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A review by joyblue
The Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem
Did not finish book.
I bailed because of the horrible narrator, but other reviewers make me wonder if I would have anyway. What follows pertains to the narration of this book, not its content or writing.
In my experience, authors who read their own work are horrible at narration! Most of the exceptions to that rule are actors—including, but not limited to, Billy Crystal, Steve Martin, and Ellen DeGeneres. [A couple of non-actor authors who read their own books with wild success, IMHO, are Neil Gaiman and Jill Conner Browne.] My assumption from my experience so far has been that actors are well-suited to book narration because of their vocal and acting training.
This book is narrated by Zosia Mamet—an actor in movies/TV shows I don't watch. She. Is. The. Worst. I've now learned about vocal fry. I'm not sure that's her only problem in this narration. I just know that she is almost completely unintelligible most of the time, and that her voice is horrifically monotonous all of the time. Most reviewers agree (now that I've checked because I'm so frustrated about it). I saw one reviewer who thinks she's the perfect narrator *for this book* for the same reason most of us can't stand her narration. Increasing the playback speed is not a sufficient remedy. I started at 1.5 (almost always a safe speed for my processing), then moved to 1.85, and am now at 2.0.
I'm bailing on the book solely because of the bad narration. Practically, if I choose to bail, it is unlikely that I will ever finish the book because I have so little time to devote to reading with my eyes. Reading with my ears allows me to read while grooming, traveling, doing housework, etc.
In my experience, authors who read their own work are horrible at narration! Most of the exceptions to that rule are actors—including, but not limited to, Billy Crystal, Steve Martin, and Ellen DeGeneres. [A couple of non-actor authors who read their own books with wild success, IMHO, are Neil Gaiman and Jill Conner Browne.] My assumption from my experience so far has been that actors are well-suited to book narration because of their vocal and acting training.
This book is narrated by Zosia Mamet—an actor in movies/TV shows I don't watch. She. Is. The. Worst. I've now learned about vocal fry. I'm not sure that's her only problem in this narration. I just know that she is almost completely unintelligible most of the time, and that her voice is horrifically monotonous all of the time. Most reviewers agree (now that I've checked because I'm so frustrated about it). I saw one reviewer who thinks she's the perfect narrator *for this book* for the same reason most of us can't stand her narration. Increasing the playback speed is not a sufficient remedy. I started at 1.5 (almost always a safe speed for my processing), then moved to 1.85, and am now at 2.0.
I'm bailing on the book solely because of the bad narration. Practically, if I choose to bail, it is unlikely that I will ever finish the book because I have so little time to devote to reading with my eyes. Reading with my ears allows me to read while grooming, traveling, doing housework, etc.