Steve Dupont

Ambitious and thoughtful

Revisado: 01-06-16

Here’s what I liked about this book:
First, I largely identify with the author in his worldview, including his unbridled optimism about the human spirit and the strength/goodness of America specifically. About 20 years ago I would have said we were strikingly similar in our philosophies – time and life experience has perhaps made me a bit more cynical and skeptical, but I continue to be a fellow traveler of the divided highway of which he speaks. Not that my identification with the author or his ideas has anything to do with the merit of the work …

Mr. Urbaetis lays bare his heart and soul in this work, which is an act of courage to be noted in its own right. He seems to have no hidden agenda other than inspiring others. Also, he’s not such a bad writer. Granted, he’s no Hunter Thompson, to whom he (not wrongly) compares himself, but he can write a decent sentence and put one with the next in a way that keeps things moving right along.

What’s more, Urbaetis has an interesting story to tell. After all, not many people have attempted to walk across the United States!

Lastly, with respect to the narrator Mr. Gully, I feel he was a good choice for this project. It’s hard to know for sure without knowing Urbaetis personally, but he seemed to capture the spirit of the man and didn’t take a lot of unnecessary chances. In fact, if you’d have told me the book was narrated by the author himself, I would have believed it. Can’t give praise much higher than that for a memoir.

Now here’s what I saw as shortcomings in this book:
The opening or preface of the story was overwrought and longwinded. Yes, I understand Urbaetis wanted to lay out some of his background, as well as the overarching themes, beforehand – but I would have preferred to get straight into the action.

The “characters” aren’t exactly the most likable. I say this knowing it’s a personal insult of sorts to Urbaetis and his then-estranged fiancé, but alas the author self-identifies as an a$$hole on more than one occasion. Also, in one passage he expresses some misogynistic views that were certainly a detriment to his gaining sympathy as a protagonist.

There is virtually no dialogue, which, in spite of Mr. Gully’s oratory talents, makes the narration rather monotonous and the peripheral characters mere cardboard cutouts. Perhaps this being a memoir, Urbaetis wished not to embellish upon or blatantly put fictional words in the mouths of real people. While understandable, it makes the story considerably more boring.

Then there’s the fact that, while the notion of a cross-country trek portends of wild adventure, there is surprisingly little to be had (even considering he only makes it part way). Yes it was interesting to hear of the many small adaptations and overcoming of hardships, not to mention how the home loan business worked pre-crash, but I guess I just expected more. And expectations can turn out to be a real downer when they’re not met.

I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Blast.

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Entertaining but underwhelming

Revisado: 12-29-15

The best things I can say about Rescue are that it: Moved along briskly, was well-written enough not to be awkward or clunky and the plot offered some rather surprising twists and turns.

On the negative side: Characters were poorly developed cut-outs, story was largely under-told (too short) and disorganized (background lore might be better at the front or peppered throughout, as opposed to tacked onto the end) – and lastly, the elephant in the room as far as I’m concerned, the narrator was just a total mismatch for the story. Why somebody would choose a sort of prim and proper sounding British narrator for a gritty murder plot set in Los Angeles (or Houston?) in which the protagonist is a Hispanic female is beyond me. The narration itself was fine, but I found Mr. Bennett’s performance of the dialogue to be rather awful, which was a major distraction throughout.

Finally, so as not to be too negative, I do thing the author Mr. Richards has a considerable amount of storytelling talent, so I would encourage him to continue writing in this vein, just going a bit farther next time and having more input and/or discretion in choosing an audiobook narrator.

I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Blast.

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Good storytelling, mediocre writing

Revisado: 12-12-15

The concept seemed promising enough, and whether entirely true, based on a true story or not I don't know ... initially had thought I cared about where the ballpoint pen came from, and this curiosity was dutifully fulfilled by Mr. Ballpoint, yet left me with a sense of disappointment, like when as a child you expect one Christmas present but get another.

As I said in the headline, this is a story well told by the author. However, it is so in much the same empty way a drunken dinner guest spins yarns of his adventures at the table. Yes he is somewhat entertaining, but there's something sad and pathetic about him as well ... something you can't quite put your finger on. This is how I felt about this story. I was an avid listener up to very near the end, then at once I completely lost interest and had great difficulty bearing the final 10-15 minutes. The off-key Broadway-style singing at the end was the nail in the coffin, so I stopped there, a few minutes short of the finish.

There are just no real surprises here, either in the story itself or the writing. No turns of phrase that make you marvel at the author's skill, no poignant or imaginative exchanges of dialogue.

Perhaps the biggest problem for Mr. Ballpoint is that it lacks any truly likable characters. The narrator, the son of "Mr. Ballpoint" himself is kind of a zero, personality wise, and his wife is not much better -- which I suppose makes them a fitting couple. As for Mr. Ballpoint -- his name escapes me at the moment (yes, he was that memorable) -- is a blustery, bombastic, conniving jackass of a man who, while interesting, is certainly not someone you root for.

