J. S. Koehler

Another author who should not read her own work.

Revisado: 06-16-19

Authors rarely have the necessary performance skill to read their own work and, alas, Lionel Shriver is not among the exceptions to this rule. While her writing is very good, her performance was lacking in drama, good pacing and even good diction at times. The main complaint I have about the writing was that in the first novella she made the setting Lexington, Virginia, a city about which she apparently knows nothing, and used a travel guide to pluck details as needed for the plot. She refers to “William and Lee University” (apparently confusing William and Mary in Williamsburg with Washington and Lee in Lexington), describes the town as having colonial era buildings (again, that’s Williamsburg) when its historic architecture is antebellum and reconstruction, mispronounces Macado’s, a local restaurant, as “Mikados” (it’s MACK-a-doo’s), and generally gets the neighboring geography wrong. Of course, I know the town well, others who don’t wouldn’t notice, but it makes me question why the author wouldn’t use a setting she was familiar with (there was no reason it had to be Lexington — any small college town would do).

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Not worth the effort

Revisado: 05-11-18

I purchased this hoping to get some insight into the minds of conspiracy theorists who truly believe in cabals and shadowy extra-national societies. But the writing is so dull, the assertion of “facts” without support or even reasonable inference so transparent, and the argument for the truth of the author’ beliefs so facile and banal, that the book is virtually unlistenable. John Lee, a usually excellent narrator, is not at fault, but the material drags down his performance.

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Exhibit 1 for why authors should not perform their own books.

Revisado: 07-18-17

Keller remains the hard to hate hitman, but Lawrence Block's performance is awful. The series third book is better than the second, but still slower paced than the first.

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Cliché upon Cliché

Revisado: 06-14-15

This is going to be a negative review, but I will concede that at least until the plot became plodding and routine about halfway in, I found the book very enjoyable. If only the author could have sustained my interest in the second half . . . but, alas, he did not.

I can forgive an author of a police procedural for allowing the reader to solve the "whodunit" before his detective does. Indeed in this novel, which was always planned to be the first of a series, the reader is given information that the main character never has, so I was not too surprised when I figured out who the villain was fairly early in the story (I was even a little disappointed when the author confirmed my deduction -- I was hoping that it would be more complicated). However, when the reader knows the who,what, why and how well before the story concludes,the author better make the story really good -- and that, in my opinion, is where this book fails.

SPOILER ALERT -- I will try not to reveal too much about the story, but to make my point it will be necessary to give a few details.

First, I understand that this book is setting up a series, so it is necessary to introduce the "regular" characters we expect to see in the future. However,I was very disappointed that those characters were all from central casting:

Tormented Hero -- Check
Sometimes Bumbling, Sometimes Brilliant Assistant with a Mysterious Past -- Check
Gruff but Lovable Boss -- Check
Bureaucratic, Officious Superior -- Check
Nagging Ex -- Check
Sulky Teen -- Check
Injured Former Partner -- Check (Double Bonus if you guessed said partner is paralyzed and wants Tormented Hero to help him end his life)
Dead Former Partner-- Check
Beautiful Secretary that Flirts but it's all Innocent or is it? (i.e. Bond/Moneypenny) -- Check
Damsel in Distress -- Check
Psychotic Villain -- Check
Mentally Challenged Henchman -- Check
Psychotic Villain's "my boy can do no wrong" Mother/Henchwoman -- Check

Also, it is clear the author holds the Danish Civil Service and Political Establishment in utter contempt (perhaps with good cause, as I know little of Danish politics or government bureaucracy).

Second, the story was just too long, especially the dwelling over the torture/degradation of the victim. I get that the premise is that the hero is looking into cold cases and that the twist here is that the "murder victim" is still alive (not really a spoiler, as the reader is privy to this information early on -- and can figure it out even before then). Nonetheless, we are treated to scene after scene of just how bad the victim's circumstance is yet we are supposed to believe that she is the unique person who can retain her sanity despite 5 years of solitary confinement and torture (newsflash -- in true solitary confinement, i.e. no contact with other humans and confined to featureless environment, most people go stark raving mad within DAYS, and at most you can survive a few months -- with the addition of torture, its simply not credible that this victim would be lucid and plotting her revenge FIVE YEARS later). I would have eliminated at least half of the sections that detail the treatment of the victim by her captors, and even then I am not buying the "love for my handicapped brother and a desire for revenge are keeping me sane").

Even when the hero realizes that he must act immediately, we are treated to the cliché of a traffic jam keeping him from reaching his destination, buying the villain just enough time to tie poor Nell to the tracks as the train is on its way (though the villain's prior location is not specified, he, of course, had no such ill luck in rushing to scene of the final showdown).

Another problem with the final showdown (SPOILER ALERT) is that the villain has rigged an elaborate system to assure the victim's instant death (in case she tries to kill herself and, thus, rob him of the pleasure of deciding the time and manner of her death), but this system is conveniently disablde because a battery has run down (and has been for a week or more). His henchman notes that another battery is available, but instead of going to get it he tries to accomplish the same result by brute force. When the villain arrives on the scene, he berates the henchman for his efforts, telling him that only the system that requires the battery can do the job, Yet mere minutes later when taunted by the victim into attempting to effect the instant death scenario he DOES NOT GO TO GET THE FRESH BATTERY, but instead adopts the same brute force methods of the henchman. He then goes to Plan B which for some reason takes 20 minutes to work (well, the reason is the hero is stuck in traffic and needs the extra time to arrive at the last minute). It was just a little much to suspend disbelief over.

