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Fantastic!

Revisado: 09-22-17

Great story and great performance which really brought the characters to life.

The sex scenes which are almost pornographic are off putting, but in this way they are vital to the authenticity of the novel.

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Not for me

Revisado: 01-09-17

Performance: wonderful job by the reader, it fits the town of the book and the author perfectly.

The Story: it's not for me. Although the descriptions of memories are beautiful, astounding in the attention to detail and their emotional impacts, it is not enough. There seems to be no conflict at all. So for all the beauty, I found it challenging to engage with because I have no reason to care or empathize for the protagonist. There isn't rise and fall to the story, really there is no story at all. The intensity of the narrative is a flat line, with no apparent culmination.

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Amazing

Revisado: 11-10-16

Keep in mind this is in Russian language, but the story is a classic and and Smekhov's performance is PHENOMENAL

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Wonderful, engaging

Revisado: 05-17-16

Although it is true that the pronunciation of non-English words and phrases has a distinct English accent, I do not think this has a significant effect on the quality of the performance. On the contrary, the reader's tone and affect are very appropriate for Laxness's style of dry, mocking humor.

The story is engaging, and to me slightly reminiscent of Nabokov's tendencies to mock, at least superficially, any target in sight.

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Entertaining

Revisado: 03-20-16

Word of caution: this audiobook is read entirely in Russian, it is not a translation.

That being said, the performance is spectacular. The characters come to life.

The story is very entertaining, but lacks parsimony. There are many instances where the obvious is bluntly and redundantly explained. Furthermore, the ending feels melodramatic and weak compared to the rest of the plot.

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Generally fantastic

Revisado: 03-20-16

The story itself is beautiful. It is engaging, and requires a certain amount of participation on the reader's part to follow what's in between the lines. I still need to process and ruminate.

The performance was fine, but not spectacular. Japanese names seemed (to my uneducated ear) correctly/authentically pronounced. However, not much distinction was made between the voices of the female characters, and Brian Nishii's representation of the female voice feels forced.

There may be a case to be made for reducing the emotion/expression in the character's voices. Here, however, the characters fell a little flat, not charged with the emotional content the words carry.

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Good

Revisado: 01-30-16

Poe's performance reading is phenomenal.

As for the book itself, it feels as though there is some superfluity in the content. It feels like certain information could have been left out and the story would not have lost its weight. This, in my opinion, prevents the "good" and otherwise beautiful story from being "great".

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