Ken

This one is ALL about the voice. The late and much-lamented Ian Richardson was one of my favorite actors. His reading is a pleasure to listen to while he imparts superb clarity to Messer Machiavelli's thoughts.

This is a great "read" (but I'm listening to it from Audible) that brings back so clearly the troubled times of the early 60's. I was the same age then as the protagonist, who grows up quickly in segregated Birmingham, Alabama. I grew up in a lower middle class Pittsburgh, in the North, in a community with mixed ethnicity and mixed reactions to events in the Deep South . While I experienced no marches or police "riots" like he does, I remember the tenseness of our parents in those difficult times, that affected even us, the children. The narrator is wonderful, capturing the diction and accents of children and adults, both African American as well as those who just wanted things to stay the same, some, willing to use violence to keep it so.

The choice of voices to match the characters leaves something to be desired, but the sound effects proved to be surprisingly effective as an enhancement to the text. As this is the ONLY recording of this work that is available, then clearly, I can say it is also the best!