John L. Murphy

Outstanding narration, vibrant subject

Revisado: 07-21-22

listened to this with a wonderfully donnish and avuncular performance by Bob Sinfield. That enlivened this already entertaining study by Fr Roderick Strange, who's written often about Newman. While the melodramatic choir snippets at the end of each chapter in the audio format laid it on too thick, both the book itself and the reading of it made for a valuable introduction to JHN. He intersperses his own experiences, too, to lighten the content a bit and to keep it from becoming dry. After an initial chapter on JHN's life, there are thematic chapters on various aspects. The one on the role of the laity I found particularly sharp, and the one on his vision of the university enlightening.

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Pop culture + physics for poets?

Revisado: 05-15-22

Rather odd. The authors appear to have adapted their lecture notes. Each chapter starts with an often well-chosen, "geeky" reference to a sighting of usually a snarky or sardonic use of a quantum-related concept or turn of phrase. Then the rest of the chapter dives down into a more conventional course of explaining the theory in reference to a particular theorist. I thought I'd get more out of this, for I am a stereotypical member of a liberal arts audience who needs explanations in simpler forms. While my time was not wasted, perhaps on paper this would have worked better for my attention and my comprehension than audio.

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Great translation and rendering

Revisado: 07-07-20

I was hoping for John E Woods' translation of Magic Mountain to appear on Audible. It just did, as of June 2020. So I figured I'd catch up (as I had never read Buddenbrooks) with his other epic classic first. I enjoyed this multigenerational saga of a family struggling with the usual--business, marriages, relatives, inheritances, disease, death--more than I'd expected. David Rintour makes what on paper might have dragged into a character study of many engaging performers in the theater of Mann's mind. It does go on a bit towards the end, but I can see that Mann wanted to immerse an audience into the coming-of-age of a key character who'd obviously been "inspired" by his own youthful struggles, and to show how even one day under an exacting pedant could try to crush the soul of many a schoolboy. Mann's talent, echoed by Woods and Rintoul, allows us to enter into the mindsets of the mid-to-late 19th century in the aspiring mercantile class of a respectable town and for all the mundane levels this documents (we almost never get a sense of the lower ranks, tellingly I am sure), This is a skillful tale all around.

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Two amazing chapters amidst the rest

Revisado: 07-07-20

I read this in college and Chapters 32-33 or so (not sure where the numbering of the audio with the book off hand) amazed me. They still do, in Sean Barrett's assured voice, They stand out so much from the rest of the tale that it's a reminder of how Dickens could swing beyond the fences once in a while, even if overall, for me at least, like many players, his batting average may be lower than expected. Serial novelization, a more patient pace for a Victorian audience, and a delight in sentiment that I share less than those who idolize Dickens may be to blame for my mitigating factors. Still, Barrett and Teresa Gallagher do their very best and the alteration of chapters between the two main narrative voices works well to lessen tedium. I agree that at its best, Bleak House ranks very high among both the oeuvre of Dickens and the century's literature. But I still persist, trying more than one of Dickens' classics, and even at their highest peaks and best performers on Audible, I cannot be swept away into awe.

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All France and the gutter sink

Revisado: 07-07-20

Those reading this likely admire George Guidall. He's indefatigable over more than 60 hours. He brings skill and verve that will keep you moving on. The Julie Rose translation has been slagged by some purists, but I liked its tone and ambiance. Victor Hugo's invention shows. He spends hours on the sewers, he invents a new order of nuns and tells its origins with convincing detail, and he spends an unconscionable time by today's less forgiving standards in narrating the whole battle of Waterloo. And I liked at least the latter two of these three digressions. Such make this the epic it is. And I remain likely in a tiny minority in not having been privy to the ending or even the storyline other than Jean steals bread and Valvert pursues him a long time. So, why the mixed rating? I hate to say this, but if this could have been edited, or if it was a dramatized adaptation, it'd be more accessible. That being said, I have lately taken on Dickens, Dostoevsky, Dumas, Manzoni, and their fulsome ilk, and for all of these classics, I find parts even of the true classics slowing down and me watching paint drip in my mind. This may betray my own diminished capacity, as these novels were written in serial fashion often, and appealed to a pre-"premium cable" multi-season audience. All the same, if you want to take on this French epic, and find out how the Revolution soured and how Hugo and his generation regarded those radicals and royalists who both survived into the 19th century, here 'tis all...

