James

Takes a LONG time to listen to but well worth it. Narration is excellent. The only thing I will say is I found it odd that the narrator has an English accent given the amount of French in the translated text. Other than that, the narrator does an admirable job bringing characters to life over such a long novel. The quality of the narration is critical to making an audio book listenable. I have bought some books that were simply unlistenable but this one is excellent.

I was a little apprehensions about the length of this "book" and due to some of the comments about the narration. After having given it one listen I can attest to the quality of the narration and to the fact that it uses a good translation (Tobias Smollet) which I thoroughly enjoyed especially due to the "Shakespearean" quality of the text. The narration is very well done using different voice characterizations and a variety of British accents to differentiate each character. Very funny. "You are in the right, friend Sancho."

I read this a long time ago and bought the A-B. There are some interesting insights in this book that have some application in todays "outsourced" economy. Funy in parts tiresome in others, the ending seems J-V was trying to meet a deadline.

Listened and re-listened to this. Very enjoyable. Sometimes you have to wonder if these things actually happened to him or not -- I assume they are based on fact -- however, they are so perfect you can't help believing some of this is made up. The story about quitting smoking is great and the one about his baby sitter is unforgettable.

A series of interconnecting -- sort of -- stories that are somewhere between unconvincing and far fetched. A half human half chimp named Dave? An intelligent talking African Grey parrot? Come on. The author obviously had an axe or two to grind regarding views on the ethical intricacies of biotechnology, the bio-tech industry and American patent legislation. I guess the question is does that form the basis of a half-decent page-turner? For me -- not so much.