BK

Loved every second!

Revisado: 04-15-25

The book is nothing less than a love letter to life. Filled with wry humor and tenderness. I don't know if I would have reacted so enthusiastically had I read it instead of listening -- who can say? -- but I loved listening to it and getting to know the residents of Faha. Dermot Crowley deserves an award for his performance here.

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Welcome to a fantastic, fun new series!

Revisado: 10-07-24

Every bit as much fun as the Thursday Murder club books -- yes, even the first in that series. Lots of twists, turns, blind alleys, and laugh out loud moments. Nicola Walker does an absolutely spectacular job narrating it. (In fact, as soon as I saw her name I knew I'd enjoy this.) Don't miss it!

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Loved it even more than the movie versions!

Revisado: 09-10-24

Loved it! The story is great, the narrative voice perfect, and Donna Tartt does a spectacular job reading it. (Yes, the mic was a bit too close to her mouth so you can hear when she swallows but it's really easy to just ignore.) If you liked either movie version you'll love this.

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an unexpected treat

Revisado: 09-05-24

I started "All the King's Men" on page and screen. I enjoyed some parts of it and was very impatient with others. About 60% of the way through I grew curious about whether listening to the book instead of reading it might make a difference. Fate smiled on me: the book was available for free download from the Audible Plus Catalog. So I put aside the text and listened to that last 40%. And loved it. All the things I was missing on the page came alive. The humor, the noir and Southern gothic aspects, the method behind narrator Jack Burden's philosophizing and apparent insensitivity, the Shakespearian sweep, the revelatory ebb and low of characters' emotions, their secrets and and vices and vulnerabilities. Reading, I found myself skimming whole paragraphs, not interested in spending time with Jack Burden, whom I thought a rather tedious jerk. Listening to Michael Emerson's brilliant narration, though, that was a completely different experience.

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Great fun

Revisado: 02-02-24

In the tradition of "Lonesome Dove," "True Grit," and "News of the World." It's a fun story that's perfect for listening to. Definitely takes you away from the world.

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Classic Russo!

Revisado: 10-03-23

Exceptional on all counts. Great story, great characters, and a stellar performance by Mark Bramhall.

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Book marred by narration

Revisado: 08-02-23

I chose this book because it's the kind of work that doesn't demand close attention, a trait much to be desired while preparing to move. Putting aside the cringe-worthy antisemitism ("Jewboy"? The book was published in late 1939. I suppose there were many in the world who were utterly oblivious to what what going on in Nazi Germany, but really!) I was unimpressed. I feel obliged to note that my reaction is definitely tied to the narrator's awful performance. Dan Stevens was fine -- even if his voices sometimes crossed the line into stereotype -- except for when he wasn't: Whenever a character 'thought to himself' or muttered something to another character, Stevens' volume dropped so low as to be inaudible. I grew tired of turning up the volume whenever this happened so I didn't bother after a while. It was really quite irritating. As a performer he should have been aware of the medium. And if he wasn't, surely his director should have been.

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Wow!

Revisado: 06-16-23

Brilliant, incisive, witty, cutting, ahead of its time in many ways... I can't believe it's taken me this long to get to"Middlemarch"! Special kudos to Maureen O'Brien. Her narration was absolutely perfect!

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Entertaining

Revisado: 07-05-22

Pleasant enough. The narrator mispronounced some words/names in the first half but got them right in the second. Strange but OK. The one thing that irritated me was the amount of exposition. The murder takes place in a Jewish part of London and Thomas evidently felt obliged to explain everything. Apart from that, it was fine.

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"The Good Place," only maybe not quite so Good

Revisado: 06-10-22

Another book made better by a really gifted narrator. (Full props to Ben Chapple!) Some hilarious parts, some really really dark humor. Toltz will cite Nietzsche in one breath and "Willy Wonka" next, with hauntings, plagues, and climate change in-between. Dark stuff, and still I laughed, mostly, because the book does make you think. Are we, as one character proposes, the equivalent of Prometheus' liver -- eaten by an eagle reach night for the singular purpose of regrowing to be eaten again? Would God be unable to appear to us in human form because what shape/skin color/gender/etc., H/She chose would only lead to angry divisions among the living? What happens after we die? What if it's no different from what we left beyond, only maybe a little grayer? How do we make sense of our mortality? Yep, all here. It definitely won't be to everyone's taste, but if you're of a philosophical frame of mind (is that phrasing patently redundant?), are tolerant of bleak situations made funny by a smart, playful author and an affable narrator perfectly made for the role, and enjoy finding yourself drawn into pondering really big questions, you may well enjoy this as much as I did.

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