Bleeding Edge

De: Thomas Pynchon

Narrado por: 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.

Ruined by narration

This is a challenging book to read, and I'm sure it's a nightmare to narrate. The narrator seems like she's giving it her best shot, but has awkward pauses that make it hard to follow the already difficult sentences. Near 6:31 there's a perfect example of this, she's got a sentence about characters going to a diner and digging in. There's an awkward pause before "dig in" and it's clear she didn't quite understand the sentence the first time around.

Characters don't have sufficiently distinct voices and the dialogue, which has characters interrupting each other and not finishing sentences requires a lot of focus to follow.

I've listened to a few books of similar difficulty where the narration actually helped make the book easier to follow.I have no idea if I'll make it through this one.

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.

Someone is playing a joke

I have listened to hundreds of books over the years and this is by far the worst reader I've heard.

Holy narrator batman

I found this impossible to listen to. I genuinely do not understand how multiple people thought this was ok to publish with the narration as it is. An incredible story absolutely ravaged of emotion and depth by the most grating monotone I've heard since grade school.

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.

horrible vocal performance

Would you try another book from Thomas Pynchon and/or Jeannie Berlin?

This narrator ruins the great new book by Thomas Pynchon. She sounds like a cross between the late talk-radio voice Lynn Samuels and Laugh-In's Ruth Buzzi. It doesn't sound like she's even read the material beforehand. It sounds like a grating, horrible COLD READING!!! Ugh!

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

It was HORRIBLE.

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

Yes.

Any additional comments?

Thomas Pynchon is America's great writer. Give him some voice talent. The guy who read INHERENT VICE isn't much better. Who is in charge of voice talent around here???

The narrator is awful!

This is by far the worst narrator I have ever listened too. Read it do not get the audiobook.

Worst Narrator Ever

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Re-record with a new narrator and I think the book would be great.

Would you be willing to try another one of Jeannie Berlin’s performances?

Never, no way!!!!

Any additional comments?

I am astonished that this made it out of production, this is akin to an April fools joke. I cannot believe this narrator was hired, the most awful I have heard in well over 300 books.