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Can't sustain its invention

Revisado: 07-07-20

All over the place in plot. Obviously as with Paul Murray's later novel about finance in Dublin, The Mark and the Void, somewhat autobiographically inspired. But the many storylines and cast of dozens of characters work better as vignettes than as a cumulative entertainment. I liked the raunchy banter of the adolescents in this turn of the millennium more or less school setting. and the initial grousing among faculty I could certainly relate to. There's a certain priest figure who manages, thankfully, to evade the stereotype that he's set up for, and there's a promising critique of a post-Catholic Ireland driven by liberation from both morality and frugality. But the results aren't worth nearly a full day and night of listening. The varied cast of narrators does help pass the time, and this was a wiser choice than one. Even if the Italian kid whines incessantly. I was let down by how the latter parts stalled and started so fitfully. Murray sets up a promising story, but there's no need for it to plod on to such stodgy length. You get the points of suffering and loneliness, and these ring true. Without a need for prolixity.

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More tedious than I remembered

Revisado: 07-07-20

Yes, many applaud this, and after all, the novel got a blurb from Joyce Himself. Flann O'Brien's on to a great gimmick--the tale within a tale as characters struggle to get out. Fun set-up, with the hapless slacker creator in his bedroom, doing who knows what. Alan Smyth's reading I picked over Aidan Doyle's for its liveliness. But the plot bogged (!) down and highlights were sporadic. I kept listening, waiting for it to pick up, but it turned out more of an odd slog and a fictional detour than critical favorite. For the newcomer, reading about the life and times of the author in Anthony Cronin's study may be a wise first move.

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Fits and starts

Revisado: 10-27-19

This kept my interest, but the episodes veer all over the place. As if a Victorian cabinet of curiosities spilled out its bric-a-brac. Half-intellectual--the professors weigh in often--and half-salacious--Fry is in his metier--this educated and entertained me. With poisons, pickpockets, rent boys, serial murderers, and devious serial monogamists: who can resist?

However, the cheesy sound effects and tacky production values undermined the quality. With all the resources Audible has thanks to its leviathan parent company, you'd think more care would be taken in presenting this material without such a nudge-nudge wink-wink feel. This may be to enhance the music-hall sensibility of the content, but somehow I found the level of expertise from the technical side embarrassing. It made the script self-consciously "cute" and detracted from insights....as in the rather thoughtful exploration of how certain female miscreants managed to feather their nests elegantly.

All the same, if you share my fascination with the Victorian era, this will pass a commute satisfactorily, Some of the chapters dragged on a bit, even for about half an hour each (some have continuity with earlier ones, more or less). Some needed tighter editing, or sharper commentary. But for the proverbial general audience, this will keep the prurient perked up surely!

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Has this dated well?

Revisado: 10-27-19

Frankly, I chose this based on Michael Maloney, who reads far too few classic titles on Audible. He''s done others by Evelyn Waugh. He's suited well for the antic nature of that author's prose and predicaments within which he places his smart set.

Does this hold up? Better than Scoop, also read by MM, to my surprise. Waugh here is a bit more controlled and the plot hangs together more convincingly. Sure, there's satire, but it's directed at both the whites and the blacks, on this colonial African outpost. It gets silly with a very extended subplot all about promoting contraception, of all things. Makes me curious how Waugh took this, but after all, around this time I recall the Church of England debating the morality of this technological innovation, too.

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Insightful and moving

Revisado: 10-27-19

What can be added to this story already too familiar to millions who remember or have read of the day? Mitchell Zuckoff focuses on a few people across the spectrum, on the ground, in air, in the towers. What adds to the suspense is, with the exception of a few, such as the terrorists or those on United 93, you do not know who will survive. This makes it a good counterpart to the just released (a few months after Fall and Rise) The Only Plane in the Sky oral history composite....for you know all those testifying obviously made it out alive that day. This does not detract from the terror. You vividly are "there".....

Particularly moving were the scenes of the operators on 9-11 (yes, alas) calls to those in the Towers trapped, and how they stayed on the line with the soon-to-be casualties. Also, I was unaware of how much flight attendants had relayed by phone on United 93, with impressive composure. And, I did not realize both how those in the Pentagon managed to escape in total darkness and smoke and fireballs, while the heroism and stubbornness of the first responders who refused to abandon the towers before they came down makes one pause. As does all the randomness of bad and good luck meted out that day to thousands caught up in an apocalypse. Zuckoff tells their stories well, and does not fall into sentimentality or cheap emotion.

Together, these titles expand our everyday assumptions. And as nearly two decades on, memories must be fading or altered among survivors and witnesses, it's encouraging to gather what's known and recorded. The audio format is particularly well suited. I was hesitant at first with the reader being the author, but it worked out fine--I cannot discern what Sean Pratt's role was, however, I tried to work out two different male voices, but maybe they are so similar this does not matter? I'd like it if Audible clarified this type of multiple narration contribution, as this counts for many of us when choosing a title to purchase.

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