Charles S. Houser

Great collection nicely read

Revisado: 08-09-22

Weiner reads every poem in the landmark City Lights publication of New York School poet Frank O’Hara; poems presumably written on the poet’s lunch break in the 1950s/60s while working at MOMA in midtown Manhattan. As a collection the poems offer an accurate and honest look at their time and place—a perspective not always flattering to the poet and his crowd. Wiener’s reading is good but a bit understated for my taste. Incidental jazz music is a nice touch and allows the listener a chance to absorb what they’ve just heard. Well worth your attention.

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Lively enactment of a profound text.

Revisado: 08-06-22

Marred only slightly by occasional misreadings and nonstandard pronunciations. Some differences from printed text may be intentional alterations to heighten drama, others are just plain wrong. All is forgivable as the performance is enjoyable and moving.

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Fast-paced and unbelievable

Revisado: 10-11-18

I decided to give this audible book a listen after watching the miniseries that was based on it. British MP Jeremy Thorpe is as despicable as he was portrayed by Hugh Grant in the series. (It’s hard to believe he was ever elected to public service, though he had an undeniable ability to inspire loyalty from people—male and female). The book gives a fuller portrayal of Thorpe’s one-time lover Norman Josiffe/Scott, who is as steely and imaginative as he is desperate and pathetic. The various efforts to dismiss or “silence” Scott are farce-like and antic-ridden and demonstrate just how narcissistic and manipulative Thorpe was at his core. The second half of the book is bogged down, in my opinion, with excessive legal details, though these are certainly justified as necessary to demonstrate the way the British legal system continues to favor the privileged. As a book that anecdotally documents gay history in the UK, I appreciated the author’s description of how attitudes evolved among the public over the decades following its decriminalization of homosexuality in the mid-1960s. Narrator Matthew Brenher keeps up the pace and gives the story all the energy it needs and deserves.

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Superior reading of a challenging text

Revisado: 07-07-18

Author does an excellent job of explaining the physics and politics of the first six decades of the 20th century and of the beginning of the Cold War. The reader of the Audible book read the text with care and nuance. It was not hard to listen to this long book in 1 hour chunks.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

For fans only

Revisado: 09-28-14

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Mr Everett is much more cooperative and revealing in his responses than his interviewer deserved. In fact, Everett gave his interlocutor some juicy leads that fell leadenly to the floor. But I have enjoyed reading RE's memoirs and enjoyed this audio production because it confirmed for me what I'd hoped was true--Rupert Everett is not only witty but he also has his wits about him. He's humble, a survivor, and a realist. Someone you'd like to know.

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Not as I remembered it, but very good

Revisado: 06-09-14

What made the experience of listening to Rappaccini's Daughter the most enjoyable?

Steven Jay Cohen's reading was very suitable to the material, soft, propelling, at times breathless (breath being a dominant motif in Hawthorne's story). I first read the story 40+ years ago in seventh grade and remember liking it almost as much as "The Birth-mark," though I'm not sure what I could have made of either of these stories back then. The Romantic notion's and ideology that permeate " Rappacicini's Daughter" are quite lofty and challenging to follow. That said, Hawthorne's sentences are simply beautiful and are well-suited for being read aloud. I think Hawthorne would have appreciated Mr.. Cohen's reading a great deal.

Which character – as performed by Steven Jay Cohen – was your favorite?

Mr. Cohen has five character voices to differentiate (3 male and 2 female) and he does an excellent job transitioning from narrator to the various character voices (something that seems to throw a lot of audible book readers off balance.)

Any additional comments?

My only reason for withholding a fifth star for performance is that Mr. Cohen's reading varied from the printed text (I was following along in the well-respected Library of America edition). Perhaps it was a matter of textual variants, but some were surely flubs that could have been easily fixed in the studio. But nothing so serious to mar the listener's experience of this marvelous Hawthorne tale.

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