Alicia Czechowski

Narrator has a mouthful of mashed potatoes

Revisado: 12-06-20

Katherine Brooks mumbles so badly that she might as well be speaking in a foreign language, or at least, a strong dialect. She sounds like her mouth is stuffed with mashed potatoes. This potentially entertaining novel is spoiled by her narration.

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Horrible reader, great book

Revisado: 07-11-20

Maggie Gyllenhaal reads Anna Karenina in a monotone and does nothing to nuance her voice or inflection to indicate which character is speaking in the many passages of dialogue. Gyllenhaal does not take the trouble to pronounce the words correctly, she says "insuperbly" instead of insuperably, "thrashing machine" instead of threshing machine,and so on and on.

A great (and lengthy) novel deserves a professional reader, not a careless hack.

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Very repetitive, No real method here.

Revisado: 08-13-18

I could not listen to Goodbye, Things as it became repetitive and generalized the problem of surplus possessions in a very erroneous way. The author devalues all objects, except as possibly being momentarily useful. He is very dismissive of the aesthetics of objects and generalizes too much, reducing everything to stuff. My problem is that i notice and appreciate everything I possess, and finding a rationale fo undertake drastic editing surplus items is a problem. The solution was nowhere to be found in "Goodbye, Things".

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A husband drives himself mad with jealousy

Revisado: 02-26-17

Making the subject of a character's psychology the subject of the novel represents an unusual approach for Trollope. In He Knew He Was Right the husband deludes himself into the certainty that his wife has betrayed him and he gradually slides into a devouring delusion that destroys his marriage, his life's normality, his body and, ultimately, his sanity. The husband's jealousy is baseless, but understandable. Trivialities are blown out of proportion by the husband's suspicion on and his wife's outraged dignity. He [or She] Knew He [She] Was Right is the awful knell that drives so many people over the edge. Trollope effectively presents the seeming logic of the sundered couple, each of whom feels certain of his/her righteous position. Over and over again, neither husband nor wife can make the ultimate sacrifice and admit herself/himself wrong. The situation is torture, painfully depicted by Trollope. The emotional and psychological tug of war goes through many permutations until all reason is gone. In the end, Trollope cleverly lets us understand that both husband and wife have carried off his/her own conflicting and cherished delusion as confirmed belief.

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Is it too late for atheism to save the world?

Revisado: 12-16-16

As a lifelong atheist, I found Christoper Hitchens' exhaustive arguments exposing the monumental fallacy of God, engrossing and compelling. The tale of religions crimes against decency, and common sense have been only too apparent to me throughout my life. As an artist, I am well acquainted with the vile broadsheets distributed many centuries ago by various christian sects, hypocritically blasting the idiosyncrasies of other faiths and calling for torture and death. We are moving rapidly backwards in this technical age, there seems to be a mad return to the imbecility of religious belief, as always, fueled by cruelty, repression and war. I would like to think that the rational life would be made more appealing to more and more people through a work like God is not Great, but it may be too late for reason to save mankind from the self-destructive power of "faith".

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One of the greatest

Revisado: 10-28-16

The Way We Live Now is my favorite Trollope work and Trollope has written many a wonderful book. But this particular work stands high, not merely as a work of Trollope's, but as something unique in literature. Non-stop-entertaining is this timeless tale of out-size egotistical ambition. What a story! I never stop being amazed at Trollope's almost casual style. No matter how big and complex he can convey us effortlessly and delightfully through all the tortuous machinations of multitudinous characters. His touch is light and clever and fresh, yet he spans the panoply of human motives and emotions, as he relates a fully-colored and complex story. And no one is better at fleshing out genuine, living people, running the gamut of personalities; Lady Carbury who hopes to achieve a little notoriety (and cash) through novel-writing, her long-suffering daughter, Hetta, her appallingly selfish son, Felix, her elderly swain, newsman Mr. Braun; the fabulous con-man Melmont, plus an entourage of clods, critics, cynics, sycophants and swindlers; all contrived with humor, wit and depth. I have read (listened to) The Way We Live Now many times; it is so vivid as to be almost cinematic; I see the action and the characters in their outrageous glory each time I listen to it.

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Survival is everything

Revisado: 06-21-14

Jack Finney lets us contemplate the reason for existence in "Invasion". Ultimately, both man and alien will destroy anything and everything in the battle for survival. Is the human craving for emotional soap opera more valid than the pod changeling's simple instinct to exist?
"Invasion" concludes with a "Now what?", and, also, a "So what?".
I like a book whose ending suggests many intriguing possibilities.

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esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

Don't we all "compartmentalize"?

Revisado: 05-30-14

Richard Kuklinski represents an extreme case of the ability to compartmentalize. It's the way we all instinctively protect our reason, justify our actions, hide our real intentions, and bolster our amour propre.
I found this story fascinating in the way it juxtaposes our ideas of what constitutes conventional behavior with the life led by a career killer. Considering Kuklinski's terrible childhood, it is remarkable that he ended up leading such a "normal" life.
Philip Carlo's does an excellent job of reporting Kuklinski's story with the minimum of editorializing or moralizing. He is not the typical criminal biographer writer who equivocates by hauling out the "evil" formula while delectating yet another grisly morsel. Carlo presents a factual and non-hypocritical story of one man's long-lived career as a delectatehired killer, conducted for decades, under the radar.
Sucking on horror is the great American past-time, but The Ice Man is much more than a feast for the horror junky, it is an odyssey into the extraordinary parallel world of organized crime.

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Story begins well, weakens, ends with a whimper

Revisado: 05-30-14

This is no work of genius, contrary to the critical/biographical introduction lauding Ira Levin.
The intro prepares the reader for great things which, for me, were not delivered.
Many novels start strong, because the author expends his all at the start. The back and forth story grows convoluted and vague and the characters do not really develop, rather, they become more superficial and unconvincing: it is difficult to empathize with anyone; a good writer draws the reader into the emotions and motives of all the characters.
As the book progresses, Levin's straight-forward style degenerates into purple prose and drags on tediously toward a makeshift and anti-climatic end. A Kiss Before Dying is a story that doesn't know where it's going.
A real classic in the noir genre is is James M. Cain's Double Indemnity, a superb tale of the criminal impulse infecting ordinary people. Levin's "Kiss" just doesn't make the grade.

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Aimless, silly and unlistenable

Revisado: 04-02-14

It is not the fault of the narrator, but entirely that of the author that "Habits" is rubbishy drivel.
It is pieces of shapeless verbal frippery like this book that makes me wonder anew at the dreck that gets published. I bought this Fay Weldon on an Audible $4.95 sale, mistaking the author for one recommended by a friend. "Habits of the House", not worth a plastic penny.

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