JHMore

Good story, and well-honed characters

Revisado: 05-01-23

A captain in his first command is tested by failing winds and a sick crew. The crux of the story, however, rests with the captain’s interactions with mate, the cook/steward, and a couple of crewmen still capable of performing their duties. The pace is slow, but oddly suspenseful at the same time.

The narrator’s languid delivery may, for some, complement the pace of the story itself, but I found it a bit too much.

Overall, strongly recommended for any fan of Conrad’s sea stories.

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Not much depth

Revisado: 03-30-23

Should be targeted towards a younger audience — middle school? — as other readers will likely be disappointed with the thin plot and one dimensional characters.

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Perhaps better in print than on audio

Revisado: 10-13-17

Many times I've heard this work described as Dickens' masterpiece, so I'd hoped to find it more engaging than I did. I don't think the expansiveness of the novel alone is the problem, as I've listened to equally complex works and reveled in them. With Bleak House, however, the first half is such slow going that it's hard to find the main stream of the plot for all the interminable eddies, and the number of extraneous characters only serves to muddy the waters. By the mid-point of the recording, I'd come to think of it as "six hundred characters in search of a novel." But as other reviewers note, inherent difficulty of the novel isn't helped by the narrator, who reads at such a quick pace that many of the lengthier passages -- there are a lot of them of course -- dissolve into a rambling blur. Nor can he do justice to the sheer number of character voices that the narrative imposes on him. I strongly suspect that Bleak House is best served by its original medium.

I can still appreciate why the book enjoys such a strong reputation. I don't know many other works that deal so intensely and dynamically with the intersections of class in Victorian society. It is astonishing in that respect.

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Second-string Pynchon is still damn good

Revisado: 04-15-16

The story works through all the wry plot twists that Pynchon does so well, so the book won't be a disappointment to any fan. But, one, the idea of a doper out-sleuthing the architects of a grand conspiracy is a little too reminiscent of the Cohen Bros' "The Big Lebowski" to be completely novel; and, two, when the title is bluntly glossed toward the end of the book, it seems an odd "get it?" moment from the master of subtle allusions. But of course it's Pynchon; I'm probably the one who's missing something.

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Greatly preferable to the abridged version!

Revisado: 04-15-16

I mistakenly bought an abridged version of this work (different reader, too) and was not impressed -- just a list of emperors, the high points of their reigns, and their (usually) tragic ends. The full length work, while it does challenge the attention at times, covers the subject with such richness that the effort is well repaid. Especially interesting, to me at least, are the many descriptions of cultures within and adjacent to the Roman Empire. The depth and breadth of erudition is awe inspiring, as is the quality of Gibbon's writing.

Timson's excellent reading makes some of the more intricate and less stimulating parts of the work bearable.

I confess I was relieved to reach the end of the volume -- with the reign of Constantine and the rise of Christianity-- and will move on to something a bit lighter before tackling volume two. But I will come back to the other volumes; I hope sooner rather than later.

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Too heavily abridged, and where's vol. 2?

Revisado: 12-27-15

What's covered amounts to a sketch of the emperors from the death of Nero (68 CE) to the sacking of Rome in 476. Little else is said about other aspects of Roman society and politics, outside of the various interventions of the army, especially the Praetorian Guards, in determining the fall and succession of individual emperors. Essentially Spark notes coverage. That said, the production quality is high, and the principle reader handles the text beautifully (the secondary reader simply provides summaries of abridged content). The best I can say is that it leaves a taste for more, and at some point I hope to tackle the unabridged volumes, which run to nearly 150 hours! Should give an idea of how much is missing here.

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Interesting and engaging listen, but a course?

Revisado: 02-11-15

Taking a long view of Western literature, Heroes and Legends offers insightful and often novel readings of some of our best-loved characters, as well as accounts of the authors who created them. Shippey's basic approach is to anchor each hero(ine) in socio-historical context, which is fine, but there are of course many other ways to appreciate these works. Surely there is more to the Odyssey than the ethnography of early Greek culture.

Drawing from both canonical and popular genres, the lectures take us through a progression in the notion of what is heroic from antiquity to the present. Given the work's broad sweep, it's inevitable that decisions had to be made about what to include and what to leave out. I suspect everyone will have his or her own list (possibly lengthy) of works and authors that might have been covered but weren't.

My principal gripe -- and in the interest of self-disclosure, I am a professor, though not of literature -- is that a work of this nature hardly constitutes a course: only the one perspective is offered, no counter-critique is available, and at no point is "the student" asked, "So, what do you think?" Giving two out of five for "performance" is the only way I could think of to indicate this in Audible's rating system; Shippey's presentation is itself very enjoyable. (If you think this a pedantic complaint, have a look at what Great Courses charges for its first-run programs!)

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Wonderful introduction to WSM

Revisado: 02-11-15

I'd never read anything by Somerset Maugham before, and after the first couple of stories I wondered what all the fuss was about. I'm glad I kept on, because the master storyteller soon emerged in subsequent tales and didn't let up. I will be moving on to the remaining volumes in this series as quickly as I can. The reader is sometimes a bit leaden, and there is an unnecessary musical soundtrack at the beginning and end of each tale, which comes across like a cheesy radio production. But all in all, this is wonderful stuff!

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If you enjoy irony . . .

Revisado: 03-26-14

What did you love best about The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared?

The dry detachment of the hero is instantly and utterly likeable. Many of the secondary characters -- especially the villains -- are also memorable.

What other book might you compare The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared to and why?

Reminded me a little of Vonnegut (more so Sirens of Titan than Slaughterhouse Five) and several reviewers have commented on ties with Forest Gump. The narrator's quirky interpretations of events are very reminiscent of young hero in the Swedish film, My Life as a Dog.

What about Steven Crossley’s performance did you like?

Captured the tone of the book perfectly.

Any additional comments?

A really fun listen! I gave four-stars to the story only because of a few less than credible plot twists, but frankly I feel horribly pedantic for being that fussy.

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