Finally, while the reader is OK, I have a real problem with his use of accents for the characters. Yes, I get that the book was originally written in Danish and the characters are, with one principal exception, Danes. But why do the characters have to speak with Danish accents in an English translation? It really adds nothing to the performance of the book (and quite frankly, sometimes make the reader difficult to understand as he uses the thickness of the accent to indicate the class/social position of the speaker). I would have been OK with all the dialogue being without accents except for the one non-Danish character -- and frankly that is the accent on which the reader puts the least effort.

I might give the second novel in the series a try just see if the pace picks up a little, but my expectations won't be as high as they were for this much praised book. I'd be curious to see the film adaptation if it is available with English sub-titles .

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A must for Court Watchers

Revisado: 05-06-07

Although Rosen's personal bias comes through at times, his perspective on the history of the United States Surpeme Court is interesting. If you are a "Court Watcher" you will find the last chapter on Rehnquist/Saclia and the epilogue with excerpts from an interview with the new CHief Justice particularly interesting. Historians will appreciate the earlier chapters.

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Slow start, great finish

Revisado: 02-11-06

Having already listened to Winchester's Krakatoa, I was a bit disappointed to discover that the first half of this book covers much of the same ground, or rather background, in relating the history of geology and the development of the theory of plate tectonics. Indeed, the history given in A Crack at the Edge of the World is more extensive than in the earlier work. It is interesting stuff, especially if your interests in history include the history of science (and quite recent history at that), but I found myself thinking often during the first several hours, "When are we getting to the San Francisco Earthquake?" This feeling is caused in no small part by the fact that Winchester's introduction, telling the story of four "first person" experience of the first moments of the great quake, really whets the appetite.

When he finally gets to the quake and its aftermath, however, the story really begins to move. I've visited San Francisco a number of times, including twice in the last two years, but really had no clear idea of the extent of the earthquake, the damage it did, and the massive response of government and the private sector to rebuild the city. That last point is worthy of note, and this book (or at least the latter part of it) should be required reading for all the public officials, local, state, and federal, who botched the response to Hurricane Katrina.

I've rated the book only 3 stars (I'd give 3.5 if the system would let me), because I do believe the "history of geology" section is a bit too long and too technical at times. But the second half of the book is a solid five star effort.

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Good fiction . . . but bad law

Revisado: 01-28-06

This is a fairly solid murder mystery/courtoom drama. It tells the story of a criminal defense lawyer who trolls the LA area courtrooms, working out of his Lincoln, looking for the "franchise," the big paying client with a winable case (whether guilty or not). The mystery aspect of the story was O.K., but being familiar with criminal procedure (though not necessarily the "hot tub" version of law practiced in California), I was disappointed in the courtroom drama aspect of the novel. I've compared notes with another attorney who listened to this book (on the CD player in his Lincoln!), and he agrees with me that the author needs to go back and re-read the "Double Jeopardy" section of his Con Law outline. Good narration with limited musical undertones.

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Good but uneven collection of essays

Revisado: 01-28-06

Any Vonnegut fan will appreciate this satisfying, if uneven, collection of mostly auto-biographical essays. Now past 80, Vonnegut seems to have entered the "curmudgeon" phase of life (or perhaps he always was in that phase), but his observations are still amusing, cutting and mostly insightful. His description of how he still prepares his texts using the "primitive" method of typing, editing, and then having the final manuscript prepared by a professional typist (possible the last such member of that profession in North America), is a gem! And its nice to know he and "Kilgore Trout" are still speaking. Great narration, too. Norman Dietz clearly studied and captured Vonnegut's voice. Shortly after listening to this book I heard an interview on NPR with Vonnegut. His voice was weak and halting. I was shocked at how rapidly he had declined since recording this book last year . . . then I remembered that Dietz, not Vonnegut, had narrated the book. That's how closely Dietz was able to copy Vonnegut's accent and style.

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Nice Travelogue

Revisado: 01-28-06

I've enjoyed many of Winchester's narrative histories (and am currently listenting to "A Crack at the Edge of the World"), but found this travelogue an equally diverting listen, if a little short on truly useful information, as I doubt I'll ever have the time or money to visit these remote remnants of the British Empire. My one regret is that the book is only available on audio in abridged format (the author explains why this choice was made and how he elected which chapters to eliminate). The narration is excellent.

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Ultimately Unsatisfying

Revisado: 01-28-06

I was about half-way through listening to "Father Joe" when I learned of the accusation made by Tony Hendra's daughter from his first marriage that Hendra had left one important transgression out of this confessional auto-biography. The daughter maintains that Hendra sexually abused her when she was a child. This accusation, which Hendra denies, is unproved legally, though the daughter has written her own book ("How to Cook your Daughter," its title derived from an article Hendra wrote for the "National Lampoon") giving a detailed account of the alleged abuse.

Learning of that accusation, however, did not color my consideration of "Father Joe" overly much, because I had already come to the conclusion that, while Father Joe, the monk who befriends Hendra as a teenager and provides spiritual guidance to him throughout his adult life (and, as it turns out, many, many others), is a fascinating character, this story is really about Hendra and his supposed redemption. The problem is, it is quite clear that Hendra is not truly redeemed, or at least that he doesn't fully "get" what being redeemed means.

Despite the fact that this book is written retrospectively at a time when Hendra supposedly had re-embraced his Catholic faith and learned to take responsibility for his own life, Hendra repeatedly lapses into self-pity and vitriolic recriminations against those who have "wronged" him. His attacks on those who followed him at the "National Lampoon," his co-workers on "Spitting Image," conservative politicians (which borders on the paranoid), and, ironically, liberal theologians and the post-Vatican II Catholic Church, all belie his claim of redemption. Clearly, Hendra still has "contempt for the world," and not the selfless detachment of "contemptus mundi," despite Father Joe's painstaking efforts to teach him the difference.

That having been said, Hendra's narration style is excellent. The book, if ultimately unsatisfying, is nonetheless a good listen.

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