!

Revisado: 03-21-22

This is my second book by this authors, and won’t be my last.
Here is a great, heartfelt, literary tale about a teenage son and his single mother; and their real-to-life confluence of love, loyalty, and considerable life challenges. Mr. Lish is a master story-teller, where the influence of Hemingway is noted but not overdone. It was easy to fall in love with Corey (the son), to root for him; as it was easy to laugh at (and then he disgusted by) Adrian, his pal; as it was also to loathe Corey’s A-hole father. All which is to say that you’ll be swept up into this marvelous novel. I would’ve given the narrator 4.5 stars if I could’ve. His subtle shifts in tone & accent from character to character was just right, my only mild complaint being a few stretches of halting, staccato-like narration; which was understandable given Lish’s stretches of short, Hemingway-esque sentences.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Highly literary, big philosophical questions but grounded in relationships...

Revisado: 06-02-21

Brilliant craftsmanship, but no ‘easy’ reading. If you dig fast-pace, thriller-type stories, this one’s not for you.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

A masterly crafted & heroic truth

Revisado: 05-18-21

of confronting & contending with a gaslighting narcissist ‘novelist’ protected by the French literati. Bravo, Madame Springora.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

I enjoyed Ms. Lahiri’s intro more...

Revisado: 04-28-21

I also recall liking Starnone’s Ties better. Perhaps my expectations here were too amped after listening to Lahiri’s very lengthy essay-like introduction on the art of translation, the literary parallels to Henry James, on Starnone’s stellar popularity...
The reader was usually great except when reading about the grandfather’s crisis on the balcony, long (unrealistic?) existential, philosophical diatribes as if every sentence was punctuated with an exclamation point. But maybe that’s the author’s fault, how he intended it to come off.
Regardless, it was disappointing, a struggle to really car about the characters.
Though I’ll likely give the author a third try, based on his Ties, and rockstar status as a leading Italian writer...

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Duchovny is the real deal literary novelist!

Revisado: 04-04-21

...and is to be taken seriously, in other words, he’s not just a pretty boy actor who happens to do a little scribbling on the side in order to capitalize on his ‘brand’ or ‘platform’. This tale is my second of his so far, confirming that Bucky F*cking Dent was no fluke. Here you’ll find superbly fleshed out characters, an intelligent story arch with prescient literary, philosophical, theological, cultural and political references weaved throughout in a non-pretentious, heartfelt, skillfully crafted manner. I cared about & was drawn in by each & every character. Even his personal epilogue was poignant. Bravo sir. Keep writing & I will keep reading! Thank you.
(Though next time, don’t record it in your echoey bathroom! 😉).

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

“Not What do humans only want to Do, but what do they want to want.”

Revisado: 05-16-20

Worth your every precious minute to listen and to ponder... superb! 5 stars on all fronts.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A perennial fav that always holds up!!

Revisado: 03-02-20

Rock on Logos Therapy... great narrator too! Ok. As prescient today as it was when it was written.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Classic Auster...

Revisado: 12-18-18

Loved the story! Craft and language superbly invented, with compassionately realized characters... the quotidian made mythological, and vice versa... highly recommended.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Great reading by the writer.

Revisado: 09-13-17

I had just finished reading his long awaited debut novel, Who is Rich, discovered Sam the Cat thereafter and had to check it out, because I was so pleased with his novel. I cannot recall the last time I so enjoyed a writer reading (via Audible) his or her own work. Here Matt Klam is pitch perfect, in pacing, pausing and emphasis. He speaks with a resonance that is quite pleasant too. Not many novelist can pull this off, with their own tongue, outside of their head, let alone in a studio. And I can see why these stories of "transgressive sex" (his phrase) written with brutal poignant honesty made such a splash when they first came out. Well, they are still making waves in 2017. If this is your cup tea, ala Updike, Roth, and so many others I can think at the moment, you'll dig Sam the Cat. And a cat indeed he is....

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona