Peggy

Please save me from authors who think they will be the best narrators for their books. Susan Orlean is clearly a very good author but her nasal voice and flat delivery detracted from her writing and the story of this otherwise enjoyable book. I had to listen with a split mind since her voice drove me a bit batty. Please, Ms Orlean, stick to writing.

Maybe I would have liked this book a tad more if I read it so I could look back as some of the sequences seemed to be jumbled up in term of the time they occurred. But I still would not have like the story. First of all, it would have benefitted from more severe editing. She spent too much time on descriptions that did nothing to move the story along and, in my humble opinion, were not melodious enough to be included simply for the beauty of their writing. The story itself was confusing, somewhat boring and all together unsatisfying. I know I differ in this opinion from most readers and from the critics but there it is. It has been touted as Harry Potter for adults but I found the real Harry Potter infinitely more pleasing. If this is the kind of book that sets the critics and readers on fire these days, just leave me to my old favorites. I'd rather reread a good book.