Sarah

I have always been a huge Dickens fan, but the problem with Dickens and a lot of classic literature is it is so hard to find a well done audiobook. There are always scores of available audiobooks, and it's so hard to pick a good one based on the 30 second clip provided by Audible (which, btw, is still a huge help!). I have often been stuck listening to 40 hours of a dry, monotone narrator who has nearly ruined a classic for me. I listened to the Help in the summer and LOVE it, so when I noticed that Charles Griffin also won a 2010 Audie, I though I would trust the Audie awards once again and listen to his rendition of Great Expectations. I was not disappointed! Griffith has a fantastic narrative voice and uses just the right amount of drama in his telling of the story. It reminded me of being a little kid again and having my dad read some of the oldest and greatest classics to me before bed. I would highly recommend this version of Great Expectations.

I really enjoyed this story, and the narrator was quite satisfactory. He doesn't really stand out as fantastic, but he was still very pleasant to listen to. It's really Schlink's book that is the star here. It brings up so many different complex ideas and socially relevant ideas. I generally am not a fan of contemporary novels that comment on the Holocaust and WWII because really, what can a modern author say about an event that of the magnitude that has already been written about so extensively by people who were actually there? What can you ad to the debate? But Schlinlk is really extremely successful. His book is worth reading, even after everything that has already been said. I will certainly be reading it again.

It's usually a treat to have the author narrating your audiobook, but Michael Cunningham pretty much ruined this one for me. Unfortunately, the man has an extremely monotonous voice that I could barely force myself to listen to. A well chosen female narrator would have been more appropriate and infinitely easier to listen to.