Rebecca H

Why don’t narrators bother to pronounce foreign words correctly?

Revisado: 03-06-20

This book is pop-fiction, but the topic and perspective is really important. History is only really revealed when we see all sides, not just one. The narrator was generally good, but their voice for the Japanese character really irked me. Also, why don’t narrators bother to find out how to correctly pronounce foreign words? It’s really distracting when they consistently mispronounce things and takes away from the mood of the story.

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Narration littered with pronunciation errors

Revisado: 02-25-20

Firstly I’d like to thank Audible for this narration, as there is no way I could have finished this book without it. The writing is tedious at points (particularly with reference to sailing, military weaponry, and place names), and is overall uninspired and dull. The characters are very one dimensional and rather predictable. The material Crookes is working with is very interesting, however it shows little understanding of the actual wartime events that transpired. His writing of Australian and female characters are particularly flawed.
The narration was tolerable, but filled with pronunciation errors that nearly drove me mad. Aside from the mispronunciation of most Australian place names, even simple terms like frangipani or Vanuatu were erroneous. The narration of the Japanese characters made them sound robotic, which was odd and rather off-putting. Furthermore, while I appreciate the narrator incorporating different vocal styles to reflect the different characters, for the most part this didn’t work well as the narrator was unable to articulate various emotions while carrying on with the theatrics of character voicing. This led to a complete lack of emotion in the delivery of most characters lines. I appreciate that she wasn’t working with the best of materials here, but it really fell short of the mark.

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My first Murakami

Revisado: 03-24-15

I had I real expectations for this book, but was delighted by the way it was written. I'll likely read it again in hard copy as I think there's more to thereof than what I can extract from one audio sitting.
The narrator was good, and I really loved his performance of the narrating protagonist voice. His dead pan manner left me laughing more than once. Some of the depictions of other characters was a bit cartoonish at times, but not enough to take away from the story too much.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

A beautifully written True Crime

Revisado: 03-03-15

This is my first crime novel, and at first the beautiful language worried me. I thought it would take away from the serious and horrid nature of the crimes discussed. But it didn't. It helped convey the human side of this tragedy, not only for the victims but for all those involved. The narration was great, with superb diction and character differentiation. I really want to know more about this case now, and perhaps rematch the movie with Phillip Seymour Hoffman that I haven't seen since it was first out. I can't wait to get another Capote book under my belt.

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Flawless narration, heart breaking story

Revisado: 02-20-15

This narrator brought this book to life. The accents and differentiation between characters was superb, and the emotions conveyed beautifully. This is such a tragic story; a story that is the story of a million boys, a million families, a million refugees.

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Ozeki reads wonderfully: Author-narrator-hero Ruth

Revisado: 02-09-15

I have read this book in print and thought I would give the audio version a listen rather than re-read it. The book is so richly layered and is not just your run-of-the-mill work of fiction. The audio version was so much better than I could have anticipated, and provides even more layers to the novel. Ozeki does well in characterizing the voices of each person in the text, and her intonation and emphasis provided some interesting insights to the work I hadn't picked up by reading in print. You cannot grasp this book in one reading, and the research Ozeki put into this book is very dense. It is subtle enough for those who wish to skip over it can do, but for those readers who wish to dig deeper provide a welcome treasure trove of history, environmental, culture and textual depth. I will listen to it again in the future.

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