Ellen-A

Fierstein gives knock-your-socks-off performance

Revisado: 08-29-20

A powerhouse of the past. This production made me wish Bella Abzug were back here, in top form, right now—August 2020. Bella would make even Bernie Sanders look like a shrinking violet.

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Expected More

Revisado: 04-13-19

Definitely worth the small donation for hurricane relief. However, the "book" needed more quotations. It was mostly filler—intro, sound effects, credits. The quotations—funny, but NOT funny given the context—effectively portray the president's obliviousness (lack of empathy, lack of humanity), but there weren't enough. I hope the sequels will have more meat.

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Highly Entertaining and Insightful

Revisado: 03-03-19

Aasif Mandvi delivers a highly entertaining, madcap, character-shifting audio narration, which, in a very short time (1-hr, 17-min), portrays the joys, pains, uncertainty, and conflicts experienced by a small group Indian immigrants to the U.S. Although the tone is humorous, the picture painted becomes one of immigrant struggles to adapt to American culture while not losing the best of their own. Even as the narration entertains, it evokes in the listener a growing understanding of and sympathy for the characters—canny work by a talented writer-performer.

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Eminently re-readable

Revisado: 01-02-19

Beautiful, compelling, and glowing throughout with the brilliance and humanity of the author and his subjects. I will reread (i.e., re-listen to) this book and also return to the works of Wilde, Yeats, and, particularly, Joyce, whose father—I now know—lives and breathes in the pages of his novels.

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Wished for more

Revisado: 12-25-18

Five stars for Durrell’s elegant writing and loving evocation of the beauty of Cyprus, the character and personalities of its Greek and Turkish residents, and his great pleasures during his three years living there (1953–1956). He leaves, sad and dismayed, as a result of the Greek rebellion against British rule.
Four stars for the story, which was too short. I wanted more!
Audio narrator perfect; he could not have been better.

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Beautifully written story

Revisado: 01-04-18

What did you love best about Autumn?

the beautiful metaphorical language

What was one of the most memorable moments of Autumn?

the last scene

What about Melody Grove’s performance did you like?

Grove excelled in her 3rd-person narrator and the female voices . Her rendition of male characters were good enough but might've been better.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I was not tempted to listen in one sitting because the story was so dense with metaphor and layers of meaning that I had to listen in shorter segments in order to absorb what I was hearing.

Any additional comments?

A beautifully written, affecting story, so dense with metaphor and layers of meaning that the listener has to pay close attention. There are a few dream sequences, and events skip around in time—many never fully explained but understood nevertheless. Smith's talents as a writer are undeniable. As much as I enjoyed, appreciated, and admired this book, I preferred her earlier work, "The Accidental," which I found more engaging.

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Audacious

Revisado: 02-09-17

What did you love best about The Sellout?

The Sellout is audacious and endlessly entertaining—a poetically brilliant, powerful punch in the gut.

What did you like best about this story?

Its use outrageous, biting satire and dark sardonic humor to depict racist attitudes, experiences, and practices among blacks and other minorities . . . and whites.

What about Prentice Onayemi’s performance did you like?

The performance soars. Onayemi captures every sardonic nuance. He breathes extraordinary life into his first-person narrator and perfectly portrays all of the other characters—men, women, children, blacks, Latinos, Asians, and whites. There could be no better narrator.

If you could take any character from The Sellout out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Hominy would no doubt be the most fun.

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Five stars' worth of pleasure

Revisado: 11-07-14

Would you consider the audio edition of The Rosie Project to be better than the print version?

Yes, ESPECIALLY for this book. The talented Australian narrator captures every comic quirk and halarious incident or misunderstanding and conveys every subtle touching emotion.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Rosie Project?

So many memorable incidents involving misread social cues—one after another.

Have you listened to any of Dan O'Grady’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No. But as an Australian narrator, he was perfect for this book. (His American characters were slightly less successful, but I didn't mind.)

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Too many. I laughed through most of the book and wept for the last 15 or 20 minutes at the schmaltzy ending.

Any additional comments?

Thoroughly entertaining light listening. A delightful "palate cleanser" between weightier books.

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