Edith

Still Relevant

Revisado: 03-28-24

The checkered history of the British role in Israel's origins is useful in understanding today dilemmas. As usual, Tuchman knows how to tell a story. Or rather, knew. A compelling listen.

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Brilliant

Revisado: 01-03-24

An amazing novel: deep, subtle, and proving Ishiguro to be well deserving of his prizes.

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A Beautiful Book

Revisado: 10-25-23

I gave "Story" five stars despite the fact that the "story" in this book is not a traditional plot, rather the progress of a woman's lifetime, told in the first person plural and third person plural, and through mentions of events and cultural references, rather than fictive scenes. It is a tour de force, and very effective and evocative: packed with the wisdom of the author's formidable insights looking back at her own life.

That said, younger, non-Frencophone listeners may lack familiarity with many of the cultural references so packed with meaning for older people who remember things like the French New Wave, songs of Edith Piaf and the Paris demonstrations of 1968. This could make the book an opaque catalog for some, yet I hope it will not deter them from gleaning the lovely evocations of thought, time and feeling in the book.

As an elderly English speaker, familiar with many, but not all of the references, I consistently enjoyed the book and found the insights knitted into the narrative profound, especially those relating to aging. In fact, one could call this book a tone poem to the process of aging, whether that of a young girl to adolescence or a mother to being a grandmother. It is lovely to have so many truths so eloquently spoken. That these truths are particular to one life, in one era, does not matter. "War and Peace" does it for one era, "The Catcher in the Rye" for another, and "The Years" for another.

Using "we" and "they" to describe her own lifetime gives the narrative a surprisingly modest tone. It is fiction; we do not know which events actually happened to Mme. Ernaux. But we feel we know this real or fictitious woman quite well, and we like her. We like her modesty, which enables her to see without ego, her analytic mind, her train of memories and her ability to recreate times, places and feelings evocatively often with a sly, self-deprecating humor. This book is well worth reading and Mme. Ernaux's Nobel prize is well-deserved, if only for this one book. She is the Proust of our era. I look forward to reading more of her work.

Last, but not least, Anna Bentink's narration is excellent and fits the book perfectly. I strongly prefer her quiet delivery to the falsely emphatic and harsh orations of American performers, therefore, sadly, will not listen to other Audible recordings of Ernaux's work but read them in print. Alison Strayer's translation is also excellent.

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Stunning

Revisado: 06-25-23

An amazing work of fiction, read beautifully. Truly extraordinary. The finest book I've read in many years. Brought to life vividly by a wonderful reader.

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A Religious Tract

Revisado: 04-20-23

I was unable to finish the book. Purchased it because I enjoyed the movie. Turns out, the film does not conform much to the book.

The first part is a love story of sorts set in medieval Norway with interesting details of social history. About 10 hours into the 45, the book takes an abrupt left turn into long agonizing forays into sin, guilt and Christian dogma. It is tortured and repetitive, and, I would have to say, the product of a troubled mind. Pretty unpleasant, I lost interest after thirty or forty minutes of this and stopped listening.

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Enticing

Revisado: 08-01-22

Timson is a brilliant and delightful voice actor whom I've enjoyed on Audible and the BBC. This free introduction to his reading of Boswell's Life of Johnson certainly makes me eager to hear the book and enjoy more of Timson's work which is of the highest quality. The book itself, a classic, also promises to please.

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Ho hum

Revisado: 06-26-22

Probably lots of people, people who haven't read much history, would find this a fun read. A bit of this and a bit of that, nothing too taxing: a little taste of an era.

I'm not a fan of pastiche history: re-packaged bits of already well-know history. The hat theme is an exceedingly thin one. I enjoy deeper, more focused books incorporating original research and historically important, well-documented, well-argued theses.

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Bad

Revisado: 06-26-22

In so many ways! Full of subtle and not-so- subtle antisemitism, racism (against people of Arabic origin), an inane plot and idiotic characters.

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Excellent

Revisado: 01-03-22

Beautifully read by the author who does an excellent job of demonstrating the high costs racism extracts from all of us, whites included. Consistently interesting and skillfully told, and never gets bogged down with statistics or Jeremiads.

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Unskilled Reading of Classic

Revisado: 08-22-21

What more to say? Thise who love this classic will mot be amused by this dull rendition.

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