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Excellent Crime Drama

Revisado: 07-21-22

Highly professionally constructed crime drama, full of twists, humor and pathos. While the narrator is excellent, unfortunately like many performers that are not South African by birth, Simon Vance just cannot master the unique flat South African English accent, though in general the performance in terms of the drama and intonation is good. For a South African local or expat, one needs to simple hold back on the cringe, when a word like "ou" meaning a guy, is pronounced "ooh", or "kak" which in SA is pronounced "kuck", meaning shit is pronounced "kack" by the narrator, and on and on...No matter though. worth the time.

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Irreconcilable

Revisado: 12-02-17

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes

Would you be willing to try another book from Dorit Rabinyan? Why or why not?

Yes

What does Gabra Zackman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Excellent narration albeit some fine-tuning errors with accents.

Was All the Rivers worth the listening time?

Yes

Any additional comments?

A fine etching in a place and time which brings a Palestinian NYC based artist and an Israeli women into a complex relationship of deep love and attraction and stark difference in national identity. Doomed to failure due to the cultural, national and religious schisms a kind of slow motion intensity pervades. Excellently written with some crafting errors creating a few too many metaphorical references and a problematic ending whereby the author (spoiler alert from here onwards), rather that work through the issues and take it to its ultimate problematic end (or rebirth) she kills the hero off thereby exhibiting the exact critique of Israeli society she so scrupulously adheres to.Worth the read and the dissonance it generates far from the comfort zone.

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Brilliant. Outsanding narration

Revisado: 03-30-17

Where does American Pastoral rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the best

What other book might you compare American Pastoral to and why?

Franzen's The Corrections. Social comment and family drama as a genre for reflections on American life.

What does Ron Silver bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Absolutely brilliantly narrated.

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Better and more engaging than any modern tv series

Revisado: 08-14-16

Would you consider the audio edition of A Tale of Two Cities [Tantor] to be better than the print version?

The audio version of A Tale of Two Cities narrated by Simon Vance offers a far more enhanced experience to the modern reader (and listener) than the written version. Complex language, speech and nuanced sentences are richly delivered audibly by Simon Vance who masters accents, descriptive narration and vivid character portrayal. This is the finest piece of narration I have encountered in Audible.

Which character – as performed by Simon Vance – was your favorite?

Simon Vance presented the array of characters in a way that the unique manner of speech really illuminates each personality to a position making it very difficult to choose which was a favorite. However, in this case, under the threat of "liberty, equality, fraternity or death", I would have to choose Jarvis Lorry whose apparent dull manner yet heightened sensibilities are cleverly handled by Vance.

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An adagio to love and loss

Revisado: 04-15-16

Powerful yet pensive. Deeply moving and finely structured. This is great literature without labored attempts at genre or style. Narration was superb. One of the best works on Audible I have encountered.

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Chabon Magic

Revisado: 02-11-13

Would you consider the audio edition of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay to be better than the print version?

I would. Michael Chabon's writing is highly descriptive, evocative and complex with long sentences demanding a fair amount of grammatical agility on the part of the reader. This is why the audio edition is so good. Narration enables the reader to understand the tapestry of words without the effort involved in the reading process. Since this is a fairly long novel, with multiple character structures and a diverse plot, audio is a superb method of appreciating this piece of fiction.
With that, I would recommend alongside the audio, a text version, say in kindle or ebook format so as to enable the reader to refer back when he/she wishes and to read sections when audio is neither available or appropriate.

What did you like best about this story?

Creative original story, with strains of Jewish American culture presented in a very unique form compared to trends in the genre.

What about David Colacci’s performance did you like?

It was very good however, I was not always happy about accents - but this is minor. It was professional and engaging.

If you could take any character from The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay out to dinner, who would it be and why?

It would have to be Sammy. While Joe is mysterious, we know him from the book. Sammy evokes empathy and a need to understand. Something is still left unsolved and poignant with this character, which is in fact one of the wonderful features of the book and its final chapters.

Any additional comments?

I have read comments by readers regarding Chabon, may of whom have difficulty getting past the first chapters of his books; others who can't find the plot for the words. Michael Chabon is a huge persona on the stage of modern novelists. He is a master of words and verbal tapestry. Audiobooks are actually the finest method of fully appreciating his work.

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