Bleeding Edge

By: Thomas Pynchon

Narrated by: Jeannie Berlin

A New York Times Notable Book

"Brilliantly written...a joy to read...Bleeding Edge is totally gonzo, totally wonderful. It really is good to have Thomas Pynchon around, doing what he does best." - Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

"Exemplary...dazzling and ludicrous." - Jonathan Lethem, The New York Times Book Review

It is 2001 in New York City, in the lull between the collapse of the dot-com boom and the terrible events of September 11th.

Maxine Tarnow runs a fine little fraud investigation business on the Upper West Side. All is ticking over nice and normal, until she starts looking into the finances of a computer-security firm and its billionaire geek CEO. She soon finds herself mixed up with a drug runner in an art deco motorboat, a professional nose obsessed with Hitler’s aftershave, a neoliberal enforcer with footwear issues, and an array of bloggers, hackers, code monkeys, and entrepreneurs, some of whom begin to show up mysteriously dead. Foul play, of course.

Will perpetrators be revealed, forget about brought to justice? Will Maxine have to take the handgun out of her purse? Will Jerry Seinfeld make an unscheduled guest appearance? Will accounts secular and karmic be brought into balance?

Hey. Who wants to know?

Jarring Narration

How did the narrator detract from the book?

From the first few sentences I was surprised at how amateurish the narration was. She is reading; not narrating. Her voice is grating. She misreads words (Silicone Valley vice Silicon Valley). I love Thomas Pynchon but it is going to be a long slog getting through 15 hours of Jeannie Berlin.

Really poor narration

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

This is a wonderful book, but the narration is terrible. I have a high tolerance for different voices but I couldn't listen to this narration. It is so flat and the inflections are so poor the humor of the story is lost.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Jeannie Berlin?

Roslyn Landor is my favorite narrator although I'm not sure she would be right for this. Pynchon requires an ironic voice like the narrator who read Inherent Vice

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes

Any additional comments?

Offer a new version of the narration and try and get the rest of Pynchon available on audiobook.

Narrator ruins this book

What didn’t you like about Jeannie Berlin’s performance?

I can tell the book is well written and funny, but out of the many, many audio books my wife and I have listened to we both agree the narrator is the worst we have heard -- almost unlistenable. Her voice is grating and very unpleasant. But even worse than that, she reads in a monotone, completely missing the normal cadences of speech and of the writing. It makes the sentences difficult to understand and makes most of the funny passages fall flat. I would certainly recommend reading this book and passing on this version.

maxine is molly jong-fast

A previous review said that the performance was unlistenable bc of the reader's accent. I thought the accent was perfect, and here's why: The novel uses a third-person limited POV where our understanding of the characters and events are filtered through the protagonist Maxine. Maxine is complex: the daughter of aging left-wing New York Jewish intellctuals from the Upper-West Side, the somewhat clueless but caring mother of two digi-native teens, and a cynical yet conspiracy-curious gumshoe who has seen it all. So, what should this character sound like? She should sound like Molly Jong-Fast, and she does.

Jeannie Berlin Is Fantastic-- Now Everybody

Would you listen to Bleeding Edge again? Why?

Jeannie Berlin's narration is unconventional but brilliant. She is Maxine and more.

What did you like best about this story?

I defer to nobody here as an audiobook or Pynchon fanatic; I know and love the most of the same great books/narrators as the rest, including Dreiesr "An American Tragedy"; John Dos Passos "U.S.A."; Gaddis "The Recognitions" and "J.R."; Doctorow "The March"; Ellroy "The Cold Six Thousand" and "Blood's A Rover"; Matt Dillon's "On The Road" & Grover Gardner "Dharma Bums" & "Big Sur" etc etc, including history like Allen Guelzo's "Gettysburg" & "Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President"... My list goes on-- never forge George Guidall's rare version of "Gravity's Rainbow"!!-- as does yours.

Which character – as performed by Jeannie Berlin – was your favorite?

And YES, at first Jeannie's voice is shocking, raw, uncouth but very soon it becomes hilarious, irresistible and sometimes more than slightly arousing-- in whatever ways you care to be aroused!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I've already listened to it twice and will likely do so again.

Any additional comments?

While "Gravity's Rainbow" and "Mason & Dixon" still top it, "Bleeding Edge" is brilliant, Jeannie Berlin included. Many thanks to Messrs Pynchon & Paul Thomas Anderson for making it happen. (Of all the Pynchon audio, "Against The Day" is most problematic; though Dick Hill is excellent elsewhere, he's sometimes at rhythmic odds with the text and often reads too s-l-o-w-l-y, though to be fair, some people have praised his pacing as aiding their comprehension of the narrative.)