noah

Everything About This Novel Is Perfect.

Revisado: 04-07-25

It’s a long recording, but it’s worth your time.

The ending is a bit challenging to understand. Do yourself a favour and, after you’ve finished, read a bit about what actually occurred in the final moments of the narrative, and then re-listen.

5 Stars all around.

-Noah KB
4/7/25

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

One Time Through Was Plenty!

Revisado: 03-15-25

Great production!
Great performance!
Being that Bowen is on at least most of the ‘top 100 classics’ list I wanted to see what she was all about. Like so many of the classics in the Western canon, much of the prose and plot is antiquated and hard to relate to. That being said, much of the drama of youth that Bowen has written throughout “The Death of the Heart” is eerily familiar.

-Noah Kolcinski-Balfour
(3/25)

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

One of the Strongest Novels in the English Literary Canon.

Revisado: 07-26-24

Well worth a listen.

Well compared for the sake of analysis to Ellison’s Invisible Man or Wright’s Native Son. It would seem the Catholic and Anglo/White writers that comprise what literary institutions in the U.S. teach, are unable to write apt works about People of Color and Jewish-Americans… Doctorow’s insight is worth taking in and then applying to your perspectives on the U.S. and the U.S.’s history.

There have been comparison’s between Doctorow and Bellow. Apart from their obvious cultural/ethnic similarities, Doctorow’s pacing is much quicker. Bellow, while a fast-past writer in his one right, take’s more round-about methods to arrive at his point.

If you’re looking for a quick and insightful listen, this is a good choice.

06/26/24
-Noah Balfour

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

An Impressive Recording, All Things Considering — The Narrator Is Brilliant, Does Not Give One ‘The Fantods’

Revisado: 06-21-24

For first time readers/listeners, as well as those that are unfamiliar with D.F.W, do yourself a favour and read the book while you’re listening. Read a few hundred pages then listen to ten hours or so, and just keep on until you’re done with both. There is a common misconception that D.F.W is dense. He is not dense at all. He is wonderfully easy to read and understand. The predicament with Infinite Jest is its length, and for first time readers/listeners a lot will simply get missed because it’s such a significant amount of literature to digest. So read while you’re listening.

The voices Sean Pratt hear employees are well deployed and useful. There are so many characters,and each are lengthily-developed and more complex than the last. Listening to this work be performed so to speak allows one to paint stronger mental images about what is occurring, why it is occurring, and how each segment is connected to the next/last.

I am of the impression that there are two types of D.F.W. readers; those who are interested in being entertained and potentially generating some input on entertainment as well as addiction, and those who are attempting to decipher what Infinite Jest is “really all about.” I think moreover that both types are of course linked at least to a degree… This recording with Sean Pratt will help you determine just which type they are.

Moreover; being that this is as long of a work as it is, a few pointers: A) Look up words you don’t know… B) Don’t pause the recording in the middle of a footnote as you’ll get confused/lost when you un-pause… C) Abstain from reading/watching any critical analysis of this work before or while you’re reading; this will impede your ability to paint your own imagery and/or draw your own responses.

-Noah Balfour
Listened from the 1st of May, finished on June 19th — 2024; re-read the work throughout the month of May 2024

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Less about Chicago then Studs Lonigan — Informative - Well Narrated

Revisado: 04-15-24

Bellow’s experiences — that which he knows — are well conveyed to the reader, and unlike in so much of the literature in the ‘American Classics’ literary canon his female characters are well developed. Though this is a longer listen it is worth your time.

The first half is better than the second. His childhood and the formative years — before the labour sojourns to New York and Mexico and the rearing of hunting falcons and being struck by torpedoes and cast-away at sea — one can identify better with, especially those of us a that are lucky to be members of the historically marginalised classes.

-Noah Balfour
04/

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Amazing — Suicide of the Masses!

Revisado: 04-05-24

Beerbohm offers us a strange god to consider. Our Zuleika — if thought of as quite like a monotheism — is detailed to be something elusive and resplendent; something the young and the dumb can obsess over, cherish, and become enraptured by to the point of suicidal longing. Men have done things far worse in the name of messiahs and lambs of God.

-Noah Balfour
04/04/24

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Good, Though Other Conrad is Better.

Revisado: 03-26-24

Not as good as Nostromo but better than Lord Jim.

-Noah Balfour
03-26-24

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A Strange Little Novel

Revisado: 03-09-24

Adherents of this work claim it to be a compelling detailing of the “spiritual education” of our younger generations. I found this not to be the case. Like so much of the rest of the canonical literatures this work has not aged well. Our current younger generations will find little to relate to while reading this novella.

Noah Balfour
02.06.24

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Sexist — Racist — Pointless

Revisado: 03-02-24

Unless you have a strange fondness for the paedophilic American Past and/or the growing and theft of the turnip vegetable, do not bother revisiting this “canonical classic” which it sadly remains classified as… Spend your 5.5 hours of listening instead with Steinbeck, if you’re looking for literature about farming and American penury of the 1920-30’s; or Faulkner, if you’re looking for a study in incest and familial travesty.

-Noah Balfour
03.01.2024

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Fun — Anthropomorphic — Quick

Revisado: 03-01-24

Considering this is a book about a dog, written from said dog’s perspective, it’s off-putting how easily one can relate to Buck; the dog.

Buck weathers great suffering. It begs the question; does suffering engender wildness? In other words; if one suffers do they slowly begin to devolve into previous versions of themselves? … Buck however experiences great kindness at the hands of his final master. So perhaps it could be argued that it was by way of great empathy that Buck was able to realise and achieve his ultimate return to wildness.

-Noah Balfour
03/01/24

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña