Greg Saven

I was fortunate in that I did not have Moby-Dick shoved down my throat in a high school literature class. That tends to sour kids on any novel, no matter how truly good it is. I picked it up of my own volition later in life and really enjoyed it. Melville used such a pleasing, poetic style of writing in this tale.

It's been quite a few years since then, and this version was on sale, so I thought I'd give it a listen. I couldn't go the distance. I gave it about three hours and had to stop. The narrator was intolerable. He sounded like he was doing a voice over for a commercial or narrating one of those cheesy Discovery/TLC TV shows like "How Stuff is Made". I found him really irritating and he did not give the story the solemn dignity I pictured in my mind when I read the dead tree version. I'm going to ask for my money back.

There are quite a few versions of this novel available on Audible, so I would suggest listening to the samples before choosing one (I wish I had). Moby-Dick is a great story and I highly recommend it, just not this version.

There is nothing "shocking" about the information presented in this book. If the fact that "food" corporations... I mean the "substances that we shovel into our gluttonous pie holes" corporations are not acting in our best interest is surprising to you, then you are naive.

However, it is an interesting listen. One should listen to as many books of this nature as one can, and as often as one can, so as to be reminded to stay on the right path. The "substances that we shovel into our gluttonous pie holes" corporations are frighteningly powerful and are unfortunately winning the war against good health.

Every once in a while I try to "culture" myself by listening to one of the "classics" and, more often than not, I am disappointed. Why is this considered one of the greatest works of the twentieth century? It boggles the mind.

The story is filled with a bunch of vapid characters that elicit no empathy and engage in pointless endeavors. And then the story ends. What is the point? Maybe it was interesting in 1929, but damn, it's a bore fest now.

Also, the recording of Robbins' narration needed to be normalized. I was constantly adjusting the volume as the level of his voice went up and down. I thought his performance was adequate, but the recording was not.

I found Patrick Lawlor's narration of this book annoying. He frequently attempts to mimic a dog panting and it sounds more like a cat coughing up a fur ball. I wonder if the author actually wrote those pants (I'm not sure how you'd spell them) or if the narrator was embellishing. Regardless, it was annoying. He also takes on an accent when delivering the dialog of people from other countries (e.g., Germany, Australia). This is also annoying, he does it badly, and it is completely unnecessary.

As for the story, I found it lacking. He tells the story of the years he spent with his dog, interspersed with factoids about dogs. It's nice that he found a great dog, and that the dog enjoyed a nice life with him, but that's not enough. Something was missing. There was nothing particularly profound or even that interesting about the story. I have had dogs for years, I've done fun stuff with them, and some have died, but I don't feel the need to write about it. If you are a truly dedicated and loving dog owner, there is no reason for you to read this story. You are living it.