Peter M.

Revealing, dimensional, touching, and honest

Revisado: 09-24-21

As a new but firm fan of Ann Patchett—both her novels and her nonfiction—I was already expecting to enjoy this. And I was far from disappointed. From entertaining anecdotes and tantalizing details about her private life, to deeply rooted and practical wisdom for writers, artists, and people of all walks of life just trying to make their way through the world, Patchett's essays, collected in this book, are a gold mine. I think what draws me to her is her frank, unabashed way of looking at herself and her place in the world. She is not always likable. She is honest, and owns up to her mistakes and shortcomings, but in such a way that she helps you understand that we all fail sometimes, and our failures do not define our lives. She makes everything, every story and moment of mundane life, seem inspirational and worthy of note. Her reading may not be to everyone's taste, but I found it only enriched the experience—especially to hear her slightly suppressed Tennessean accent peeking through now and then. I will recommend this book again and again to Patchett fans, and anyone needing to hear a few kind, interesting stories.

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A middling novel from the author's early period

Revisado: 08-12-21

Devotees of Anne Shirley may be a little disappointed by this book's lack of depth and character development. Like many of Montgomery's books, this is really a loose collection of short stories about every day incidents in the lives of children. It's charming and quaint and pleasant, and readers familiar with her more well known novels will smile at foreshadowings and echos of them in this one. But it's a more obscure work for a reason. There is nothing profound to recommend it to the halls of fame, and nothing timeless to keep it there. It feels dated without the saving grace of a deep conflict or romance to drive it forward.
Conlin's reading—out of character for her series of Montgomery novels—is stilted and hesitant. It sounds at times like she lost her place or wasn't paying attention. Overall, an easy listen and not unenjoyable, but probably not one to be repeated either.

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A poor narrator nearly ruins a good book

Revisado: 06-02-21

I had high hopes for this installment of the Patternist series, but I was hugely disappointed by the narrator. Christie Clarke's drab, monotone whisper, ignorance of accents or tone, and total disregard to trying to distinguish characters makes this a tedious, almost unbearable listening experience. Her inattention to paragraph breaks makes it impossible to tell who's speaking during scenes of conversation, and utterly undermines Butler's strong gift for writing dialogue. I found myself looking for distractions just to get through the book, occasionally perking up at random intervals when Clarke's voice suddenly reaches a normal speaking volume. I hope she never narrates anything else.
As a novel, this had less drive and was less engaging than Wild Seed, though my perception may be tainted by the reader. It's plodding and slow. In this portion of the series, Butler has established a world of miserable, tortured individuals who don't like each other. There is no one to love, no one to motivate the story. Mary is weak, selfish, and bitter, and the sections told through her viewpoint read like a teenager's self-absorbed diary (which they sort of are). There is none of the emotional resonance and fascinating layering of complex relationships that defined Wild Seed. It is simply a sad, brutal story. In its line, it does the job it was written to do, and continues the tale of the Patternist universe. But it isn't a pleasant experience. Butler's world-building is profound and ingenious, but her execution of these characters lacks all of the pathos of her later novel.

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A narrator unsuited to the story

Revisado: 04-15-21

I've been reading and re-reading Anne since I was a child, and I have a firm idea of how a narrator might do Montgomery's glib, witty, emotionally mature writing justice. Rachel McAdams does not. She is passable at reading Anne's lines, but her rendering of other characters and scene text is inattentive at best, and at worst beneath an amateur. She has no style, no passion, no quickness, passes over all of Montgomery's subtle sense of humor and joy in her characters, and even at times misplaces inflections, butchering the meaning of a sentence or destroying its pathos. It's a huge disappointment from a professional actor, but I am willing to believe she had poor direction, since no audiobook is made in a vacuum. I would recommend sticking to print, or finding another narrator to enjoy this timeless tale.

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Funny and sometimes poignant, but erratic

Revisado: 01-29-17

It's clear that Myles shouldn't read her own work. As a performer she may have been moving in the 70s and 80s when she was discovering herself in the poetry scene of beatnik New York. But that voice loses its resonance in the 21st century and her experimental wandering novel becomes only a loose collection of sentences, most seemingly having little or nothing to do with the others. At times funny and even sharply profound, her memoir novel is otherwise only confusing, grotesque, and weirdly detached. Which may have been the point. A reflection on life as she sees it. But her delivery of that viewpoint is lacking in skill and subtlety. And her delivery as a voice narrator is both jarring and frustrating as she has no skill or smoothness. The editing is rough if it exists at all so the whole track sounds disjointed as though she often lost her place and had to stop for breath or to interpret a badly written word. Ultimately not a good listening experience.

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Sweet, funny, and deeply moving

Revisado: 01-16-17

Doty reads his prose like his poetry, with halting careful phrases and attention to tone and detail. His canine memoir is perfect in itself, filled with sweet anecdotes and profound reflections on life, love, happiness and death. The lessons he reaps from the dogs and people in his life are as rewarding to the reader and listener as they are poignant and real to the author. A beautiful, touching memoir.

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A magnificent reading of a timeless masterpiece

Revisado: 01-09-17

Gyllenhaal's performance takes nothing away from Tolstoy's masterwork and Garnett's time honored translation. Her rendering of voices and tones is honorable to their intention, leaving silly voices that some professional narrators muddy up their readings with to themselves and instead creating a world whereby the listener can inject her own impressions into the reading without losing any sense of the author's voice or that of the listener's own imagination. Her rendering is calm and lovely at all times, imbued with the strength, the levity, the grace, the absurdity, the beauty and the weight all characteristic of Tolstoy's work. Truly one of the best available today and a pleasure to listen to again and again.

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a truly subpar reading

Revisado: 06-08-16

If you don't know what Stanley Elkin is getting at before you start, this won't be enjoyable. If you're looking for a clear story line with delineated parts this won't meet your need. I might have been able to appreciate Elkin's trademark language and humor had I chosen to read this in a traditional format, but as it was this recording is very hard to listen to and very unprofessional. the narrators often stop and start again in the middle of sentences, their voice mimicking skills are nill, and they have no sense of flow, rhythm, or cadence of language utterly undermining everything Elkin achieves in his landmark work. While I recognize Elkin's contribution to American literature of the 20th century I can't recommend this recording to anyone either his devotees or otherwise. I'm glad it's over.

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exquisite

Revisado: 05-19-16

Gallant's stories are perfectly crafted and delicious. Lorna Raver's narration is pure and satirical, beautiful formed and a delight to listen to. Rasovksy's leave some to be desired but with some attention can be tolerated. a really fine experience.

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Handsomely read, beautifully told

Revisado: 03-07-16

Diane Johnson's work may not be a masterpiece for the ages, but it will resonate with any reader who has felt the tug of wanderlust, the urge to know and to be known, the delight of another world and contrasting that world with your own. smoothly and richly read by Suzanne Toren, this production is a fine one and recommended for repeat listeners and readers experiencing Le Divorce in a new way. highly enjoyable.

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