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Mar 2020
9:43pm, 4 Mar 2020
10,152 posts
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Little Nemo
I have a very unusual first name so definitely no writers with the same name as mine!
I am half way through Milkman, it's quite a slow read. Breaking it up with Harry Potter in Audible, Stephen Fry is very good 
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Mar 2020
10:14pm, 4 Mar 2020
19,395 posts
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Columba
Are you enjoying Milkman, Nemo? Or at least, appreciating it?
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Mar 2020
11:11pm, 4 Mar 2020
16,329 posts
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Serendippily
Great Mrs palfrey will do for 1971
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Mar 2020
8:50am, 5 Mar 2020
10,154 posts
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Little Nemo
Not sure enjoying it is quite the right word but it is a good book Columba. But it's definitely not a book I can read before I go to sleep!
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Mar 2020
8:33am, 6 Mar 2020
45,791 posts
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Diogenes
I'm currently listening to Sweet Sorrow, by David Nichols. It's entertaining but, as I did
with One Day, I have reservations. With One Day I simply did not believe in the characters and their relationships. I find Sweet Sorrow is another book written by a middle-aged man from the perspective of a teenager/young adult. The tone is cool and sardonic, but with an underlying air of angst and insecurity. It's not an honest voice, nor is it original in concept or execution. I always feel these type of tales are written with an element of wish-fulfilment (the author writing a youth more interesting than the one experienced) and knowingness (look how gauche this boy is, he should've just kissed her... I am wiser than that now). The writing is designed to evoke nostalgia and tug heartstrings, and there's nothing wrong with that: good writing should move us and connect us with feelings and memories buried deep, but this is rather crudely done, like a joke from Mrs Brown's Boys. That's far too harsh a comparison, but the analogy is valid, I feel.
Secondly, and this is nothing to do with Nichols, the audiobook is narrated by Rory Kinnear, who gives a performance in which the characters are either glib or over-excited. He's also narrated two others I've read, Middle England by Jonathan Coe (Coe being one of the authors with who Nichols shares a lot of the same ground), and Nutshell by Ian McEwan. If I had any say in who was narrating my book, while I like him as an actor, It would not be Kinnear.
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Mar 2020
8:37am, 6 Mar 2020
43,737 posts
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McGoohan
I was thinking about this sort of thing yesterday. What makes a *good* audiobook reader? I was thinking about actors with distinctive/distinguished voices, like Stephen Fry. But then you don't necessarily want someone who's distractingly famous. Or with a lovely voice but it sends you to sleep.
I remember you said about the Fahrenheit 451 reader being too extreme/macho.
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Mar 2020
8:42am, 6 Mar 2020
45,794 posts
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Diogenes
Tim Robbins (great actor) gave that one the full force of his talents.
One of the best is Brid Brennan's narration of Milkman -it's perfect.
Prentice Onayemi also does a wonderful job on The Sellout - I don't think I would have got through it if I'd just read the paperback, but Prentice's delivery enhances the book, brings it too life, and brings out the incredible energy and rhythm in the writing. With a different narrator it might have been tiring.
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Mar 2020
8:51am, 6 Mar 2020
43,738 posts
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McGoohan
I found just reading it exhausting enough
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Mar 2020
8:59am, 6 Mar 2020
45,796 posts
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Diogenes
Exactly, but listening to it was surprisingly easy, almost relaxing.
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Mar 2020
9:13am, 6 Mar 2020
118,443 posts
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GregP
The not-Nigel-Planer guy that reads Pratchett is very good. So's the chap that reads the Jack Reacher novels.
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