In Defense of Audiobooks - Part III

Link to Part I
Link to Part II

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (Jake Gyllenhaal) (2 stars)

My disappointment in re-reading the book was only slightly less severe than my disappointment in watching the recent movie remake, starring Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio.  All the excesses, the petulance, the infidelity, and the east coast snobbishness are just a tad too much for me to handle.  As a period piece, and as a sample of good, early American writing, it has value.  But beyond that, the plot is not all that interesting, and the characters are either unrelatable (e.g. Gatsby) or don't manage to evoke sympathy (e.g. Daisy, and even Nick to some extent).

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (Campbell Scott) (4 stars)
A marvelous book, and one that, I suspect, could be pored over for symbolism and depth of language for semesters on semesters by any literary student with sufficient time and interest.  I appreciate that even now, months after having first read the book, there are images (e.g. the lady with the wine-stained rag about her head after the big wine-spill in a street in Paris) that are still vividly called to mind by Dickens' impressive fluidity and precision with words.  I also appreciate the struggles of the various characters, and a general theme of redemption that touches most all of them.  And any book that drives home the scripture, "I am the resurrection and the life.  He that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." is OK by me.  Interestingly, this same scripture was central to another book I'll be reviewing, Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment'.

The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antoine, in Paris, where it was spilled. It had stained many hands, too, and many faces, and many naked feet, and many wooden shoes. The hands of the man who sawed the wood, left red marks on the billets; and the forehead of the woman who nursed her baby, was stained with the stain of the old rag she wound about her head again. Those who had been greedy with the staves of the cask, had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth; and one tall joker so besmirched, his head more out of a long squalid bag of a nightcap than in it, scrawled upon a wall with his finger dipped in muddy wine-lees—BLOOD.  The time was to come, when that wine too would be spilled on the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red upon many there.

A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway (John Slattery) (3 stars)

Oddly enough, I enjoyed the book well enough as I read it, but now, thinking back on it, I find it only mediocre.  It's enjoyable Hemingway material, but I think it was a little too similar to 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', and for my money, 'FWTBT' is a full notch above in almost every respect (love story, sympathy for the code hero, historical context, action, writing).

1776 - David McCullough (David McCullough) (4 stars)

Probably the finest historical biographer of any of the generations now living, David McCullough excels in this telling of the events surrounding and central to America's battle for independence.  I gained a deep appreciation for the stakes involved in each battle, for General Washington's majesty (almost pompousness), for the not unreasonable clash of ideals between Parliament and Congress, for the clash of military styles, and for the faith and sacrifice of those ragtag American battalions (e.g. fighting with only the promise of future pay, and exposed to the sicknesses and wintry conditions).

The Spectator Bird - Wallace Stegner (Edward Herrmann) (3 stars)
First of all, R.I.P., Edward Herrmann.  He has to be one of the best-known narrators of all time.  His rendition of 'I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day' with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir a few years ago was such a virtuoso performance that it almost inspired me to wish I had pursued a career in narration.

Back to the topic at hand.  This book was fine, but it didn't connect with me the way other Stegner books have.  It has a lot to do with the realities (both ups and downs) of growing old with a spouse.  It may be that this book will be filed deep within my brain, and then 30/40 years from now it will call out to me, and possibly be some treasure of sympathy and understanding.  But for now it just doesn't interest me all that much.  There are other themes as well, having to do with fidelity, maintaining a connection with our ancestry, and others, but I could never got entirely wrapped up in the story.

Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky (George Guidall) (5 stars)
This work is two great things in one: a great philosophical study and a great story as a backdrop.

The philosophy part deals with, among other things, the nature of consequences, and the concept of superiority between individuals and the rights & privileges that follow therefrom.  The logic and arguments presented throughout were compelling enough to cause me to question my understanding of morality, and of justice.

The story, despite (or because of?) its being presented in such a logical, thorough, and emotionally-detached progression somehow managed to hold me deeply focused on Raskolnikov's fate and well-being.  And both the buildup and the event itself of the crime is so good that it had me wincing and worrying as the events unfolded.

Similar to 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' I really enjoyed the technique of basically holding the story to a timeframe of a mere few days.  As simple as it seems, the thoroughness and descriptiveness that come with that kind of storytelling somehow made me feel (in both cases) that the events are somehow part of my memory.