Chicago

A Novel

De: David Mamet

Narrado por: Jim Frangione

Chicago has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

David Mamet tries too hard

Wow. I am disappointed by David Mamet’s attempt to write hardboiled fiction in the vein of Dashiell Hammett or Elmore Leonard.

At times the attempts to be literary are clunky and inelegant. I actually found myself rewriting some of the prose in my head while I was listening to this novel.

What this was not a horrible book, it was certainly far from the best book that I’ve listened to in Audible.

More Parlow!

Maybe a chuckle or two but I did not think I'd be laughing out loud. The buddy-banter is hilarious and now we heard Mike's side it makes me want more of Parlow.

Could have used a more dynamic reading, more divergent voices, but that's pretty subjective. I listen to a lot of audio and found the performance bland as compared.

Good in parts, ultimately disappointing

I started asking myself, in reference to some ethnic tropes that pepper this story, how one differentiates between tired stereotypes, and the ironic subversion of those same stereotypes. I was more than willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the author. But in the end, I could not come to a satisfactory conclusion one way or the other. Similarly, I started to feel, particularly with the dialogue, that the story would be more suited as a play or script, where the author has well-deserved recognition. There are parts that truly do sparkle, and engross the listener, but ultimately they are too few and far between.

Just brilliant

I don’t think there’s a line in the book you can anticipate, everything’s the unexpected. Informative, a perfect evocation of the period and wonderful characters. I couldn’t stop listening.

Dialoge awkward

I don't know if it's the reader or the fact that Mamet is known more for scripts than for novels, but the dialogue when read aloud seems stilted. The words themselves within the quotes are fine, it's more the overuse of said that got to me after a while.

I will probably have to read or listen to this again at some point to really review the story plot aspect.