Marc Bailey

Deeply disappointing, in content and performance

Revisado: 07-12-12

This may be of some interest to die-hard fans of Deepak Chopra. The ideas expressed herein are nothing new, but if you love his message and want to hear it in a different form, then you may enjoy this. If, however, you are a fan of comic books (or have even a passing knowledge of their content) then you will probably find this book frustrating and perhaps too annoying to finish.

Chopra clearly knows nothing about the subject of superheroes. He says as much and credits his son with informing him about comic books and the stories of the heroes. If he had used, say, the Internet to actually research these stories then this still may have worked. But he is constantly incorrect in his description of the heroes and their stories. At times he is slightly off in minor details and at times he is deeply wrong about the character and their history. But even this could be forgiven if he were truly using the idea of the superhero to illustrate his philosophy. Instead he seems to have disregarded the actual stories and created his own version of the ideal superhero which he credits with a deep understanding of the concepts he has put forth in his other books. This goes beyond error. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that Chopra is merely using the currently popular idea of superheroes to sell more books. I hate to sound so cynical, but that is the only conclusion I can draw.

Chopra repeatedly says things like "superheroes understand the illusory nature of reality" or "the superhero does not seek acclaim" despite the fact that there are almost countless examples of heroes who completely contradict these statements (which are paraphrased, but fairly accurate representations of what is said in the book). Superheroes are a very large and diverse stable of characters, and it would be folly to try to describe all of them with any one simplistic description as Chopra does here repeatedly.

In short, there are some good messages here, but the constant frustration caused by the fallacious superhero veneer is keeping me from hearing or respecting them.

And the performance is not helping either. Ajay Mehta has a gorgeous speaking voice, but he is simply terrible as a narrator. His accent is not too thick, but at times it obscures words to the point that it becomes distracting. His pronunciation of "intuition" as "intoozhun" is a case in point.

But more important, he reads as if he has no idea of the meaning of the sentences he is reading. He consistently puts emphasis in the wrong place and pauses inappropriately, often obscuring or changing the intended meaning of what is written. All of this makes it very hard to follow the book or even maintain any interest. I would listen to this man give a speech any day, but I'll steer clear of his narrations in the future.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

A sober and insightful economic prescription

Revisado: 01-03-12

Would you listen to Back to Work again? Why?

Let's face it. You probably already know whether or not you'll agree with what President Clinton lays out in this book, so I won't waste any time getting into the politics of the book. I That said, I am a big fan and I didn't agree with absolutely everything here. But the bulk of what is here is interesting, compelling, and well thought out. Certainly, this presents a better roadmap than the one we seem to be using at present.

What does Bill Clinton bring to the story that you wouldn???t experience if you just read the book?

President Clinton is a surprisingly good reader. Not every great author or public speaker can make the jump to narration, but this performance had an almost perfect blend of poised and apparent spontaneity. The subject matter is necessarily a bit dry, but this reading does just about everything you could do to make it easier to stay awake through.

Any additional comments?

All-in-all, a worthwhile listen. Not exactly entertaining, but interesting, hopeful, and even a bit inspiring.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña