Deborah

Joe Hurley is unbearable

Revisado: 05-06-23

This starts out well. Keith is a surprisingly engaging writer and Depp’s American accent works fine. In chapter 5 when Joe Hurley takes o er the narration the enterprise collapses. His overreacting is simply intolerable. Think I’ll either return or quit.

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Bad beach reading

Revisado: 02-20-23

Every cliche in the book. A plucky heroine in Cambridgeovercomes predictable obstacles to get a dream contract for her first novel.Must miss.

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Best performance of a great novel

Revisado: 11-24-18

I tried two other narrators before finding this version. It's more than satisfactory, neither detracting from nor adding much to the book. The book itself deserves it reputation as a masterpiece, though it's somewhat of a Rorschach test. Romantics and realists (or skeptics, as you like) will react very differently to the characters and draw opposite conclusions from the ending. If you find yourself at times getting impatient, do stick it out. The last few pages totally re-define what has happened. Can't say more without spoilers- give it a try.

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Listening to this is (even) better than reading it

Revisado: 11-24-18

This book was controversial when first released, in part because of its use of transcribed dialect/accents, which some found offensive. On the written page I can sort of understand this complaint, though I don't agree with it, and certainly this style makes the book hard reading. But Ruby Dee knocks the narration out of the park- the accents are a natural and integral part of the story. And a great novel it is. Like any great novel it's about individuals first and the larger themes appear in the interstices of a gripping story. So glad I read this.

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Not the next Henry Miller

Revisado: 11-24-18

A semi-autobiographical tale of narcissistic artists tortured by self-doubt and drawn to degrading and joyless sex. . . hmm, where I have heard this before? Heti's musings on the meaning of life show a modicum of talent though not tremendous originality. But her depictions of sex push the book from the merely less than great into the realm of the unreadable. If you're going to describe disgusting sex, you'd better do a really great job of it, because you're playing a pretty heavy burden on the reader. Heti's sex scenes are repetitious both in content and language and pretty much interminable. I gave up half-way through the book. I do love Miller- maybe it's time to try Anais Nin.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Tedious and self-indulgent

Revisado: 07-19-13

I love long audiobooks, usually on the more challenging side (my two all-time favorites are Middlemarch and The Way We Live Now) but an author has to work to earn the right to my attention for this long. Barth has talent, and some of the basic themes and characters in the book are interesting. However, he lacks all self-discipline, throwing in every idea that came into his mind without regard to whether it advanced the book as a whole.

This one all but ruined audiobooks for me, Normally I go through them at a frightening pace, but just couldn't finish this one, I I kept saying, "I will stick with it, I will finish it." I found I simply stopped listening because I was so bored. After a few months of non-listening I decided to declare defeat and move on.

I actually wouldn't mind a plot synopsis find out what happened since I did care a bit about the characters, But not wasting any more of my life to find out.

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Best of a great series

Revisado: 11-06-12

Every book in the Hitchhiker's series is a delight, and all go at least a bit beyond. This is the one that has really stuck with me. The parable of the people of Krikkit has real depth: I find myself coming back to it constantly as something that helps me understand why good people do bad things.

And, did I mention, it's a blast, just pure fun. Freeman is great as always.

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Mean-spirited guy humor

Revisado: 11-04-12

This is humor for misanthropes. What wit there is depends on the not terribly likable main character feeling superior to others. A great deal is slapstick, and the much loved speech scene left me cold. There is a special vein of misogyny that made my flesh crawl. In the last chapter, the hero's view (and evidently the author's) is spelled out quite openly: even a not terribly nice woman can be salvaged if she's attractive enough, while a somewhat less than average (though apparently not ugly) woman is to be avoided, because she's doomed to be bitter and crazy simply through the misfortune of her looks. Ugh. Well, if this is what you want, the narrator is good.

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Performance did not work for me

Revisado: 10-09-12

The narrator is a skilled reader by most technical criteria. However, I found the overall tone inappropriate for a novel of manners. There is a humorless sense of foreboding that might work in a horror novel but lost me. Although I was enjoying the content I could not get through more than a couple of chapters

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Best Mystery I will ever Read

Revisado: 09-22-12

Nothing is ever going to top this one. Real characters, not just stick figures. I felt real dread of the sort that only great writing, not sensationalism, can produce. Even where I sort of saw what was coming, it had twists I did not expect - the most satisfyingly baroque plot ever.

Much better than the more highly regarded Moonstone, which was cute but not nearly as deep or satisfying.

I'm picky about readers but this was masterful. Agree with the few quibbles about Fosco's accent but minor.

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