AFaceInTheCrowd

A long view of Life as it is

Revisado: 06-28-23

Vivid characters that I am sure will stay with me for some time. little man and woman in the middle of history.

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It’s not a novel, it’s a song

Revisado: 02-27-22

I liked this book by Johnathan Leitham even more than Motherless Brooklyn, the characters so vivid and the plot flowing steadily without gimmicks. But it may be that these qualities do not come so much from the novel itself but from an absolutely superb performance of the narrator. To my ear the voices are so true to the author’s descriptions, so flawless, recognizable and diverse that I cannot imagine this book in any other form, only as performed on this recording. Bravo, David Aaron Baker!

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Half of it is in Latin the other half might as well be

Revisado: 09-30-21

This novel may have been revolutionary in 1949 but the genre is well developed by now and weirdness alone cannot justify giving it 39 hours.

I could have managed to the end because descriptions if these New Yorkers are astute, merciless and often funny. But then I hit this patch of mad monologue which is literally almost all in Latin and too religious for my sensibility anyway. After a few hours of complete incomprehension I had to stop. My time on this Earth is too short.

Anything by, say, Pynchon is a preschool book compared to this, and so much more ingenious, delightful and meaningful than this opus. IMHO.

The reader is superb snd seems to understand everything he is reading, respect.

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Why not live in this woman’s mind?

Revisado: 08-26-21

If one doesn’t expect an elaborate plot and just listens to her inner monologue, it’s not often that one can get into someone else’s head so fully. There is _some_ plot development there. And the reading is terrific. I would never be able to read this book, only to listen, with long pauses.

I have consumed many other books in the interim, coming back to this one for a few chapters at a time. But the image of the woman, her kids, husband and other characters remained with me, so it wasn’t hard to resume listening. Not to mention all the pies and other recipes. Sugar gets onion smell out of your hands and other useful stuff ;-)

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Vivid and well written, if s bit predictable

Revisado: 07-31-20

It feels like the book has a goal to cover all the bases on contemporary women’s issues, which makes it a but preachy and predictable, especially in the second half. The beginning is more spontaneous and that’s when it draws you in.

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Honest, complex, beautiful

Revisado: 07-06-20

I picked it up after hearing a Stegner scholar say that it was his favorite Stegner book, although I hesitated after reading reviews along the lines “why didn’t she leave her abusive husband already?”. To me the book creates very real, complex three-dimensional characters, including the main heroine, and in the end I didn’t have the question “Why?”.

As usual, the land and the history of the land are just as important a character as the people, and the language is evocative and rich. There was an unexpected chapter sooooo relevant during the pandemic, it felt like a special gift from the author though time.

I mostly liked the reader, especially his male characters and the descriptions of nature. I wish he didn’t make the heroine so meek, it even contradicts the words in the text and it definitely interfered with my image of her Then there was a very minor character that he voiced with an unflattering stereotypical ethnic accent... oh, well, it was recorded many years ago.

So, unless domestic violence is (still) a trigger, this book is absorbing and profoundly satisfying.

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Disrespectful to the listener

Revisado: 01-09-20

I swear, at least once a day, I ride public transport a lot, watch late-night comedy and am not easily shocked by rough language, but I couldn't finish this program. Only fifteen minutes left but I had to stop, I felt so disrespected, even though it was just me and my headphones.

I learned something new about Eskimo culture though - the most frequent word in colloquial use is f***, followed closely by sh**. Useful info so I won't take it personally when I meet a native (not sure if a "white girl" can use this designation, but the narrator uses both of those, so apologies in advance).

In the beginning the only the people who swear just a bit are his interview subjects, no problem, we want it real, but later the narrator himself gets into the groove and outdoes everyone else. He swears when he talks about the weather and the juicy berries in the forest. From the first few chapters it is clear that Mr. Dommek is capable of expressing himself without using an f-bomb every 30 seconds, so why is he doing it more and more as the time goes?

It seems that the piece tries to show lack of sensitivity to the native culture in our justice system to a wider audience. But then shouldn't there be at least some sensitivity to the cultural norms of that audience?

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Man, Booker Prize for this?

Revisado: 11-29-19

The review in the New Yorker said it welll - I liked yhe fragments of fiction best, but the rest felt half-baked and a bit pretentious. Be warned - large part is about the Bodies exhibition, which I loved and even went to see Bodies 2 ... but still the writing didn't speak to me. I also grew up in the Eastern Block, even that part left me cold, everything so gloomy and impersonal, so stereotypical? Not in one's youth, for sure.

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Rigorous, Relatable, Revealing

Revisado: 02-21-18

Would you consider the audio edition of Consciousness and the Brain to be better than the print version?

print version is probably easier to comprehend, but I'd never had the time to sit and read it. Audio allowed me to do it on walks, trains, in the kitchen.

What about David Drummond’s performance did you like?

is adequate, at least it doesn't make comprehension harder.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Made me fascinated with this area of neuroscience.

Any additional comments?

Universities now offer combined majors in Cognitive and Computer Science.

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Gripping story, authentic but unskilled reader

Revisado: 09-02-17

The book has interesting plot, vivid characters who are not perfect and at the same time gives an idea of a life on an Indian reservation and an Indian view of the modern world. Now, the reader. He reads with a definite Indian cadence, which adds to the story immensely. The only problem is that he reads like a D student from elementary school who sees the text for the first time, you know, pauses in wrong places, surprised by unexpected adjective, an emphasis which is wrong for the sentence structure. I sometimes felt bad for the book, its beautiful language butchered.
If I had time, I would have preferred to read the book in print, but I would listen rather than not know this novel at all.

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