Karen

What a disappointment. I love most of Salman Rushdie's work, but I gave up on this one after the first of the four parts. It was like listening to the journal of a petulant, star-struck wanna-be, with all the boring details left in--what he ate; when he was sick; where he went for vacation; blah blah blah--interspersed with bragging about the famous people he met and sniping at the ones he felt slighted by. I just couldn't take 20 more hours of it. I guess he has become too famous and self-important to allow a good editor to take a scalpel to his writing and trim out the dross.

I love this series; however, they picked the wrong narrator this time. The story is told as a first-person account by a young half-Thai man, but the narrator's voice has the deep, fruity tone of an elderly BBC announcer. The dissonance between the character and the voice was an immense distraction and irritation.

This was such a fun romp through Hell and back! The ending left the door wide open for a sequel, so I hope the author enjoyed it enough to continue the story...

I loved this book on paper, but could not even listen all the way to the end of the recording. The abridgment eliminated all of the nuance, personality and motivations of the brilliantly written characters. The story no longer engages, no longer even makes sense. If only someone would record an unabridged edition!

I loved this book on paper, but could not even listen to it after getting halfway through the prequel, The Bull From The Sea. All of the nuance, the personalities and the motivations of the brilliantly drawn characters has been deleted. If only someone would record an unabridged edition!