Finally, the narrator of the audiobook is just completely ill-chosen in my opinion. He is not untalented, but his tone is relentlessly flippant, sardonic and sort of tired, as if the telling of the story was almost too much for him to bear either. He reminds me of the NPR movie reviewer Bob Mondello. An expressive and nuanced voice, yet best suited for 3-4 minutes of listening, not many hours.

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Didn't want it to end

Revisado: 12-04-15

It's rare to say that for a piece of "mainstream" media these days, especially one that's over 10 hours long! But in The Martian I found myself just a little depressed for the subsequent few days after I finished the audiobook.

Weir just does such a masterful job of building you up to one climax after another. Sure, the dialogue is a bit hackneyed, the supporting cast a bit cardboard-cutout-ish, but it doesn't really matter. The story is essentially about one man and his will to survive against all the odds.

I'll admit I haven't bothered to look into the accuracy, or lack thereof, of this book -- in terms of the space and NASA scenarios -- but to a layman such as myself it certainly could've passed for a true story. That is, assuming man had been to Mars already ... the descriptions are sometimes mesmerizingly technical, yet Weir still manages to paint a clear picture of what's happening.

I have not seen the movie, and am very glad I listened to the book first!

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Grotesque and beautiful

Revisado: 11-27-15

If you ignore the modern references to email and the like, one could easily mistake this story for a 19th century British classic … it's poetic, lyrical, dark and shadowy, yet filled with tiny moments of brilliant light and hope, only to be snuffed out again. Honestly, it's hard to do it justice in words, the prose is just so finely crafted and the narration by Rob Goll so intimate, I was sure it must be narrated by the author himself. One you will not soon forget, that's for certain! Worthy of a listen.

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A very different kind of "graphic novel"

Revisado: 11-25-15

First let me establish what Hair of the Bitch is not: It is not an uplifting tale of the human spirit. It is not a PG-13 take on the murder mystery. It is not for the faint-hearted or weak-stomached. It is not high prose, an homage to the English language …

The good news? Clearly Jeff Menapace does not try, or want, it to be any of these things. Instead the narrative is spare and more than a little jagged -- sometimes downright ugly -- like a typical "blockbuster" movie script, except with more words, and not always the best chosen ones. And yet! And yet this style is perfectly suited to the gritty, nasty and utterly obscene subject matter of the novel.

The narrator, Jeff Hays, is fantastic as Calvin, the "Joe Six Pack" protagonist who's one bad decision after another gets him into deep doo-doo before you know it. He's also great as Angela, the enigmatic faux-heroine beauty who leads Calvin down the garden path, so to speak. Surely he did something in post-production because the voice is very convincingly female.

So I am giving this an overall 4-star rating, the caveat being that I tend to judge works in their own league. In other words, I'm not going to compare Hair of the Bitch to Steinbeck or Hemingway, but to others in its class … that said, I did have some problems with this book, namely that the aforementioned Joe Six Pack, Calvin, is really not all that likable at the end of the day. Which is a problem, because if he died at the end (spoiler alert, he doesn't!), I would have been like, "Oh well." Nor is Angela all that likable either. The difference is that we are exposed to all of Calvin's many flaws, which make him a sympathetic character at least, if not downright pitiable. And there was enough action and impending danger to keep things interesting.

In the final analysis, this was a fun listen and nothing more. And 6 1/2 hours of solid entertainment is nothing to sneeze at. So certainly know what you're getting yourself into here, but if that doesn't bother you then give this one a try.

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I laughed, I cried … what a wild ride!

Revisado: 11-11-15

Okay, full disclosure here. I share a name with the author of the book because … well, I am the author of the book. But if politicians get to vote for themselves I figured I was entitled to leave myself a nice review. In all honesty and seriousness though, I will tell you this:

My expectations going into this project were great indeed, as I felt given its madcap protagonist Lester Ginn and motley supporting cast of characters, it lent it self quite well to a performance medium. In fact, I first wrote the story as a screenplay, as for a feature length film -- and a big budget one at that! Then, using that as a sort of outline, I fleshed out the entire novel, a process which took almost 10 years and nearly drove me insane.

Anyway, I was thrilled to find an immense talent like Doug Thornton to narrate the book, but when he started feeding me the produced chapters, I listened with great trepidation. Not because I was afraid Doug wouldn't do justice to the work, but because I was afraid the work wasn't really any good to begin with!

Well, thank God I my fears were quickly put to rest. The story came to life in a way I never could have imagined, in full technicolor, transcending the words I put down in black and white years ago. And yes, I did laugh. And yes, I did cry.

I think you will greatly enjoy this audiobook. Please give it a listen.

Thanks,

Steve

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